Entertaining but not real coherent. ( )

Great collection of his essays on astronomical topics in all their vastness! Tyson is information, understandable, and funny which makes the book enjoyable for anyone interested in astronomy, from those just learning to those who already know a lot. Great read! ( )

Tyson is a brilliant communicator of science to popular audiences, and his skills are shown to great effect in this collection of his Natural History essays. ( )

A great title for a book, that alone made me want to read it. Of course, this is the type of book I will almost always pick up from the library. It is a collection of essays on science for the magazine Natural History. It covers a wide range of topics, usually relating to physics, from particle physics to astrophysics. I love this stuff and I only wish I retained enough math to be able to read more technical discussions than these rather general essays.
The essays are informative and entertaining. A lot has changed in the 17 years since I took my particle physics class at BYU, so I am always interested to learn more. Not only does he describe what is happening in science, he describes the edges very well. By edges I mean the places where scientists are not sure what is happening and are actively searching for answers. That is always the most interesting part of any science. The problem today is that to get to that edge, you have to take years of schooling to understand what they are looking for. Once the edge could be explored in your home lab or a field (if you were Benjamin Franklin) now you need millions of dollars and a space telescope.
The book is a bit repetitive, though that often happens with collections of essays because each one had to be self contained and couldn't refer to last month's issue. There has been a bit of editing to smooth out the sequencing and to make it an easier read.
While I enjoyed all the essays, I took exception to the last one, entitled, The Perimeter of Ignorance. Here is the author's basic premise,

Writing in centuries past, many scientists felt compelled to wax poetic about cosmic mysteries and God's handiwork. Perhaps one should not be surprised at this: most scientists back then, as well as many scientists today, identify themselves as spiritually devout.
But a careful reading of older texts, particularly those concerned with the universe itself, shows that the authors invoke divinity only when they reach the boundaries of their understanding. They appeal to a higher power only when staring at the ocean of their own ignorance. They call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God hardly gets a mention.

He goes on from this hypothesis to give some quotes from Newton and other scientists, who do indeed see an explanation for the unexplainable in the presence of God. He then links this tendency to the current vogue for intelligent design. That also follows, more or less. I have my own issues with intelligent design, at least how it is being explained and used in the public sphere, but I won't go into all that here. The problem I have is that the author considers an appeal to deity as an admission of failure and the mental equivalent of throwing up your hands and saying, "Heck if I know, only God could figure that out, I will just go find something easier to study, like Paris Hilton." He says, in talking about intelligent design and the dangers of it,

I don't want students who could make the next major breakthrough in renewable energy sources or space travel to have been taught that anything they don't understand, and that nobody yet understands, is divinely constructed and therefore beyond their intellectual capacity.

Since when is saying something is divinely designed the same as saying we are not capable of understanding it? As a devout person, but one who would have been a scientist, if not for a few chance decisions and a problem with basic arithmetic, I find everything divinely inspired, even those things we do understand. Too many people equate religion with ignorance, without considering the fact that the intelligent people who believe, must have a valid reason for doing so. And similarly, there are many ignorant people who have no religion. I cringe whenever a particularly proud, ignorant and Christian person is on the news saying something stupid because that just reinforces this ignorance=religion stereotype. I'm here to say intelligence=true religion. Believing in ignorance is just superstition whatever belief it may be. The more you understand your own beliefs, the more you want to learn. Our brains are designed to increase in knowledge, anything that does that helps all of us, no matter what the information may be. ( )

I had never read a book about astrophysics before, and I'm pretty illiterate in the hard sciences in general. In spite of those facts, I could sort of understand this one. I think Dr. Tyson does a good job of illuminating his specialty for the lay reader. The book had many surprising and intriguing facts, it was often funny, and I completely agree with Dr. Tyson's views on "intelligent design." ( )

When you approach Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, the first question you ask is: who is Neil deGrasse Tyson? He's sort of a celebrity among astrophysicists, if there even is such a thing. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, if that gives you an idea of his clout in the science world. Whenever there is any kind of scientific discovery in space, he's the guy to turn to. I've seen him on PBS numerous times, as well as on various news shows. He is smart, savvy, and thoroughly entertaining.

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is a collection of Tyson's essays from a monthly column in Natural History magazine, and it could not be a more interesting book. They are very easy to read and understand; Tyson makes astrophysics comprehensible for the average reader. The essays also stand alone. There is no need to even try to read this book in one sitting - it can be devoured in pieces that are easier to sort out. It's nice when a book presents something to think about, something for your mind to stew over. It's even better when those ideas are presented in an entertaining way. Tyson is funny and his sense of humor shines through the pages. His writing is clear, precise, and very easy to digest.

The stories are also very different in tone; some are lighthearted and funny. One in particular that I enjoyed is about mistakes in the movie industry. Others are more serious and somber. The thing that they have in common is that they are all well-written and thoroughly interesting. I can't pick out my favorite essays simply because there were too many that I enjoyed.

Let me be clear, though: Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is not for everyone. If you have absolutely no interest in outer space, then this book will probably bore you. If you don't like science, this book won't force the issue and make you enjoy something that you really don't. If, however, you are like me and you find it interesting, but have little real understanding of it, this book was pretty much written for you.

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries was an amazing read that I can't recommend highly enough (if you think it sounds interesting!) I absolutely loved it and cannot wait to seek out more of Tyson's work to read. (His latest book, The Pluto Files, is a humorous look at Pluto's fall from planet grace - sounds like fun!)

From S. Krishna's Books ( )

Great book. Worth reading more than once. ( )

Ever since Carl Sagan died, there has been a real lack of scientists who can explain science to the general public, and have "star power" to promote science. Not everyone in this world eagerly turns on "Science Friday" on NPR every Friday, for instance. Carl had a gift, sometimes derided by his fellow scientists, for making science interesting and fun for the layperson and impressionable young minds. (Mine, for instance).

In that void after Carl's death, a number of scientists have tried. The Late Stephen Gould wrote wonderfully about Evolution and matters biological, however he never had a TV presence. The physicist Brian Greene makes String Theory lucid, or at least as lucid as it is going to get for someone without degrees in mathematics and physics.

And then there's Tyson. He certainly works the media: I've seen him on the Daily Show, and he's been on Science Friday, amongst other places. He's managed to cause a firestorm, when he "demoted" Pluto in the Rose Center from a full fledged planet. He's a colorful, larger than life personality that is sometimes brash, and very much a New Yorker.

Turns out he can write fairly well, too. Death by Black Hole collects a bunch of his essays on matters astrophysical and astronomical, in bite sized chunks of a form I first encountered in the personage of Isaac Asimov.

Death by Black Hole contains the titular essay, as well as essays ranging from the journey of a photon in the sun from creation to its emission, to lagrange points, to the implausiblity of most movie aliens, to the dangers and stupidity of teaching intelligent design as science. His sense of humor can sometimes take getting used to, as well as his brashness. Still, although I don't think he approaches Sagan's (or Asimov's) olympian ability to elucidate strange and exotic concepts, he does a pretty good job. The essays are meant for an educated layperson, and I think are accessible to the general public.

My only quibble, and I think its his tendency to try and write to the general public, is that Tyson seems to not like to write in scientific notation. Seeing numbers like 0.0000000005 K or conflations of millions and billions was a bit irksome to me.

Still, I would definitely buy further collections of Tyson's essays as he gets them written and put together. ( )

I had the opportunity to take an intro to astrophysics course that was taught by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Charles Liu at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. Neil is a great teacher and this book reads exactly as he speaks - quick-witted and factually with plenty of easy to relate to references that help to bring the science to laymen. The book will be a quick read and a review for anyone that is well versed in the basic topics of astrophysics but for those that have an interest and have never read anything about it before, this would be great to start with. For those that have already delved into this arena, I feel they'll find it too basic. But well written. ( )

A collection of the author's magazine essays on astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology, etc.

No one has quite replaced Carl Sagan since his passing in 1996, but I have hopes for Neil deGrasse Tyson. Like Sagan, Tyson has a gift for explaining science to nonscientists. He invites you to go deeper into the field than you thought you could.
Please continue reading (and comment) in my 'Mostly NF' book blog.