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From Publishers Weekly
What would it feel like if your spaceship were to venture too close to the black hole lurking at the center of the Milky Way? According to astrophysicist Tyson, director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium, size does matter when it comes to black holes, although the chances of your surviving the encounter aren't good in any case. Tyson takes readers on an exciting journey from Earth's hot springs, where extremophiles flourish in hellish conditions, to the frozen, desolate stretches of the Oort Cloud and the universe's farthest reaches, in both space and time. Tyson doesn't restrict his musings to astrophysics, but wanders into related fields like relativity and particle physics, which he explains just as clearly as he does Lagrangian points, where we someday may park interplanetary filling stations. He tackles popular myths (is the sun yellow?) and takes movie directors—most notably James Cameron—to task for spectacular goofs. In the last section the author gives his take on the hot subject of intelligent design. Readers of Natural History magazine will be familiar with many of the 42 essays collected here, while newcomers will profit from Tyson's witty and entertaining description of being pulled apart atom by atom into a black hole, and other, closer-to-earth, and cheerier, topics. 9 illus. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Whenever astronomy intrudes on the news, interviewers flock to the telegenic Tyson for an explanation. The high-profile astrophysicist is also an essayist for Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History's monthly that is the source for this volume. His pieces are organized under whimsical banners such as "All the ways the cosmos wants to kill us," and Tyson's style will connect with general readers who are interested in the form the apocalypse will take. Scientists know that in a few billion years, an expanding sun will vaporize the earth, provided it's not been previously destroyed by a rogue black hole. Besides regaling spooky stories, the selections deploy movies as an astronomy popularizer, with Tyson critiquing the accuracy of the sky depicted in various scenes. Elsewhere, topics in the history of astronomy and physics fall into two categories: essays about the discovery of physical laws, and about cosmic objects such as galactic gas clouds and quasars. Whatever readers' scientific tastes, something in Tyson's wide-ranging collection will sate them. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
mong our five senses, sight is the most special to us. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
mong our five senses, sight is the most special to us. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
left me feeling empty,
By
This review is from: Death By Black Hole (Paperback)
I have been a fan of Neil Degrasse Tyson since watching him on PBS and reading his excellent book "Origins" several years ago. I had high expectations of this book. However it was like looking forward to a wonderful meal with many courses only to have that meal come up short and disappoint. Although it had humour and lots of good info, as someone who has followed astronomy and cosmology for many years I found the book far too much geared to a beginner who literally knows nothing about cosmology. There really was no info that I had not seen on TV astronomy/cosmology shows or read already. He was re-cycling stuff that had been written about many times without adding much new. And PLEASE, when are we going to have an intelligent science book based on FACTS that does NOT have to bring God into it? Years ago, other than a mention of Galileo's problems with the Catholic Church few astronomy books felt it necessary to debate science vs. superstition.I would like a bumper sticker that says "We are all created from Super Novas!" I love that thought and that when I go my atoms will be recycled into the galaxy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Read,
By
This review is from: Death By Black Hole (Hardcover)
This book was a fabulous read! It's entertaining but also informative. It's a great balance between fun & useful, and isn't dumbed down to cater to the uninitiated - it's just explained better than the average scientific text.It's funny, insightful and fascinating! Highly recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in discovering our universe.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than any Sci-Fi book could ever be.,
By Ken S (Whitby, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Death By Black Hole (Paperback)
I grew up to Bill Nye, and like Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan before Nye, Tyson is this generation's science popularizer. I picked this off only because the name caught my attention, read the back, then dove into it. This is better than any sci-fi could ever be because its true! No imagination needed to fill in to keep you going. This book is amazing from beginning to end, answering how we know things about science and the cosmos, how science came about and triumphed over (and ended) the dark ages in Europe, and the men and women that sacraficed themselves, sometimes literally, to get us to where we are today.An amazing read, and now that I have read all his books, my favourite author for good reason. Read it. He welcomed me to the Universe.
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