Book Review: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

 

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a book from 2017 written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The book explains some of the "big" concepts in astrophysics and astronomy without the mathematical detail and equations that you would find in a textbook. If you have some background in any of the sciences, but specifically astronomy and physics, the book will be easier to understand. It is basically a book on theoretical astrophysics, explaining the theory behind things like the big bang, dark matter, and dark energy without the math. Tyson also explains how we have been detecting planets around other stars, and why any technologically advanced alien civilization would have a hard time finding Earth and determining that a technologically advanced civilization exists on it if they are using the same methods of planet detection we are. 

The book is relatively short, around 200 pages, at least if you compare it to any college-level textbook. I found it to be a pretty quick and easy read, but to be fair, I have dozens of books on astronomy that I have been reading since I was a pre-teen, and I have a degree in electrical engineering, so the subject matter did not bog me down or go over my head. The book is rigorous enough that it may be hard to follow if you do not have at least a familiarity with astronomy. I do not think you need that level of education and experience with the subject in order to understand and enjoy the book, but it will definitely be an easier read for some people and harder for others.

Book Review: Cosmic Queries: StarTalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going

 

This book is a combination of the two seasons of Cosmos that Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted, his Star Talk TV show, and the Star Talk podcast/webisodes mixed together. The book was written by Tyson and co-author James Trefil. In it, Tyson explains what the various sciences (basically physics, chemistry, biology, and astrophysics) have figured out about the origin of the universe, the formation of our solar system, life on Earth, the possibility of alien life elsewhere in the universe, and how the universe may ultimately end. As importantly he goes through things that there is evidence for, but is not well understood (e.g., dark matter and dark energy). He is able to explain the concepts clearly without throwing a bunch of equations in the book that would require multiple years of calculus to even begin to understand. In fact, the only equation in the book is the famous Drake Equation that is used to try to predict the number of planets or moons that may have intelligent life, and even in that case, he is really just explaining what the variables in the equation represents. 

The book is what I consider an intermediate length, at just over 300 pages. There are a lot of pictures in the book, both actual photographs taken through telescopes or the various probes we have sent out into the solar system, and artist renderings of how we think things look. And, some of the tweets that Tyson has tweeted over the years on various topics are included. So, the book reads fairly quickly. My only complaint is that throughout the book the authors include what amount to margin notes that delve a bit more deeply into something that was mentioned in the main text. However, the font used for these asides is smaller and the ink used is much lighter than the main text. So, unless you have really good eyesight, they can be hard to read, especially if you are at the point in your life where you need to use reading glasses or progressive lenses. That aside, it is still a good read for anyone who is interested in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

 

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is a 2014 revival/follow-up to the 1980s Cosmos series created and hosted by Carl Sagan. This series was hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and curator of the Hayden Planetarium in NY, written by Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, who had collaborated with Sagan on the original series, and produced by the creator of Family Guy, Seth McFarlane. The 13-episode season aired during the spring of 2014 on FOX. 

There are many similarities and many differences between that series and this one. Like the original series, this one covers many different topics in science, focusing on Astronomy but covering chemistry, physics, biology, and more. Each episode deals with a different topic and usually tells the story of one or more scientists that contributed to the field being discussed. The series did not focus on just the "big" names like Newton and Einstein but discussed other scientists and mathematicians like Halley, Hooke, Keppler, etc. In the original series, the stories of the historical figures were told using human actors, but in this series, many of the stories were told using animation and voice actors. I was not a fan of the animations when I first watched the show, but upon a subsequent viewing, they did not really bother me. And, of course, the CGI graphics are orders of magnitude better than what could be accomplished in the original series.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality is fantastic. The visuals are fantastic (both the real and the CGI), and the sound is very good. The extras include an audio commentary on the first episode with Druyan, producer Mitchell Cannold, producer/director Brannon Braga, producer Jason Clark, and animation producer Kara Vallow, a 40-minute comic-con panel discussion, a 41-minute making-of documentary, a 35-minute portion of a dedication to Sagan at the Library of Congress, and interactive cosmic calendar.

Like Sagan before, Tyson can explain complicated topics in simple terms without sounding like he is talking down to the audience. Of course, the audience for this series was much larger than that of the original series airing on Fox versus PBS. Even though the series aired at a time when science was being caught in the middle of the idiotic political divide, the country has been marred in, for the most the show ignored all that and just presented the scientific fact and ignored science deniers. The one exception is the episode on climate change, which distilled the problem and the cause to very simplistic terms without hyperbole and included a clip of an interview from back in the 1960s in which an old guy who is certainly not a part of a "woke" mob and proving that scientists knew that the amount of greenhouse gasses being pumped into the atmosphere back then was a problem. Although, the dipshit politicians and their sheep, if they bothered to watch something educational, would probably accuse the guy of being part of some liberal cabal.  And there were clips from the original Cosmos series in which Sagan described the concerns and what the possible consequences could be (and then showed how many of those consequences have started coming to pass).

One thing I wish the show would have done a bit better is explain the scale of the cosmic calendar (e.g., that 1 month corresponded to approximately 1.2 billion years, 1 day corresponded to approximately 40 million years, and 1 second corresponded to approximately 440 years) so that when Tyson said that something took place at midnight on December 31st, people did not actually think he meant something happened midnight on some random December 31st, but instead meant about 3600 - 4000 years ago. Probably the best moment of the series is when they did a CGI zoom out starting on Earth through the solar system to the galaxy level to the famous "pale blue dot" narrative by Carl Sagan. Overall, the series is wonderful and definitely in my must-watch category.