Sakura of DOOM

Neil de Grasse Tyson is the current director of the New York American History Museum's Hayden Planetarium. He was also, less notably but much more influentially for me, one of the lecturers in my introduction to astronomy course. I had flipped through this book when I bought it for class, and the voice was so engaging and fun that I read it all before any of it was assigned. Actually, it may have just been optional reading, but I think it should have been assigned.

The book is like Tyson-the-lecturer distilled, although it cannot quite get across just how charismatic, funny, and, above all, clear he is. Sadly, I've clearly forgotten all my basics of physics, but the book has a brief refresher. Though Tyson's field is astronomy and the book has chapters specific to astronomy, other parts are just good background. I almost skipped the chapter on the scientific method but was glad I didn't when I encountered this passage on cultural bias and scientific truth:

( Cut for length )

There's also a chapter on astronomical jargon, grouped under headers like "Some Terms That Have Too Many Syllables" (magnetohydrodynamics), "Some Terms That Look Like Typographical Errors" (syzygy, which I know from X-Files), and "Some Terms That Sound Like Diseases" (bok globules).

Tyson goes on to explain gravity, planetary motion, the life cycle of stars, the periodic table of elements, and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. I didn't get everything in the book, though I think that is more my own scientific rustiness than Tyson's fault, because I remember understanding it back in college.

I've always been fascinated by astronomy and the stars—I gave myself nightmares as a kid reading about black holes—and this was a lovely way to regain my sense of wonder about the night (and day) sky, which I haven't been paying attention to for a while. It's so overwhelmingly cool that all the elements in the universe originally came from thermonuclear fusion in the hearts of stars.

Also, I have remembered my giant geek-crush on Tyson and ran to check out more of his books (I remember his first book and this one being a little repetitive when read back-to-back, but I haven't read any of his others since this one).