Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, By Neil deGrasse Tyson

RATING

3 stars

N/A = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY (272 words or less):

Initially I was not going to write a summary for this book.  But the last chapter really spoke to me.  It articulates Tyson’s view of the “Cosmic Perspective” – a sweeping philosophical discussion that marries the concepts of science and existential philosophy through the lens of astrophysics.  I cannot speak for him, but from what I can take of this view is that the fundamental question of astrophysics is to understand how the universe works, and this inquiry is based in both science and imagination.  The science allows the perspective to stay grounded and to follow verifiable truths.  The imagination allows us to think way outside the bounds of what we know and observe, to postulate theory and propose fantastic alternatives to what we perceive to be real and unreal, almost spiritually.  It’s an interesting take, to introspect in this way.  It feels like the next evolution to Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot.”

As for a summary, this book is densely packed with information, but highly entertaining.  It’s the kind of book that I’ll go to again.  I had some random takeaways.  Through a quirk of quantum physics, matter barely outnumbers anti-matter, and this allows for all of our existence.  There is growing evidence of our existence being part of a multiverse.  Life in our solar system may have originated on Mars.  The moons of Uranus are the only ones named after characters from British literature not Greek mythology.  Einstein was such a badass that his self-proclaimed “biggest blunder” (the cosmic constant) wasn’t actually a blunder at all.  He just didn’t know that the universe was expanding, but his math still works.