Book Review: Astrophysics For People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Don't let the title fool you - this is a pretty dense book.

I mean, how can it not be? The author, one of the most famous scientists in the world, is trying to explain astrophysics to noobs like me, from the Big Bang to gravity to pulsars to exoplanets to the moons of Uranus (ha!). And it's a lot of stuff. And does feel like it.

Which, again, is not the author's fault - astrophysics IS a lot of stuff! I may not feel "smarter" after reading the book, but definitely picked up a few nuggets along the way, including:

- You ever wonder why the package of an LED bulb will say something like "4 watt LED bulb to replace 60 watt traditional bulb"? It's because most of the 4 watts of the LED bulb is going to visible light, while most of the watts from the traditional bulb is being "wasted" in ultraviolet and/or infrared light.

- Did it ever strike you as odd that we only see one side of the moon? That is called being "tidal locked" and is not common for natural satellites.

- Also regarding the moon - The moon is 1/400th the size of the sun, but it is also 400x closer to the Earth. This is why the moon and the sun appear to be the same size in the sky, and we can have total eclipses. This is a very rare phenomenon in this solar system.

- Planets are always given names of Roman gods, and their moons are given names of the Greek figures who accompanied their Olympian equivalents, except for the moons of Uranus (again, ha!). The planet was discovered by a British astronomer, and the moons were given names of characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope stories. In fact, the astronomer originally wanted to name the planet after the King - in which case, the order of the planets would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and George. On a related note, I really think we need to send a deep probe to Uranus.

So, there's sticks and branches to cling to, but in regards to the book as a whole I missed the tree trunk. I honestly can't tell you what happened during the first two minutes of the Big Bang, or how exactly gravity can bend time, or how we can find other planets through wobbles in stars. One of the most interesting chapters was about "Einstein's biggest blunder", where he introduced a co-efficient of gravity into his General Theory of Relativity, only to go to his deathbed thinking it was the biggest mistake of his life, only for it to be proven correct at the end of the last century. Wonderful story. What the coefficient of gravity is, though, I have no idea.

One of the most interesting parts of the book, though, is the last chapter, where the author tries to put astrophysics in perspective. He admits realizing that it might be strange to travel halfway around the world to see an eclipse when people are dying of hunger, or getting excited about a newly discovered exoplanet when people are killing each other in the name of God, politics, or madness. This tugs at him, although he ultimately decided that astrophysics is so crucial to understanding who we are, how we got here, and what is the meaning of it all that he feels no need to beat himself up for it. He also writes about how amazed he is at the size of the universe, and how he has witnessed people being frightened and made to feel insignificant by the same knowledge; he feels he has the right perspective, but acknowledges it may be difficult to process. This was a very rare chapter in a science book, and well appreciated.

So, overall, I held onto a couple things but can't say I was able to learn a whole lot. I'm giving the book five out of ten hot dogs. It can be a slog to keep up, but it definitely beats a rocket to Uranus!