'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry' by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Finished on 3/19/2019 at 6:13 AM

Since I was young, I've always held a predilection for the field of astrophysics. Some of my earlier memories include writing to NASA labs for material, shooting model rockets, checking out planets and stars with our telescope and going to planetariums with my parents. Space has always held an allure for me -- it's a place of mystery and intrigue, as well a place where abstract concepts can conjure physical manifestations.

So, when I saw a copy of 'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry' in some of the set design from 'The Umbrella Academy' on Netflix (not sure how I spotted it), I realized I haven't read a book on the subject in a while and jumped in for a read.

The book itself is a collection of essays revolving around various, interesting subjects in the wider field. Tyson said his attempt was to create a primer of sorts, to get folks interested enough to dive in deeper if they chose to.

The book reads as such -- the overall theme is there, though each chapter is self-contained. I specifically liked the pieces on spheres (I never put too much though into why most bodies in orbit form the same shape), as well as the essays on Dark Matter and Dark Energy (still not sure I believe in them just yet). It's a light, enjoyable read that steers away from the wonkiness of most science-based texts, while retaining enough technicality to make it interesting to those who have a deeper interest in the subject.

One interesting section regards a sort-of philosophical argument -- Tyson calls it the "Cosmic Perspective" -- where he makes the argument that if you start to view everything from a larger perspective (one planet around one star, in a galaxy of hundreds of millions of stars, those with millions of planets, sitting among a universe of hundreds of millions of galaxies... etc), it can change your actions here on earth and in your everyday life. It was an interesting aside to a fairly technical book, but one that did leave some food-for-thought.

The book itself aside, I did have a bit of trouble square my feelings on it's author, since the recent allegations came out in 2018. I have always struggled with the question of whether you should (or even can) separate the author of a work from it's creation. I've found in most cases I cannot, and it did cast a shadow over the work itself that lingered until completion.