Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

My son, Dale, and his wife, Mai, went to hear Neil deGrasse Tyson in San Francisco, and they knew I’d be jealous. They bought his latest book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, got his signature, and sent it to me. I am thrilled. I’ve already been buying his t-shirts and coffee mugs with pithy quotes like, “Science Doesn’t Care What You Believe.”

This is a short read, 208 half-size pages. He wrote that it was his goal to provide a “foundational fluency in all major ideas and discoveries that drive our modern understanding of the universe.” That’s a big task for a small book, and he certainly achieved that. I’ve been through multiple explanations of the big bang, and Tyson takes the reader there again, breaking it down in 1 trillionth of a second parts. He referred to the big bang as “the greatest story ever told.” Really, I still don’t fully understand it, but after reading the book, I understand more about the theory. At the same time, a main story line had to do with how much is not understood about the universe, especially facts about both dark matter and dark energy which comprise 95% of the mass in the universe. That’s right, what’s visible only comprises 5% of the universal mass. He wrote, “Other unrelenting skeptics might declare that ‘seeing is believing’ – an approach to life that works well in many endeavors, including mechanical engineering, fishing, and perhaps dating. It’s also good, apparently, for residents of Missouri. But it doesn’t make for good science. Science is not just about seeing, it’s about measuring, preferably with something that’s not your own eyes, which are inextricably conjoined with the baggage of your brain. That baggage is more often than not a satchel of preconceived ideas, post-conceived notions, and outright bias.” It’s no wonder that a man who can think like that has become so beloved.

After working his way through information about the big bang, the place of the earth in the universe, the ever expanding universe, dark matter, dark energy, invisible light, etc., it was in Tyson’s last chapter, he offered some of his philosophy: “Want to know what we’re made of? Again, the cosmic perspective offers a bigger answer than you might expect. The chemical elements of the universe are forged in the fires of high-mass stars that end their lives in titanic explosions, enriching their host galaxies with the chemical arsenal of life as we know it. The result? The four most common chemically active elements in the universe – hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen – are the four most common elements of life on Earth, with carbon serving as the foundation of biochemistry. We do not simply live in this universe. The universe lives within us.”

Tyson wrote that the cosmic perspective flows from fundamental knowledge, but it’s more than that. “It’s also about having the wisdom and insight to apply that knowledge to assessing our place in the universe.” He commented that the cosmic perspective is humble and spiritual, “even redemptive – but not religious.” He added, “The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.”

Thanks Dale and Mai. I loved it.