Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

I sort of liked this book, but it was too short on each topic that by the end it barely made sense to me reading it when most of the things are 2 seconds away on a web search. Actually, that was what I did for basically every chapter, as a way to know what else is missing and also explains why it took me longer to finish it. It does not go deep on anything and give you a very surface level understanding of the universe.

I guess that was the point of the book at the end, and I am being too picky here. Despise my rating, it was entertaining and enjoyable, just that I was expecting a bit more substance.

I recommend sticking with it to the end. The dark matter/dark energy chapters are fascinating - could have expanded that to the whole book and I would have been happy. Otherwise, it's definitely not for the total science novice but I had enough physics and chemistry background to grasp most of the concepts. Really interesting but I know I won't remember most of it.

You will feel at home if you are familiar with Neil deGrasse Tyson and his content. If you have only heard of him, you may miss some of the subtleties and musings that one would notice otherwise. Either way, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" is a fabulous book for those who have only recently started plunging into the depths of science and astrophysics and for those who are more seasoned.

The book covers topics all too familiar in the context of astrophysics, such as how the Universe came to be, what is dark matter or dark energy, and exoplanets -- you will all find it there. Neil does not go too heavy on any of them, but there are breadcrumbs and clues for the curious mind to go deeper. You may know what planets are roaming our solar system, but do you know how the names of the planets came to be? Or how about learning what was Einstein's greatest blunder? The book connects facts from science and history to build a coherent story of the cosmos.

In the last chapter, called Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective, Neil deGrasse Tyson brings the reader to a humbling conclusion. He reflects on the scale between humans and the Universe. Human curiosity should always be at the forefront. As Neil puts it, "the day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us". It is very reminiscent of Carl Sagan and that, in a sense, seems to be the point.

"Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" touches on the most common astrophysics topics just enough to not overstay their welcome, yet engages you in craving for more.

The first chapter or two were a bit of an info dump. Tyson doesn't shy away from the numbers, and the basic scientific principles underlying the concepts he is attempting to drive across, and therefore assumes some basic knowledge of chemistry and physics right from the get-go. From the third chapter or so onwards, he eases into a more laypeople-friendly tone, inserting everyday analogies to help us understand the concepts or the scales at which he is describing astrophysics. Overall, an entertaining and educational book on one of my favourite non-fiction topics which I thoroughly enjoyed - though it's probably not for everyone.

A compact book, explaining the universe.

Listened to the audio book. Neil deGrasse Tyson's soothing voice telling you about supernovas, black holes and everything in between.

The only downside was that it was just 3.5 hours long.
Not complaining because it took a week to finish, you have to drop everything you're doing and really listen to grasp the information.

Especially loved the last chapter where he reflects on how lucky we are to be alive. Just how incredibly lucky to be able to witness technological advancements and to be present on a planet that soon won't be as habitable.

To read about something that took 13 billion years in a hurry almost seems like a travesty. I wouldn't say that now I have unlocked the secrets of the universe. Far from it. But Tyson goes the extra light year to make it somewhat understandable and I think I may have made a slight dent in my universe. I recall trying to read Hawking's A Brief History of Time and by the time I finished Chapter 1, I was gasping for breath. Contrastingly, ...in a Hurry is more patient with you but I freely admit going back couple of paragraphs to re-read what I thought I understood but hadn't.

There's plenty to learn in this short tome especially about the latest strides in discovery and how Einstein really was a genius and justifies all the hype around him. But at the same time, I feel as if physics is keenly awaiting its next Newton or Einstein to explain so much that still remains unexplained. As Durant once said, education is a gradual discovery of your ignorance is so apt when we look up to the skies and look beyond every year.

As far as the solar eclipse on Monday is concerned, did you know that it's such a unique phenomenon just because of this fact - “The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it also just happens to be about 400 times closer. The result is that from Earth, they appear to be the same size.” Mind blown.

This was a great primer for people who don't know a lot about astrophysics and want to learn more. Dr. Tyson remains a great communicator of psychics and astronomy, and his combination of down-to-Earth metaphors and what he calls “the cosmic perspective” make this introduction to the science physics enjoyable and informative.

I listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Tyson himself. While it is helpful and charming to hear Tyson's enthusiasm for the subject, there are facts and figures that are harder to absorb when just hearing them spoken. How far from Earth is Uranus again? I kind of wish I'd had the printed book to refer to (not that I really need to be able to repeat those facts). Also, I've read other work by Tyson and this is somewhat repetitive–how many times do you have to hear how vast the universe is to grasp how insignificant humans are?–but it IS a useful summary of the cosmic system and how our understanding got to this point. I especially liked the reflections in the last chapter.

I could not get in to this book. I feel like I should have taken notes to absorb any of the information Tyson presented. Unlike Bill Bryson's “A Short History of Nearly Everything” which interweaves stories with its information, this book is fact after fact after fact and no matter what time of the day I read it, I could not focus on it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson has an extraordinary ability to simplify complex concepts and still make the explanation deep enough for you to learn something beautiful about our universe. I highly recommend hearing the audiobook with the author himself narrating. Even having passed already through many of the concepts in the book, the light that Neil shines on every concept is different and fantastic.

There are parts I have to return to, to understand better, but Neil de Grasse's sense of wonder at the vast universe, and the science it contains, is palpable and draws you in as surely and relentlessly as a gravitational pull (could not resist that!). I may not still be able to understand pulsars or quarks perfectly, but I do understand how little we know of the space we occupy and how insignificant earth is, in the vastness of it all.

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson's passion and enthusiasm. It's wonderful to listen to him read his book. He really finds astrophysics beautiful, amazing and awesome and manages to convey it. I'm at awe by the magnificence of... all this. Physics, science, people who figured all this out... Absolutely wonderful.

I also love the nods to the popular culture :-) It was very easy to listen, with all the humor inserted.

BUT

“What happened before all this? What happened before the beginning? Astrophysicists have no idea. Or, rather, our most creative ideas have little or no grounding in experimental science. In response, some religious people assert, with a tinge of righteousness, that something must have started it all: a force greater than all others, a source from which everything issues. A prime mover. In the mind of such a person, that something is, of course, God.”

I highly recommend this book to people like me: curious and interested, intelligent (somewhat) and reasonably well-educated, but not an astrophysicist or anything like one. My only gripe is that other reviews had me expecting something more marvelous; this is good but not marvelous.

Also, I find Tyson's philosophy to be sweet but naïve. The whole, “The universe is so big, we must be nice to each other,” as much as I agree with it, is unmoving. Since according to the materialist philosophy the author and non-theists in general espouse, there is no ultimate meaning to existence itself, no purpose to life, the universe, or anything, there is no authority or reason for choosing a way of going through life (being nice or nasty, for instance) other than what one happens to prefer. So Tyson prefers a nice approach. I am very glad he does. But I don't know why, if he is right about the meaninglessness of everything, anybody else should care.

Anyway, I'm being a philosophical grouch. Don't let my grouchiness spoil a good book for you. Read it. Enjoy it. Learn from it. See the world with bigger eyes, or see a bigger world with the same old eyes.