Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People In a Hurry is a charming introduction to a fascinating field of science. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning something new about the universe in a light, casual read.
Over 11 relatively independent chapters, Tyson covers the story of the Big Bang and the newborn universe, the universality of physical laws, cosmic background radiation, intergalactic space, dark matter, dark energy, the elements of the periodic table, spheres in the cosmos, the electromagnetic spectrum, interplanetary space, and astrophysical indicators of life on a planet. In a twelfth and final chapter, Tyson contemplates the implications of a perspective humbled by an appreciation and understanding of the vast and beautiful cosmos.
Personally, I was much more interested in the “physics” than the “astro,” and as someone who loves advanced science I found some of Tyson’s explanations of the physics behind the phenomena he describes to be disappointingly (and, sometimes, frustratingly) vague.
That said, I know this book is written for a more general audience, and I was mostly able to satisfy my thirst for precise chemical and physical mechanisms with follow-up journeys through Wikipedia rabbit holes (for example, Tyson saying that photons of the cosmic background “lost energy to the expanding universe” prompted me to dive into the exact science of cosmological redshifting). And most of Tyson’s explanations were very clear and illuminating - I’m just nitpicking here.
Even having what I consider an above average prior familiarity with both astronomy and physics, though, I did learn a lot from this book. I especially appreciated Tyson’s explanations of the hadron epoch, general relativity, the surface of last scattering, dark matter, dark energy and astrophysical indicators of life. I also found his thoughts on the universality of physical laws and the place of humanity in the ladder of life to be fascinating.
Overall, I think that Tyson’s book is a fun, short, interesting read that will definitely teach you something or make you think about your place in the universe, or both.
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