4/19/2023 0 Comments Death by black hole![]() ![]() If there is a weakness to Death by Black Hole, it’s that it is a collection of essays rather than a single unified book. In each essay, Tyson uses history, science, personal experience, and more to effectively communicate principles of astronomy in a manner easily understood, and enjoyed, by the layman. These essays deal primarily, but not exclusively, with various aspects of astronomy, from the solar system to astrobiology to the title essay (which, as the name suggests, describes what would happen if you were unfortunate enough to stray too close to a black hole.) A handful of essays towards the end of the book deal with the intersection of science with both religion and culture, such as how Hollywood frequently gets the basics of astronomy wrong in movies. ![]() In each essay, Tyson uses history, science, personal experience, and more to effectively communicate principles of astronomy in a manner easily understood, and enjoyed, by the layman.ĭeath by Black Hole is a collection of essays that Tyson has written for Natural History magazine since the mid-1990s. In Death by Black Hole, he takes the reader on a tour of the universe, one essay at a time. While he has not achieved the same level of public recognition as Sagan did-perhaps because the media environment today is more fractured than it was a quarter-century ago in Sagan’s heyday-Tyson has demonstrated his ability to both entertain and inform, be it jousting with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show (the contemporary equivalent of Sagan’s appearances on The Tonight Show) or his after-dinner speech last month at the National Space Symposium, which had the normally staid corporate and government audience rolling in the aisles with laughter as he gently-but accurately-lampooned aspects of the aerospace industry. As director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Tyson has used a variety of methods to engage with and inform the public, from his museum’s exhibits to speeches and television appearances to books and essays. If anyone can claim the title of astronomy’s Great Communicator since the death of Carl Sagan over a decade ago, it’s Neil deGrasse Tyson (see “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?”, The Space Review, July 26, 2004). Review: Death by Black Hole by Jeff Foustĭeath by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries ![]()
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