Letters from an astrophysicist

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hardcover, 2019

Status

Available

Publication

New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]

Description

Tyson shares 101 letters from people across the globe who have sought him out in search of scientific answers. A luminous companion to the phenomenal bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world's largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by revealing his correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 101 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. His succinct, opinionated, passionate, and often funny responses reflect his popularity and standing as a leading educator. Tyson's 2017 bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry offered more than one million readers an insightful and accessible understanding of the universe. Tyson's most candid and heartfelt writing yet, Letters from an Astrophysicist introduces us to a newly personal dimension of Tyson's quest to explore our place in the cosmos.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is a very public scientist. He receives a lot of mail (including email). From this vast archive of correspondence he has culled a selection of letters that ask good questions, bad questions, praise or blame, and to each he provides sensible and sometimes lengthy
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responses. The sheer effort to meaningfully fulfil how he sees his role as a public scientist is astonishing.

That said, I’m not entirely certain to whom this book is addressed. It is presented by the publishers as a companion, of sorts, to Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. It is not. You would be hard pressed to learn much about astrophysics from these correspondences. Rather what you learn is just how taxing (I want to write “tedious”, but I suspect Tyson is just more generous than I) it must be to be regularly confronted with the cliff edge of scientific illiteracy. Perhaps the few letters of startling optimism and scientific enthusiasm sprinkled in here make up for how disheartening the others must be. Perhaps.

I’d gladly recommend this book to someone to whom it might serve as inspiration. Until then, I’ll continue to recommend Tyson’s other titles.
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LibraryThing member DeusXMachina
I'm a NDGT fan, but this collection of correspondence was a bit of a letdown. I would've liked to read some correspondence with people he actually takes seriously, a substantial exchange of arguments to whatever topic he deems necessary and not just the ever same litany of "science is better than
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faith/religion/superstition". Everybody who knows him also knows his stance on this before opening the book, and his arguments in these responses to questions from all kinds of people were, to be blunt, simplistic and repetitive to a degree that it verged on the edge of contemptuous. Perhaps it was because he gathered similar questions into thematic chapters that he sounded like a broken record, but there wasn't much of the wit and enthusiasm for science that is so characteristic for his live appearances.
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LibraryThing member BenKline
This probably hovers between a 3 and a 4, like a 3.5. I like Neil deGrasse Tyson (for the most part). Most of his (other) writings are fine and intellectual and intelligent and great. And this really is no different... but he does come off as smarmy, snarky, and a bit condescending and grandiose
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towards some of the letters. Also, remember - these are the hand-picked correspondences he chose. So these are the ones he wanted to use to make this book.

Generally he comes off as nice, intelligent, and helpful. But his replies to the religious groups do reek of the typical scientific/intellectual responses; but those aren't even the ones I'm talking about. I'm mainly talking about his responses to just other, random people, and their inquiries. He comes across as both flippant and condescending and elitest at times.

Still, overall a good and interesting read if you like Neil Tyson. Outside of that, your not really 'learning' anything from this, just kind of given a window of his life, a spectrum and view into his mind - per se. A coded, veiled, chosen view, but a somewhat view.
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