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Publication
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
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.
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.