Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. They beat the curiosity out of kids.” ~NdGT Dark Matter and Dark Energy featured heavily. This stuff makes up 27% and 68% of the universe respectively, leaving only 5% for the stuff we can see – like planets and stars. It’s this 95% of stuff we know hardly anything, or nothing about that make scientists incredibly excited. These were ‘discovered’ when Hubble showed the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, not being retarded by the pull of gravity. Hence, some other form of energy is pushing the universe to expand it faster and faster. Maybe the next Newton or Einstein is in utero, right now, ready to unleash his or her intellect on solving the mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Surely that’s not much of an ask – expecting answers to the misunderstood 95% of the universe. It’ll happen – to be sure.

I mean, numerically we aren’t significant – for example, There are more bacteria in one inch of our colon than all the people who have ever existed. Intellectually, sure we are more intelligent than say Chimps (or Rugby Players) with only a minor genetic variation between us and our furry friends (the Chimps). But what’s to say there are no other intelligent life forms out there, more intelligent than us caused by an equally miniscule genetic variation? Imagine what they could do? Calculus in the womb? The Count from Sesame Street playing with the imponderable infinity? p. 148 This whole sexism with the Nobel committee is f***. Jocelyn Bell story. Also with the dark matter discovery. What's up with that? Also Vera Rubin (p 78) It's entirely possible all of us are made from material that originated on Mars. Neil says he stopped counting moons in our solar system at seventy-nine. As I write it's known that there are at least two hundred moons, and asteroids and comets and a certainty that there are more living things than the ones on Earth. it's humbling, he says. It's also intensely fascinating.Finished @NeilTyson's mellifluous reading of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Lovely book. Last chapter worthy of Carl Sagan himself. "

Tyson has received numerous awards, including NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2004 and the Public Welfare Medal awarded to Tyson by the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 for his “extraordinary role in exciting the public about the wonders of science.” “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry PDF Summary” He concludes, “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. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their ‘low contracted prejudices.’ And that would be the last gasp of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace, rather than fear, the cosmic perspective.” (Pg. 208)In other words, homo sapiens has been around for no more than, say, 300,000 years, which means only about 0.006% of the time the Earth is around. However, this is not Astrophysics for Dummies. There are assumptions made for the audience - you do need a bit of a working knowledge on particles and space to fully understand the significance of the text. The cosmic perspective shows Earth to be a mote. But it's a precious mote and, for the moment, it's the only home we have.

I've never been interested in astrophysics, and I'm still not interested... yet, this was AMAZING. The whole writing and explanation is very simple, with easy words and real life examples. Once you conceptualized these, you’ll never forget what they are, in fact , standing for and explaining. Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life." Then, the Skittles become overwhelming, as more and more try to force themselves in, and millions and millions puddle around your feet, piling up past your knees. Looking more closely at Earth’s atmospheric fingerprints, human biomarkers will also include sulfuric, carbonic, and nitric acids, and other components of smog from the burning of fossil fuels. If the curious aliens happen to be socially, culturally, and technologically more advanced than we are, then they will surely interpret these biomarkers as convincing evidence for the absence of intelligent life on Earth.”During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore,” he writes, in part because it’s fun, but also because it’s critical to our future. Astronomical instruments such as telescopes have allowed us to view distant objects in space with greater clarity and detail than ever before. p. 127 - I did not know much about the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) and that it's China's way of getting the first call from space. Dig it. "If aliens ever give us a call, the Chinese will be the first to know." In Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, he [Neil deGrasse Tyson] shares his awe, encapsulating everything known about the universe in 12 brief chapters, and giving a memorable spin to standard facts." Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a fascinating piece of writing about the most captivating facts of science, life, the beginning of the universe, and many other laws of science. By combining physics, chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy, the book manages to shed some light on the most wonderful facts about life and the universe. Reading this book will help you wrap your head around some of the universal truths about life and science in general. Who would I recommend the Astrophysics for People in a Hurry summary to?

So to all people criticizing NDT and people like him, I say this: keep in mind that the guy is a graduate from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, then went and got a BA in physics from Harvard and a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia, before being with the American Museum of Natural History (NYC) and serving as their Director of the Hayden Planetarium. He knows what he's talking about. People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe." Science is not just about seeing, it’s about measuring, preferably with something that’s not your own eyes, which are inextricably conjoined with the baggage of your brain. That baggage is more often than not a satchel of preconceived ideas, post-conceived notions, and outright bias.” One of the most public figures when it comes to science is Neil deGrasse Tyson. A prolific author and speaker, as well as host of the revamped version of the series Cosmos that aired on Fox in 2014, he’s also active on social media, tweeting out scientific nuggets and other insights (including, over the weekend, a series of insights, loosely linked to science, about the latest season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.) Tyson, by using a conversational style and using his masterly skills explains the difficult scientific concepts in a more intelligible way that can be read by readers of each group. In Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Audio, Tyson explains concepts in a very delicate manner that seems simple, and he used his talent in squeezing the amount of content into only one short volume, which looks very impressive. The content he used to explain different ideas is reader-friendly.Its discovery reveals interesting insights, such as that celestial matters operate under similar laws to ours. Newton found that too when he discovered the laws of gravity. Gravity is a universal law of nature, which means that it applies to outer space too.