Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: Essays on the Universe and Our Place Within It

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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." Another good pop science that’s similar in tone is Astrophysics For People In A Hurry by long-time Stephen Hawking admirer, Neil Degrasse Tyson. It’s a lot of fun to read and potentially even less complicated than An Briefer History Of Time. Still, the two books actually complement one another quite nicely." NDT plays his cards right. He knows he's charismatic and he knows that people like listening to him because he makes them laugh in an intelligent way. Just look at this photo from the cover:

This is a short book, and I will recommend the audio read by the author. He is very passionate and exuberant about his topics, and it still came across a bit sped up (which I felt it needed.) The different chapters are sometimes previous essays, compiled into this layman's overview of astrophysics - intentionally short, concepts boiled down to the core of where our understanding started, what we know now, and what we do not know. It's clear that the one thing we really have gained understanding of is all that we do not know! The style is vintage Tyson – engaging, chatty and littered with historical and linguistic anecdotes..." — Times Higher Education Probably the scene with the whipped cream in the coffee shop. Don't argue with Neil deGrasse Tyson about physics, he will win. While explaining Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves and the importance of their first ever detection in 2015 , Tyson beautifully summarizes this full circle.If you ask us, the most important chapter of this whole book – the culmination to which all other chapters build to – is the last one, “Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective.” p. 89 - Regarding the 100 Authors against Einstein, Einstein "When he learned of the book, he responded that if he were wrong, then only one author would have been enough."

CMB was first seen by two American physicists that worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories. They accidentally discovered CMB while trying to develop new channels of communication for AT&T.....and later won the Nobel Prize for this achievement (so that's a nice perk!).Once you conceptualized these, you’ll never forget what they are, in fact , standing for and explaining. Which is why “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” is not only a book about people who don’t have enough time to learn more about the universe but want to. The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it is not solely the provenance of the scientist. It belongs to everyone.