With wit, humor, and an infectious love of astronomy that could win over even the science-phobic, this fun and fascinating book reminds us that outer space is anything but remote. The scientist behind the popular website badastronomy.com, Philip Plait presents some of the most fearsome end-of-the-world calamities (for instance, incoming asteroids and planet-swallowing black holes), demystifies the scientific principles at work behind them, and gives us the odds that any of them will step out of the realm of sci-fi to disrupt our quiet corner of the cosmos. The result is a book that is both terrifying and entertaining?a tour of the violent universe we live in, written with an enthusiasm that every stargazer will appreciate.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[Plait] describes each doomsday scenario with glee. . . . Yet for all that, his book is strangely comforting."
-The Washington Post Book World
" A surprisingly upbeat look at all the ways the universe can destroy us . . . Eminently readable."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The enthusiasm Plait has for his subject is not any morbid fascination with the upcoming bang or whimper, but with how much we know now about the universe around us, and he conveys this enthusiasm with pages full of wonder."
-The Commercial Dispatch
-The Washington Post Book World
" A surprisingly upbeat look at all the ways the universe can destroy us . . . Eminently readable."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The enthusiasm Plait has for his subject is not any morbid fascination with the upcoming bang or whimper, but with how much we know now about the universe around us, and he conveys this enthusiasm with pages full of wonder."
-The Commercial Dispatch
About the Author
Phil Plait, Ph.D. is a NASA-funded research astronomer with more than ten years of professional experience. He has written astronomy articles for magazines such as Astronomy, Muse, and Space Illustrated, and has been published in the Boston Globe. Plait has appeared on national radio and TV programs, including the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Countdown to Doomsday” documentary.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun & Fascinating Science,
By Nom de Guerre "miraxterrick" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World (Paperback)
If you are looking at this review and considering buying Death from the Skies!, that probably means you have some interest in astronomy--if you do, I promise you will love this book. It is probably the most engaging non-fiction book I have ever read--I couldn't put it down. Phil Plait uses teaser stories at the beginning of each chapter, describing what it would be like to experience the various cosmic threats he covers. These are incredibly effective at grabbing your attention. Each time I read a new teaser, I couldn't stop myself from reading the rest of the chapter. In addition, the chapters, though they are packed with science, are very accessible and full of wit. Plait has a great sense of humor, and a gift for clear explanation. You do not need any kind of background in astro, physics, or math to get what he is talking about. I took a lot of astro in college so the concepts in the book were already familiar to me, which may have helped me to plow through the book quickly, but I don't think that sort of background is crucial. Anyway, I was an art history major, so it's not like I am some great expert on astronomy. If you are interested, you will be able to get what Plait is talking about.
This book has really reawakened my interest in the cosmos--I've started reading more astro and doing stuff like watching Jupiter and its moons as they change positions each night, stuff I hadn't done in ages. In addition, the book gave me a sense of perspective on Earth's place in the universe. There are some very thought-provoking ideas here, especially in the chapter about the end of the universe, which gets a little philosophical (in a good way). Plait also has a lot of good, practical stuff to say about risk assessment and what we can or should actually do about the threats he covers. This is a great strength of the book, reminding us to think before we give in to terror (and not just terror from the skies). If you are reading this review and have any interest in astronomy, I can tell you without any reservations: get this book. You are in for a great ride, one that is plenty rewarding. And to Phil Plait: write another one soon!!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The End of the World was Never Funnier,
By
This review is from: Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World (Paperback)
Anyone worried about looking out their bathroom window to discover the birds gone along with an overwhelming stillness should not read this book. If you notice all the trees around you suddenly begin to smoke, don't bother running away. If just after sunrise you notice rocks begin to melt, don't bother turning on the air conditioner.
If any of these possible scenarios do not alarm you and you are looking for a laugh-out-loud read about the different ways the world could end, then this book is for you. Astronomer and author, Dr. Philip Plait enlightens us with many more scenarios describing what would happen to our planet just before biblical catastrophes such as the Sun dying, asteroid and comet impacts, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, and more. Expect to get educated as well with terms any layman can understand but appreciate: "The Sun is about 93 million miles away. If you could build a highway and drive there, it would take over 170 years. Even an airplane would take two decades to fly to the Sun if it could." Plait's "Death from the Skies" is a blast (pun intended).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky, funny and mind-blowing,
By
This review is from: Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World (Paperback)
If you aren't reading Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog over at Discover magazine, you should be. His writing is an awesome example of how real science can be just as awe-inspiring, cool and interesting as the "science" that underlays our most exciting and captivating science fiction stories.
Are you a fan of disaster movies? Then, Death from the Skies is for you. In this short volume, Plait uncovers the real science behind a host of truly dreadful end of the world scenarios from asteroid impacts to the eventual, but certain, heat death of the universe, putting each in cosmic perspective in terms of the scope of the catastrophe and its likelihood of occurrence. What makes this exploration so much fun is Plait's own enthusiasm for the subject. He manages to strike a delicate balance between his appreciation for the creativity of science fiction and the scientific rigors of his profession (Plait is a PhD in Astronomy and a well known skeptic and debunker of all things astronomically ridiculous) which prevents Death from the Skies from becoming either too sensationalist or statistically boring and mundane. The result: we have very, very little to personally fear from any of the disasters outlined in the book. The genius is that while Plait puts the odds in context (some of which are so small they really may as well be zero), he still writes in such a way that makes the discussion of the forces and power involved in these events exciting and fascinating. Each chapter opens with a creative vignette that gives a human perspective to the discussion of the disaster to follow, which gets your survival instincts and adrenaline thrumming. Plait paints a realistic scenario for the playing out of the event and its impact on human life, giving in a bit to theater, but in an enjoyable way that manages to peak your interest for the scientific discussion to follow. The sheer magnitude of these disasters defies the imagination and Plait does an admirable job of providing some jaw-dropping statistics in ways that don't make your eyes glaze over - mostly because he puts them in every day context by providing some appropriate analogies that still leave you gazing at the wall for a good couple minutes as you try and wrap your mind around it. The overall feeling you get after reading Death from the Skies is one of absolute wonder. The universe is an incredibly hostile place for beings as sensitive and delicate as we are and Plait paints a devastatingly realistic picture of how tenuous life's grasp on Earth really is, but he balances it well by pointing out that if the universe weren't so, we probably wouldn't be here anyway. A well-known saying in astronomy is that we were literally born from the death of stars, which forged the heavier elements that come together to form life, and Plait makes active use of this reference throughout his work, extending the description to form an interconnected web that creates a multibillion year cycle of creation and destruction that happened precisely to create and maintain life on our little planet. He also does a magnificent job of putting time into perspective, noting that though our history may seem "long" to us, it is a literally insignificant drop in the bucket compared to the life of the Earth itself, which is also just a drop in the galactic bucket, which is in turn....you get what I mean. Plait also manages to hold on, in spite of such vast proportions and epic time scales, to the human perspective, relating everything back to us; what a supernova half the galaxy away means to us, what the supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of our galaxy means to us and so on. Death from the Skies is a fun read that will put the universe and our place in it in perspective, while at the same time teaching you rock solid astronomy and physics, probably without you being even aware of it.
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