Death from the Skies - By Phil Plait, esq. (MLB)
Posted by Sid Plait at 11/23/2008 6:54 PM 
Categories: Miscellaneous,Critical thinking,Bad News!,Science,All,Whatever,The Environment,Book Reviews,Technology,Good News!,OMG!
Categories: Miscellaneous,Critical thinking,Bad News!,Science,All,Whatever,The Environment,Book Reviews,Technology,Good News!,OMG!
Heh. MLB* is at it again. His 2nd book just came out three weeks or so ago. I finished it the other day, and I gotta say that no one I know could write a non-fiction book about the end of everything and be funny about it. I mean Douglas Adams did it, but it was definitely fiction, though with a social conscience.
DFTS is about all the ways the Earth and the universe may end, all based on scientific evidence and cold, hard facts. In most ways, the subject matter is grim, but Phil keeps it all in perspective (as he does the issues he describes in his weblog). Basically, the odds are that it will be hundreds of millions or billions of years before we have to worry about some cataclysmic cosmic event causing our demise. Of course, we may continue on our present course and kill the planet ourselves, but his book is about non-Earth-based events causing Earth's, or humanity's destruction. All good fodder for sci-fi movies and nightmares.
I love the way he presents everything. It is done in ways that most people can understand. He not only details the disasters, but lays out possible solutions and odds of the events even happening. He also tells us how long we most likely have before each type of event could occur.
Interestingly enough, those cataclysms that are most likely in the short term are ones we have some ability to prevent. Phil's chapters start out with a story detailing how it might happen:
"The alarm went off at 6:52 A.M. as it did every morning. Groggily, Mark slapped it off, then stumbled wearily to the bathroom. He splashed a bit of water on his face to accelerate the waking process, then began to brush his teeth.
"Seeing that it was already a clear, warm day, he peered out the bathroom window to take in the scene as he brushed.... The trees cast long shadows as the sun slowly rose in the sky....
"Stepping up to the window, he stood on tiptoe to look around the yard. What the-, he thought. Every tree was casting two distinct shadows."
The story goes on to describe a second sun in the sky, this one moving rather rapidly toward Mark's horizon. It strikes the ground and then the destruction begins. The meteorite that hit the Earth is quite large, and the destruction it wreaks is near total, but some people survive.
Phil then goes on to tell us quite a bit about how much cosmic and man-made debris hits the Earth every day, and describes several large impacts that go back in our history to the Tunguska incident in 1908 (over Siberia) that leveled hundreds of square miles of trees (It is estimated the rock was only about 70 yards across!) and further back to the six-mile-wide meteoroid that was responsible for the die-off of a great number of dinosaurs and hastened their ultimate demise.
And he does it all with humor.
For example, he talks about the difference between meteors, meteoroids, and meteorites in the text. Then, he adds a footnote:
"One of the best ways to tick off an astronomer - and it can be fun sometimes just to see how he reacts - is to mix up the terms meteor, meteoroid, and meteorite. The very best way to tick off an astronomer is to call him an astrologer."
If you want the definitions of the three terms, read the book or look them up. Reading the book is more fun, and informative, too.
He goes on to discuss the sun's life and death, supernovae close enough to cause trouble, gamma rays, black holes, aliens, galaxies colliding, and the end of literally everything. It's all good fun! (Aren't you glad I didn't say, "it's a gas!"?) And some of the stuff he details WILL HAPPEN. It's just really likely you and I won't be here to see it. However, we CAN observe these events happening elsewhere in the universe, and we do. Great amounts of information are available even now about how stars live and die; how the universe isn't just expanding, but the expansion is accelerating; and about how galaxies collide and what the results are. Science is an amazing thing, and the people who pursue it are working so that we can understand our universe as much as we possibly can, and, maybe figure out ways to survive the devastating events to come.
So, for your entertainment and education, go buy a copy and read it. If you aren't interested in reading it, go buy a copy and give it to a loved one, a friend, or someone you don't really like. Or burn it for all I care. My brother needs the money!**
* - My Little Brother
** - Just kidding. You should buy SEVERAL copies! </(;>)} (That's a bald guy with a hat and a beard winking and smiling.)
Go to my website to get a taste of what I do for a living!
I can't wait when this gets into our library (hopefully).
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See if you can give them a request form and get them to order the book. Most libraries work that way. Make sure you let us know when you get to read it!
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Nice review of your brothers book! At some point, we need to get together. You live RIGHT around the corner from me, and we've never actually met. Although, I've hung out with Phil far too many times.
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Thanks, Derek. You're right. I wasted an opportunity to meet you a while back. Give me a week or two and I'll get back with you and try again.
Thanks for posting!
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Cool,
Well, when you have some time we will have to figure out a way to go have some lunch or something! I was hoping you would have come to Dragon*Con to hang out with your brother... but, if you had, I was so busy being a director, you could have been there!
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Your little brother's enthusiasm for astronomy makes me happy my soul chose to become an astronomer. His astronomy wisdom & videos he makes fascinate me.
Can't wait to start reading his book.
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NiteSkyGirl -
Just got back from your website. I like it! Good luck with it, and I hope the link helps.
I used to live (as did Phil) not too far from George Mason in Springfield. I passed the campus quite a bit before moving to Atlanta for college.
When did you start your site?
Thanks for looking a mine!
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