Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries.

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries By Neil deGrasse Tyson W.W. Norton & Company, January 2007 $24.95, ISBN 0-393-06224-3

The power of Death by Black Hole is in the telling where Neil deGrasse Tyson delivers a drama expressing beauty and terror in equal measure. He provides for the general reading public a basic understanding of how the universe works. This was no simple task. A population socialized to view science as distant, cold and unrelated to everyday life is hard to win over.

But Tyson is convincing. Even those already familiar with several of the 42 essays collected from the column "Universe" published in Natural History magazine, will treasure the availability of this material and the meticulous care the author takes organizing the information, indicating connections between sections.

Tyson reminds us in the Introduction that this work was as "excruciating as it is exhilarating." But we get to experience the exhilaration as Tyson induces ongoing laughter during some of the most horrific episodes and simultaneously wraps the reader in mesmerizing poetry.

This is a generous sharing of wisdom from the director of the Hayden Planetarium, winner of the 2005 Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics, host of television's Nova, honored guest of national and international heads of state and the only scientist to eye witness and record the collapse of the twin towers on September 11, 2001.

Asteroid 13123 Tyson is named for this solution-oriented author whose vision we are privileged to share.

Early in this volume, we experience that "Deep understanding comes not from how well you describe an object, but how that object connects with the larger body of acquired knowledge.... " ("Vagabonds in Space," Natural History, July/August 2004). Here, use of the inclusive "we" engages us instantly: "We," the many scientists whom Tyson credits and cites. "We," the author and reader in confidential dialogue. Literary titles and references connect science and art: "Send in the Clouds," "The Importance of Being Constant," "Over the Rainbow."

But watch out. Approach with caution the section for which the collection is named, "Death by Black Hole": "Without a doubt, the most spectacular way to die in space is to fall into a black hole. Where else in the universe can you be ripped apart atom by atom?" Humor inherent in a conversational tone forces us to face our most repressed fears. "Let's explore in detail what black holes do to a human body that wanders a little too close." That's going to be the last "let us" as the author steps aside and abandons the reader to this massive destruction. "Your body would stay whole until the instant the tidal force exceeded your body's molecular bonds," Tyson says. So this is the supermassive power, one billion times the mass of our Sun, the black hole that "lurks in the centers of galaxies."

Recently, Tyson gave New Yorkers a most beautiful gift: a precise prediction of a setting sun in perfect alignment with east-west Manhattan streets. The scenic photos are breathtaking, a poignant testimony of scientific knowledge. (Newsday, Saturday 27 May 2006). The essay "Over the Rainbow" tells how astrophysicists know what they know. This section strategically placed at the center of the book does need careful intellectual investment, but it's well worth the effort. (We already know the great price paid for not knowing when it comes to the tsunami.)

Light traveling from the Sun's core to the Sun's surface takes one million years! One million years! Tyson employs the meandering footsteps of a staggering drunk to illustrate the system of multiple, complex interactions that impeded this single ray in its long journey to our Earth.

Death by Black Hole deepens our appreciation for life as we gain knowledge of our place in the grand "cosmic ballet." We learn why Pluto is not a planet, how to calculate the weight of the Sun, why our docks run "clockwise?' We also learn of fleshly minted stars.

The true drama missing from many televised shows is here. These essays richly inform the reader, engaging our imagination, making continuously available to us the universal wonder and surprise that can be ours if we keep looking up. "Not only to we live among the stars, the stars live within us."

Ebele Oseye (Ellease Southerland), author of Let the Lion Eat Straw (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2004), teaches literature and creative writing at Pace University in New York.