The Pluto Files
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Review
Famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson chronicles the events that led to Pluto's demotion from the planetary club. Drawing from history and his own personal experiences as the head of the Hayden Planetarium, Tyson writes a compelling justification for Pluto's downgrade.
This is an excellent read for fans science or astronomy, but by no means is it beyond the grasp of someone not familiar with these subjects.
Notable Quotes
"When your reasons for believing something are justified ad hoc, you are left susceptible to further discoveries undermining the rationale for that belief." (51)
"Two kinds of scientists populate the world: those who see that is similar among objects and explore how they differ from one another, and those who see what is different among objects and explore how they're all similar. To arrive at a deep understanding of the natural world often requires a sustained but resolvable tension between the two camps." (52)
"The organization of the solar system, how the solar system came to be the way it is— those are genuine scientific questions. But the labels you give things— no. You're having an argument over something you generate rather than what is fundamental to the universe. While you're sitting around debating, Pluto and the rest of the universe happily keep doing whatever it is they do, without regard to our urges to classify." (85)