As we reported last year, 21st Century authors love to attack their critics. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a new book that pokes fun at the most unexpected book critics: third graders.
Tyson was one of the scientists who helped the International Astronomical Union decide in August 2006 that Pluto was no longer a planet. In The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, he describes his controversial (at least among grade school kids) role in that de-planet-ification. Today The Takeway interviewed the scientist on the 80th anniversary of Pluto’s discovery.
Here’s an excerpt: “The Pluto Files was really a catharsis for me, because I was branded as public enemy for having revealed this information about Pluto … it’s kids, third graders, sending me hate mail. A lot of it is entertaining, and it’s all in fun, but it revealed something about the power of this particular cosmic object in the hearts and minds of Americans.”