Neil deGrasse Tyson

Who knew astrophysics could be funny? Not me—not until last night, anyway, a fact I discovered during a talk given by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the sexiest astrophysicist alive, according to "People," at the American Museum of Natural History. He spoke extemporaneously—no notes— on themes taken from essays in his book "Death by Black Hole," including why intelligent design should be taught as a philosophy of ignorance, why humans might not be the smartest things out there, and why the universe is trying to kill us.

As Tyson pointed out, 99.9% of all species are now extinct, so odds aren’t in our favor. We should disavow ourselves of the notion of the universe as a warm, friendly place that cares about our theories and scientific laws. It isn’t, and it doesn’t.

If given the choice, Tyson said, he’d love to die inside a black hole, because “it would be sooooooo coooool,” punctuating this comment with a swivel of his hips (he used to be a dance champion, according to his Wikipedia entry). In a black hole, he explained, you’d be killed by a process known as “spaghettifacation,” in which objects are stretched until they split, then stretched and split again and again.

Sadly, he wasn’t wearing one of his trademarked astro-themed vests last night, but he still rocked the audience’s world (every pun intended).