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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a> has had a lifelong fantasy of being abducted by aliens.<\/a> That\u2019s right, he actually wants to be taken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI even picture the scenario in my head: I\u2019m sitting out there alone, and a beam of light comes down,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a spacecraft that\u2019s hovering over me. It\u2019s just a beam of light from space. And I just get lifted up into that beam of light, and I appear in a new place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n America\u2019s favorite astrophysicist has turned that lifelong fascination into a book, \u201cTake Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter,\u201d<\/a> which \u2014 like that beam of light \u2014 illuminates what we know about possible space critters and what we can anticipate if they ever come calling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEven if it doesn\u2019t actually happen, there\u2019s value to going through the thought experiment of what could happen,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe there\u2019s some takeaways that offer insights into how you think about the world, how we think about each other and the future of our civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The book, out Tuesday, is a unique road map into the prodigious brain of Tyson, who has an ability to blend pop culture with quantum physics. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium<\/a> at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTake Me to Your Leader\u201d references evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould and Cartoon Network\u2019s \u201cRick and Morty\u201d and weaves ideas from both the French philosopher Voltaire and lyrics by Katy Perry. It<\/a> mixes the physics of invisibility with \u201cStar Trek\u201d and has digressions into multispectral vision, how Superman \u2014 an alien, remember? \u2014 could kill us all just by farting and why supersonic planes \u201clook badass.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tyson concludes that if aliens were to arrive on Earth, they are likely to be much more advanced than humans. He writes it would be like trying to teach a chimp long division.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll not only be brilliant, but they\u2019ll be way more powerful than us in practically any way that matters, which is why it\u2019s so laughable when you see in Hollywood movies some mothership arrives and people pull out their pistols and start shooting guns at it. Like, \u2018Really? Have you thought this through?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During first contact, he advises against trying to shake hands or raising a hand in a sign of hello. \u201cLeave all your habits at home, until you learn a thing or two about theirs,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The book arrives during a spasm of interest in aliens. The Pentagon has begun releasing a new batch of files on UFOs,<\/a> \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d was a smash and Steven Spielberg prepares his alien movie<\/a> \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d while former President Barack Obama<\/a> declared on a podcast that aliens are real<\/a>. (He later clarified that he had seen no evidence but that \u201cthe odds are good there\u2019s life out there.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tyson decided to write his book after watching recent congressional hearings on UFOs, noting that both Republicans<\/a> and Democrats<\/a> seemed unified in finding the truth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey had a common subject that they\u2019re both interested in,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I saw it hit that level, I realized I have something to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It is the first book under Simon & Schuster\u2019s new Simon Six imprint led by Jonathan Karp, Tyson\u2019s editor, who called the scientist \u201cthe Bruce Springsteen of astrophysicists.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou name a respected scientist who has ever written a book of etiquette on how to meet aliens. It hasn\u2019t been done. This is truly terra incognita,\u201d Karp says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The aliens will, of course, not speak any Earth languages, but Tyson thinks we can still communicate via science \u2014 universal constants like the speed of light, Newton\u2019s laws of motion and gravity and Einstein\u2019s relativity. The aliens may even recognize our periodic table \u2014 not the names or symbols \u2014 but the simple organization, which they may likely also have done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He also concludes that they won\u2019t be tiny or enormous, citing brain-to-body-weight ratios. Too big and they collapse under their own body weight. Too small and they couldn\u2019t construct a spaceworthy vehicle. \u201cThe laws of physics greatly restrict the likelihood of Earth being visited by, much less invaded by tiny aliens,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThey\u2019re going to be smart<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
A book of etiquette<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n