BookExpo 2019 hit the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City last month, and besides the aisles and aisles of wonderful words, there were also… puppies and kittens! Dr. Gary Weitzman – National Geographic author, veterinarian, and President & CEO of the San Diego Humane Society, was in attendance to promote his new pet reference guide, Complete Guide to Pet Health, Behavior, and Happiness.

StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond
Hardcover
By Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jeffrey Simons, Charles Liu
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Released date: September 13, 2016

Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson segued his radio show last year into a TV series on the National Geographic Channel called StarTalk, where each week he’d talk with celebrities about scientific topics, and now, there’s a new companion book called StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Boldly subtitled Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond, this 304-page full-cover hardcover hits on four major themes — Space, Planet Earth, Being Human, and Futures Imagined. But lest you think this is a dry science textbook, StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson seeks to make astronomy, cosmology, technology, and futurology fun and accessible to the layman, and it succeeds.

Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Universe
The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages
Hardcover
By Andrew Fazekas
Foreword by William Shatner
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Released date: June 7, 2016

Star Trek is one of the most beloved entertainment franchises in the world, with its reach stretching 50 years of not only massive fandom, but influence on everyday life and our aspirations for the future. Even space agencies such as NASA cite the science fiction series as an inspiration. Now, National Geographic Books has created Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Universe, an informative tome that seeks to show the correlations between true science and that which is presented throughout the fictional universe.

William Shatner, who made a name for himself as the original Captain James T. Kirk on the 1960s television series, provides the Foreword to this 240-page hardcover by Andrew Fazekas, which is subtitled The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has landed another hosting gig following his run leading the popular revival of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

Tyson is set to host Star Talk, a late-night talk show that will air on National Geographic. It’s based on his podcast of the same name, mixing science and pop culture and featuring interviews with scientists, celebrities, and comedians.

Back in June we told you about a very cool experiment National Geographic was doing along with the Arecibo Observatory, where they wanted to send your messages via Twitter out to space in response to The Wow! Signal on its 35th anniversary.

As of August 15th, the exact anniversary of first receiving the signal, all messages—including over 20,000 tweets and a few videos from celebrities—were officially beamed out to space for whatever intelligent lifeforms that may be out there to hopefully one day pick up on.

Continue below to check out a cool video (featuring a cameo from yours truly) on how exactly they sent the messages to space.