Heavenly Knowledge: An Astrophysicist Seeks Wisdom in the Stars

A scientist with her own eponymous Web site, Terenzi cuts a pop-iconic figure that's part Timothy Leary and part Dianna Troi (the comely Star Trek psychologist). Leary, Terenzi writes, ""had a genius for seeing intimate connections between seemingly irreconcilable parts of life."" Terenzi, born in Italy but now based in the U.S., has consciously followed in his footsteps, converting galactic radio waves into sound--and releasing them on a soothing CD and CD-ROM, as she details here. Her admittedly ghostwritten print debut, however, fails to bridge the gap between ""purely objective"" science and ""a dynamic relationship with data"" that would allow us to ""commune"" with the heavens. Chapters like ""The Human Star Population"" and ""The Sex Life of the Cosmos"" draw relationship lessons from phenomena like binary stars, in prose that glows galactic purple: ""Yes, nebulized is the perfect word for what she felt at that moment. She felt as if she shattered into a billion particles, each shooting off into a different direction."" Terenzi's work in acoustic physics and the smattering of cosmology we get here make for agreeable moments, but the bulk of the book is mired in pop psychological posturing (with lessons learned in Italian cafes thrown in) and overly simplified science. Author tour. (Mar.)