Space. The final frontier. To me, it's an unimaginably vast expanse of suffocating blackness and flickering stars, too large to really fathom, so large that I sometimes get uneasy just thinking about it. By the same token, I'm inexhaustibly intrigued by it because I know my uneasiness stems from an inability to wrap my mind around the infinite possibilities of the cosmos. If you can relate, WEDU presents "Cosmic Quandaries with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson." Tyson is a high-profile astrophysicist, best-selling author of Death by Black Holes and other Cosmic Quandaries, director of Hayden Planetarium at NYC's American Museum of Natural History and the host of NOVA scienceNOW, a Nova spinoff that covers timely developments and fascinating people in science and technology today. (Tyson described it to Jon Stewart as "science for the short attention span.") He's a modern-day, more user-friendly Carl Sagan who talks about subjects like black holes and supernovas in appealing, easy-to-digest bites. Tyson joins Nova and Nova scienceNow senior executive producer Paula S. Apsell and a panel of local space experts in a spirited discussion about galactic conundrums, cosmic wonders, curiosities and uncertainties. Proceeds benefit WEDU. Wed., March 26, 7-9 p.m., Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg, $15, 727-822-3590, mypalladium.org.
