Looking a Little Glum

I was flipping through the channels on Dish Network, and found to my surprise that there were apparently some new channels. One, called The Science Channel, I decided to take a peep at. It was late at night, and I see this dude, pimped out in a turtleneck and coat, and featuring a classic late 70s haircut, to say nothing of those remarkable eye-brows.

I was fascinated. His voice, vocabulary, and delivery - they entranced me. Then, here he is, talking about "Comet Halley" and the like, when he starts leveling all of these unsolicited moral judgments. I was taken aback, and thought about crazy little science videos they used to make us watch in elementary school.

So here he is, talking innocuously about the history of man's knowledge of the planet Venus. Throughout the show, he seemed to revel, not in the facts, but in past and future errors - he took a kind of delight, gave a kind of wry smile each time he was able to indulge a little prickishness into the learning.

I love how he anachronistically mocks ancient science.

I found out only later that this is Carl Sagan. He's a gem.

Excerpted from kittenry's flickr page.

A Personal Voyage.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage through Time and Space

Cosmos, the very word evokes the entirety of all existence and a sense of wonder. “The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there ever will be”. These opening lines of Carl Sagan’s book and landmark television series introduced us to the concept of science as a spiritual enterprise - the quest to understand who we are and where we stand in the vast scheme of the universe.

We live between two great gulfs within the very fabric of the cosmos- the immensity of space and an eternity of time. Yet, through the miracle of special effects and a starship of the imagination, Carl Sagan went boldly forth where few had gone before and took us with him on a personal voyage of discovery through those very gulfs. It was a voyage that traversed the galaxies and the vast ocean of time and space. This epic voyage began from the very shores of our planet out into the cosmic ocean. It was a journey that was also a homecoming to lay claim to our cosmic inheritance into the very realm from which we can trace our beginnings.

The science of our age has revealed to us a universe some fifteen billion years old, where the very matter of the cosmos came to life on our island Earth four billion years ago, and star stuff started contemplating the stars with the emergence of intelligence and civilization fifty thousand years ago. With civilization came science and through much trial and error we finally live in an epoch where the tools and methods of science allow us to make it a spiritual quest where we can, more than any previous generation, hope to answer the seven mystical questions of our age:

1. How did the Cosmos come into being and how will it end?
2. What is space?
3. What is time?
4. What is gravity?
5. What are the fundamental nature of matter and energy?
6. How did matter emerge into life and consciousness?
7. Do we share the cosmos with other creatures that seek to answer these questions and others that our imagination and intelligence have not even begun to contemplate?
   

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos was for many of us the first epic voyage of exploration where we sort answers to these questions outside the realm of comic books, science fiction, or Star Trek.

Cosmos presented the whole of the scientific enterprise as a very human pursuit. For a very long time we have looked at science as something outside the realm of everyday human concern. We glorify art, literature, and music. But, look at science as a separate endeavor outside the human norm. In fact we should expand the definition of the humanities to encompass science. Science can trace its origins to its metaphysical beginnings in ancient Ionia. The wellsprings of some of our deepest questions were once the chief concerns of religion and philosophy. Yet, science, with a capital “S” is a human endeavor that resonates with our deepest yearnings to understand the reason and purpose of our existence. To quote Carl Sagan “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality”. Science has its own poetry and psalms that glorify the wonders of the cosmos. Science uses its own language to write sonatas of praise to the numinous, the language of discovery known as mathematics.

Cosmos was also a major source of inspiration for many teenagers to pursue a career in science, and for me personally, a career as a science teacher. Often as I prepare my lesson plans or a public presentation, I can hear Sagan whispering to me “can’t you make it more interesting”? or “where is the poetry to evoke awe and wonder”? We need to inject that sense of wonder and awe back into our teaching. The discoveries of science and the language of discovery mathematics should be presented with the same spirit as Cosmos presented the wonders of creation to the general public. Our classrooms must become the starships of the imagination that transcend space and time to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to take us on new voyages of discovery.

by Alex Michael Bonnici, Physics Teacher, Saint Edward's College, Malta.

For a PDF of this essay, click here.

The Dot Quote.

Take a moment and search the Internet for the phrase 'Pale Blue Dot.' The vast majority of the returns will feature a grainy image of light beams that highlight a tiny dot.

Invariably these images of sunlight and earth will be accompanied by a Sagan quote -- perhaps the most quoted statement by Carl Sagan on the web.

Asterios sent along this presentation hosted on You're the Man Now Dog. Not only does it feature the aforementioned image and the Sagan quote, but also a tinny piano and satellite bleep.

Click on the image for music and the whole Sagan quote.

Sagan's Wisdom...

Sagan's Wisdom is Needed Now, More than Ever.

Hi

I met Dr. Sagan and Ann personally in Paris during the shooting of Cosmos. I live in France, where I am a Planetary Society volunteer coordinator, and I keep contact with Ann.

My favorite books are Demon-Haunted World and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. I beleive that both hold answers to all of today's ills.

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Dawkins on Sagan

This tribute appeared alongside others in the March/April 1997 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, whose current issue features a picture of Dr. Sagan on the cover.

In my review for The Times of London, of The Demon-Haunted World, I mentioned a chapter heading of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: "Who Speaks for Earth?". I went on that it was "a rhetorical question that expects no particular answer, but I presume to give it one. My candidate for planetary ambassador, my own nominee to present our credentials in galactic chancelleries, can be none other than Carl Sagan himself. He is wise, humane, polymathic, gentle, witty, well-read, and incapable of composing a dull sentence." In the Financial Times this year, I described him as "a beacon of clear light in a dark world of alien abductions and 'real-life X-files', of psychic charlatans and New Age airheads, of fatcat astrologers giggling all the way to the millennium." I met him only once, so my feeling of desolation and loss at his death is based entirely on his writings. Carl Sagan was one of the great literary stylists of our age, and he did it by giving proper weight to the poetry of science. It is hard to think of anyone whom our planet can so ill afford to lose.

- Richard Dawkins

Letter to Carl Sagan

I came across a post yesterday which I wanted to call attention to. It's a perfect example of how Dr. Sagan inspired people to pursue science professionally. Who knows how many careers out there were spurred on by Carl's charisma and passion. Here's an excerpt from My Letter to Carl Sagan by Dr. Mark S. Petrovic:

Sometime in the mid 70s while I was in secondary school, I determined that I should write to Dr. Sagan and ask him what should be my approach if I wanted to become an astronomer, which was my goal at the time. How I found his Cornell address is slightly mysterious, as this was pre-Internet, pre-cable, and, even, pre-microwave oven. My guess is that I found it at the library. Ithaca can’t be that big, in hindsight, and he was likely one of the most well-known people in town. Nothing more than “Prof. Carl Sagan, Ithaca, NY” probably would have worked on the envelope.

So I wrote my letter, and lo, some weeks, later, a reply came. Carl Sagan had personally taken the time to respond to my inquiry. I am still honored, and humbled, by this. And I have that letter in my files, along with a signed photo of him. Therein he suggested that if I wanted to study the stars, I should take a course of study consisting of math and physics. Which I did.

Originally published to the author's blog, radioAe6rt, on December 16, 2006.

When Carl Sagan Died, an Encore.

I was a geology major in college, and probably would have majored in astronomy had my college offered it. I also did graduate work in planetariums, and almost made that a career, but in the end, music won out.

Carl was a light in the darkness for me as he was for so many.

I wrote the song after seeing Ann Druyan interviewed on Charlie Rose. This was just after Contact had come out, and shortly after he had died. Charlie and Ann were talking about Carl and the movie, and her sadness was palpable. I could see on her face how deeply she missed him. My heart went out to her and I wanted to offer her some kind of comfort.

From their writings, I knew how they both felt about life after death (not likely!), but I thought, why not at least be open to the idea? So that's where the song comes from.

Thanks again, and great job on the site. I'll spread the word in my newsletter.

Injoy,

Greg

WHEN CARL SAGAN DIED
by Greg Tamblyn

When Carl Sagan died I felt surprising sadness
For someone I’d admired from afar
I found that he’d inspired me to think in new dimensions
And I shared his sense of wonder at the stars

I saw him first in college, late night on Johnny Carson
His enthusiasm was contagious
I thought he had a great mind and I loved his sense of humor
And Cosmos was a show for all the ages

Now I am trained in science too, a geology degree
I love astronomical ideas
When time and space are measured in billions and billions
And I can’t pass up a good science museum

I saw his wife Ann Druyan on TV, she seemed so sad
They both felt death is final and forever
It must be so difficult living while believing
They’ll never ever once more be together

I also felt God and the afterlife an empty notion
Till I read the words of mystics down through time
Their accounts of higher consciousness were somehow familiar
And lifted me to thoughts new and sublime

Like this notion that the impulse of creation springs from love
Is it only wishful thinking on my part
That you and I are waves that will return to some great ocean
And while here we are connected at the heart

So nowadays I’m thinking that it’s possible, it could be
That consciousness lives on in unknown ways
Maybe we move on to higher planes and new existence
Or even live again with some new face

So I want to tell his wife Ann I wish I could give her comfort
I think Carl’s spirit still lives on
Oh wouldn’t it be something if when her time here is over
There was Carl saying, “Hi Hon, I was wrong”

© 1999 Ramblin’ Tamblyn Music, BMI

To read more about Greg and his music please visit his website www.gregtamblyn.com.

You can listen to this song in the Sounds of Sagan, or you can purchase the CD here.

Sagan Memorial Station.

After landing on Mars on July 4, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft underwent a name change. Responsible for bringing the robot rover, Sojourner, to the red planet, the now stationary Pathfinder would heretofore be called the Sagan Memorial Station. Serving as a hub for the one-foot-tall rover, Sagan Memorial Station can be seen in this photograph from Mars.

Check out this image for a glimpse of the little Sojourner at work.

Thanks to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

On Canadian Television

When Carl Sagan Died

I'm writing to share with you one of the most wonderful songs I've ever heard. The subject of the song is Carl Sagan and it's entitled, When Carl Sagan Died.

It is written and performed by an amazing guy named Greg Tamblyn. I first heard him sing this in church one day and went and bought all his CDs.

This song is so touching. It deals with his memories of Carl Sagan and the ending is the ultimate in compassion.

Geoff, Illinois

Listen to the song in the Sounds of Sagan, located in the sidebar.

You can purchase the CD here.