RIP Carl Sagan. November 9th 1934 - December 20th 1996. - The Pub

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Frost
Inside a locked room

Registered: 02/24/07
Posts: 5,947
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RIP Carl Sagan. November 9th 1934 - December 20th 1996.

#13661542 - 12/20/10 04:13 PM (15 years, 8 months ago)

Calling Carl Sagan a scientist is a little like calling the Beatles a rock band. Sagan was certainly a scientist (an astronomer, biologist and astrophysicist, to be precise). But he was also science’s most visible public advocate, a secular humanist, a fervent believer in extraterrestrial life, a teacher, an author, a television host and a political activist.

While accurately fixing the surface temperature of Venus and positing the presence of seas on Jovian and Saturnian moons are among his practical contributions to the field of astronomy, his lasting contribution to humanity was to popularize the natural sciences for hundreds of millions of people.

Through his PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Sagan reached an enormous worldwide audience. He also authored numerous books, including a sci-fi novel, that further helped popularize the natural sciences.

Reaction to Sagan from the scientific fraternity was mixed — not everyone appreciated his eager embrace of celebrity — but his professional credentials were sound, and many colleagues were pleased to see the sciences, thanks to his advocacy, rise in the public consciousness.

Sagan the scientist is perhaps best remembered as a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life, but he enjoyed a distinguished, wide-ranging career. He helped midwife the birth of the U.S. space program and as it grew was involved in everything from devising mission experiments to briefing Apollo astronauts prior to their landing on the moon.

Sagan was deeply involved in more earthbound matters as well, and was often skeptical of technology’s impact on civilization. He worried about our growing ability to annihilate ourselves through the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and he warned against our casual abuse of the planet. He was a vocal opponent of President Ronald Reagan’s proposal to develop a space-based weapons program (the so-called “Star Wars” initiative) and an early voice against the dangers of global warming.

Sagan was 62 when he died from the complications of myelodysplasia, a blood deficiency linked to anemia and leukemia.

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2...(Top+Stories+2))

A couple of my favorite quotes by him:

“We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand suns are born; where life is sparked by sunlight and lightning in the airs and waters of youthful planets; where the raw material for biological evolution is sometimes made by the explosion of a star halfway across the Milky Way; where a thing as beautiful as a galaxy is formed a hundred billion times - a Cosmos of quasars and quarks, snowflakes and fireflies, where there may be black holes and other universe and extraterrestrial civilizations whose radio messages are at this moment reaching the Earth. How pallid by comparison are the pretensions of superstition and pseudoscience; how important it is for us to pursue and understand science, that characteristically human endeavor.” - Carl Sagan

"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides." - Carl Sagan

--------------------
“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside.” - Rumi

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” - Carl Sagan

Edited by Frost (12/20/10 04:13 PM)

Extras:

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