Today is the eleventh anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death. The world is a far better place because he lived for as long as he did, and lived his life the way he did.
I can’t really say what his impact on me personally was any better than I did last year on this date. But if you need a reminder of what this man was like, then you need to watch the video paean to Pale Blue Dot.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
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December 20th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Carl Sagan was the best gift the stars ever gave us, for as he said, we’re all made of “star stuff”.
He will forever be missed.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I was just about to PM you to ask if you knew it was the anniversary again.
I don’t know if I can miss somebody who died when I was two, but I wish I’d met him.
He was a real life Super Hero.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Yeah Carl Sagan was pretty amazing. I met him when I was very young and he did a public talk in Albany NY, which is not far from where I lived. It was in 1995 (or maybe ‘94 but I think ‘95) at SUNY Albany. It was just before “Pale Blue Dot” came out and he read from it and talked about the book and other things and then answered questions. He stuck around a bit after and I saw him when I was leaving. Didn’t say much or anything, but defiantly a very nice guy and receptive to shaking hands with people who stayed a bit afterward.
I didn’t know how “big” he was at the time or how little time he had left. Since then I’ve searched high and low for pictures from that lecture. I’m sure there must be some of it, but I can’t find any. I wrote to a couple sagan sites including the official one. They suggested I contact UAlbany, which I did. The only department which got back to me suggested I contact the Sagan site. So that’s kinda leaving me in a circle.
If anyone has any idea where I might be able to find any info or images from that event I’d very much appreciate it.
I remember that he was given an honary degree from the university by the president and he was in a cap and gown. He took off the cap though. As I said this was around the time of “Pale Blue Dot” and I believe this took place in autumn or possibly early spring. I definitely remember it being rather cold.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Carl Sagan was my first serious crush. All the other girls had posters of Leif Garrett, but I had clippings of Carl Sagan.
I still read “Cosmos” when I need something inspirational. How can you not be moved by sentences like, “We are like butterflies fluttering for a day and thinking it’s forever” or “The skies are full of life?”
December 20th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
One day, my mother asked me: “Do you think they really went to the moon?”
I said to her: “Why is Carl Sagan allowed to die, and Art Bell allowed to LIVE!?!?!”
December 20th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Cosmos was a personal revolution for me. I was about eight when I saw it on PBS. The childhood fantasies of Star Wars and Star Trek made room for a genuine interest in real science, that would change the course of my entire life.
In 1981, I spent the summer with my grandparents in Memphis. Sometimes we would go to the planetarium at the Pink Palace Museum. That summer, they bought me the book Cosmos in hardcover. I still have it today. At the time, I didn’t grasp much more than the pretty pictures. But a day came when I was ready to read it for real. And it was good.
Heh… I remember once, in fifth grade, there was some assignment due that I didn’t do. I faked sick to get out of class. Mom came to pick me up, and later that day, we went shopping. While out, we bought the Cosmos soundtrack, a compilation of classical and new-age music featured throughout the miniseries. It’s funny how sometimes you can get a better education outside of the classroom. I imagine I was the only one in our fifth grade who’d even heard of Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky or Vangelis.
In a way, I’m glad Carl isn’t alive now, to see what has been done against the science he loved so much. We need that science as a candle in the dark more than ever. Right now, the dark is winning.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Another version is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw
I like this one better, it is read by Carl himself.
There are more versions on the web:
http://video.google.nl/videosearch?q=pale+blue+dot
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Pale Blue Dot on my weblog. Sorry, it is in Dutch…: http://jacbur.blogspot.com/2007/12/dat-is-alles.html
December 20th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
It’s a shame that Cosmos is never reshown - at least it isn’t in the UK. That was fabulous. Re the video, that is fantastic.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Jacco, the one that has him reading it still… everytime I hear it… brings tears to my eyes. For both the beauty of the image coupled with his wonderful description of the significance of that image. It stands at one of the greatest reminders that science and reason can turn our eyes to the vastness of everything and bring us more meaning and beauty than any tiny holy book.
Carl was one of the greatest people that ever lived and he is still missed.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Who did the accompanying song? Great video, great man…
December 20th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I was sad when I first learnt of Sagan - since he had long been dead by then. Much like Feinmann. Two great intellects who I’ll never get to know but through their works.
What a misspent childhood I must have had …
December 20th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Cosmos was OK, I guess, but I was already a space buff by then, so it didn’t have such an effect on me. I like the dandelion fluff spaceship.
Some of it made me start using computer graphics to depict space scenes, although Chesley Bonestell was probably more significant there.
Yeah, baby: http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Conquest1.jpg
That’s a seriously haunting image to an eight year old.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I just read Pale Blue Dot for the first time recently, and it was great. Probably my favorite nonfiction book ever. (Haven’t bought the BA book yet, sorry.) I need to check out cosmos, but I just bought a stack of mostly nonfiction Asimov books and I want to finish those first. I can’t believe both of these science greats died when I was too young to know who they were.
So other then the Bad Astronomer and the linked blogs, are there any really skilled LIVING science authors? I’m not seeing a ton of great options, and this really is a genre that needs to grow. Maybe someone should get xkcd a book deal.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
The “Pale Blue Dot” is a permanent feature on my own website in honour of Carl (and it’s not even an astronomy site). I’m pretty sure that in thousands of years’ time when we’ve all either gone to the stars or blown ourselves up, there will be nothing left on Planet Earth but a small plaque stating simply “Carl Sagan lived here”.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
[…] the entry on Wikipedia Dec. 20, 1996: Science Loses Its Most Visible Public Champion @ Wired.com 11 years ago today, the light dimmed @ Bad Astronomy His head is far beyond the clouds (good article about Neil Degrassi-Tyson, a man-crush of mine and […]
December 20th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I am only now reading a Demon-haunted world for the first time. His way of putting things in perspective has opened my eyes up (and I fancied myself awake). As I read, I can’t help but think what a loss our world has had. Makes me wish I had “discovered” him sooner.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Linda, Me too. I thought I was the only teenage girl on the planet with a crush on that man. Hee girl bonding ritual.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I’ve been a reader of BA for a while now, but never de-lurked to post until now. I personally credit the late Dr. Sagan with ’saving’ me from pseudo science and fuzzy thinking. For a long time, I was a firm believer in what most consider woo-woo, fringe theories and general nuttiness (though I’m happy to say I was never so far gone as to be a creationist).
Then I was fortunate enough to read ‘Demon-Haunted World’, and it was literally a life-changing experience. The ideas on critical thought, and applying reason to the world around us, were like a beacon to me, clearing away all the superstitious nonsense and crackpot theories. I would go on to read nearly every one of Sagan’s books, as well as the writings of Schermer, Randi, Dawkins, Gardner, and etc.– yes, our friend Plait, too.
Sagan was one of those rare people with a gift of clear thought, eloquent style, and personal magnetism. Not perfect, by any means. I’ve read one of his biographers, too, and know Sagan had his personal flaws and foibles like any human. But for all that, a great man, and greatly missed.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I will always look up!
It’s marvelous to know that a great man is remembered.
Sili, I just read some of Feynman’s lectures, he was great as well. Now I’m reading “Asimov on Astronomy”, as I’m sure sandswipe will find out (or has), it is wonderful. Although, I still don’t believe his claim that the moon appears as big as a quarter at nine feet away.
Then, when my friend is done, I get to enjoy “cosmos”.
I’m so happy that there are and were great minds that put their thoughts and findings into text for the world to share with them. (soon will be another one from the BA)
December 20th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I first saw Carl Sagan when he presented the Royal Institution Xmas lecture series in the UK in about 1977. After that, or course, Cosmos - the series and the book - still hugely influential on how I view the world.
Thank you, Carl. You are missed.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I hadn’t seen this video before. Thank you.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
>> sandswipeon
Well, there’s always Stephen Hawking. I’ve been getting my astrophysics fix solely from him after graduating with a BS in it. Martin Gardner is great, although more of a mathematician than a scientist (but he’s the one that taught me logical thinking more than any other author out there). However…egad, I hat to say this, but he won’t be around for too much longer, considering he must be in his mid 90s or something.
Never found Dawkins to be that good.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I made my own humble blog for Carl Sagan. I don’t post there often, but had to today.
I got to watch his “Cosmos” for the first time in 1980. So I bought the series on DVD as soon as I could. He wraps so much science in 13 episodes that it’s difficult to imagine any more he could have added or a better way to do it, even now, 27 years later.
If we survive until the 22nd Century, it’ll likely be due in large part to his influence.
jbs
December 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
On my way to Keck last month at the acclimatizing station, I saw Carl Sagan’s Cosmos video running in the gift shop. I couldn’t watch it for more than a few seconds. I was too sad…STILL.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
Carl Sagan
Can not remember the first time I heard of or saw Sagan but he has a had impact on my life as well.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I got here by reading Dawkins and skeptical web pages like Randi’s. But I am most grateful to them all for introducing me to Carl Sagan. I learned the human side of skepticism by reading Sagan. By far the best communicator among many good communicators.
Perhaps his physical frailty gave his writings their sympathetic edge - he is never dismisive of people’s beliefs or snobbish about their lack of education - always sympathetic and understanding.
A great scientist, communicator and human being.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I see I’m not the first to decloak to pay tribute…
I remember watching Cosmos when I was a child, and, though I didn’t fully understand the show then, I remember being inspired by the show. I didn’t see it again for about twenty years, when I purchased it on DVD. After watching it again–and many times since then–the true wonder of the series was that it spoke to me as much as it did then, and is can still inspire me today.
There’s one quote in particular that pops up in my mind occasionally. To this day, I can still hear Carl Sagan saying, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe” at random intervals…and I’m really OK with that.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I really was inspired by Carl Sagan. When space probes reach their destinations, I always think too bad Carl Sagan has to miss out on that. He’s done the world a lot of good, he left his mark, but too bad he has to miss out on all the great things that are still going on that he helped bring about.
I do have a bone to pick with Cosmos Studios, they should donate an airing of the Cosmos series on PBS. I know it was on the Science channel but there’s a lot of people without cable and you’ve got commercials. Bringing it back home once a generation makes a lot of sense. And in the long run they’ll sell more DVDs and of course influence more people, and that will extend Carl’s legacy like ripples after a stone is thrown into a pond.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
What to say. I first read Cosmos when i was 12 or 13, it was most inspirational… I cant remember exactly when i first read Pale Blue Dot, and i never found it on the level of Cosmos. “Deamon Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark” on the other hand… i find it… haunting (no pun intended). Now in this decade, with fundamentalism in developed countries on the rise, and science look down upon as unprofitable…
December 20th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Great video. Sagan was a huge inspiration to me. As many people stated before, I remember as a kid watching the Cosmos series: the music, the message behind the man, etc. was so inspiring. I deeply regret that I had a chance to meet him when our college astronomy club invited him to give a lecture, about a year before his passing away (he happened to be at the university for some conference at the time) and I missed it for some reason. I now have the Cosmos DVD set and watch it occasionally with my wife and kids; the show has aged extremely well. At home I have my Sagan book collection: Cosmos; Demon-Haunted-Word; Broca’s Brain; The Dragons of Eden; Pale BLue Dot; Intelligent Life in the Universe (with I. Shklovskii, the first serious SETI book), as well as his biography. What a source of wisdom; Sagan is deeply missed…
December 20th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I first saw Cosmos on television in Adelaide, Australia when I was a small boy. It is a gift to be able to communicate scientific ideas to lay people in an easy to understand manner. It is quite another to convey the inspirational wonder of it all. Carl Sagan quite literally changed my life all those years ago, over the course of several weeks on Wednesday nights. I went to university and studied to become a scientist myself purely due to the thirst for knowledge that Carl had inspired within me when I was a boy.
We never met, but my parents aside, Sagan has been the greatest influence in the course and direction of my life. I miss him.
If I can convey to others, during my life, a fraction of the wonder that he inspired in me at science and reason, I can think of no greater purpose.
Carl Sagan, Thankyou.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
How sings that song? I googled the lyrics, but nothing relevant came up.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
It was Demon Haunted World that began my free-thinking ways. Of course, I had already rejected the altar-boy stage of my youth and thought I was a free-thinking astrologer and occultist. I recall 11 yrs ago (was it really?) going to a downtown hotel for public lectures during an American Astronomical Association winter meeting in Toronto in the very bitter cold and seeing a notice posted on a lobby bulletin board announcing a memorial gathering to be held for Carl at Cornell. He has attained a well-deserved “life after death”.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I, too, got into astronomy after seeing Cosmos in junior high. I was fortunate enough to meet Carl Sagan about 7 months before he died. I literally said to him “It’s your fault I’m an astronomer!”. I was on an observing run at Kitt Peak when he died and remember the various conversations that night at dinner.
Thanks for posting that again, Phil.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Though I never had the good fortune to meet Carl Sagan, I have long considered him a friend. Like Isaac Asimov, who I also never met. When I first read their writings about the real world they were talking directly to me, using language and images that I could understand. The impressions that Sagan has left in my memory remain, like Asimov’s, seeming not to dim with time.
One misses old friends who are gone, but rejoices in the recollection of wonder and intimacy as our common knowledge of our shared Universe increases.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
[…] Phil over at Bad Astronomy also has a post. […]
December 20th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Hey, Geophysicist : another from Adelaide, Australia, reached by Carl.
The man has a phenomenal legacy - no mere light in the darkness of ignorance, he was, is, will always be, a beacon.
We miss you, Carl.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:59 am
Sagan was a third rate researcher.
Cosmos was drivel: Aliens, galactic encyclopedia, starship Pythagorus,
with a few high points about history known
( in my generation) to every fourth grader.
Just before Cosmos aired, a similar and somewhat better show called ” The Ascent of Man” by J. Brunowski had aired on PBS.
Both became coffee table books.
Perhaps, ( as in the case of Star Wars), I was too old to appreciate it–being in grad school at the time Cosmos first aired.
But, I grew up on the books of Fred Hoyle,
and Harlow Shapley, Wiley Ley and they were very inspiring.
Fred Hoyle was probably Sagan’s life model–an astronomer who wrote popular books, wrote science fiction, and had a radio astronomy show ( in England) called
…Cosmos.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:07 am
I agree with the poster with a degree in astrophysics who is now reading Hawking–I cut my teeth on ” The Large Scale Structure of Space Time” by Hawking and Ellis. Hard work, but well worth it!! Also see the classic book on G.R. by Wald for some overlaps.
Although their are many mathematical errors and gaps, it is a great introduction to the mathematics of global general relativity–especially to Yvonne Chouqet-Bruhats solution of the Local Cauchy problem for the Einstein Equations.
Hawking’s popular books are trash, however. Too sketchy for experts, too abstract for the general public or extremely low information content–or just collections of math work by classical math people ( Such as “On the Shoulders of Giants”).
Hey, You know who is a far better writer for the general public, and great to get kids on the right path….Phil Plait!!
December 21st, 2007 at 5:14 am
Another great popular astronomy writer
to compare and contrast Sagan too, or just to give his books as Solstice or Newton’s birthday presents is ….Patrick Moore.
Don’t forget to give a kid a telescope or a membership in an astronomy club this holiday!!
And Phil Plait’s Book on Bad Astronomy!!
December 21st, 2007 at 6:53 am
HumanisticJones writes:
[[It stands at one of the greatest reminders that science and reason can turn our eyes to the vastness of everything and bring us more meaning and beauty than any tiny holy book.]]
Nature is also God’s book, and there is wonder in the very small as well as the very large.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:18 pm
This makes me cry every time I hear it. Sometimes I wonder that we hairless apes haven’t managed to destroy that near invisible speck. If more people stopped to marvel at the vastness of the universe and to realize that this world is the only one we know of with life at all, they might not be so hateful, so greedy, so egocentric. Science gives our species a chance to survive, to spread into the universe, and to realize our true potentials. I have hope there, where no philosophies or religions of the world can even begin to show a spark of it. I hope I live long enough to see that future where perhaps there is a pale rusty dot alongside the blue. Maybe then I’ll know we aren’t all doomed.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I watched this for the first time over the last couple of weeks. I feel betrayed, because I honestly never heard of Carl. I’m one of the ones who never had alot of info in my town. But I’m glad I did see his series.
Whoever sees his films or reads his books just becomes a better person I think.
If only he had more resources to and still be here we wouldn’t be in the conditon we are now, he was more than a scientist, He’s our future to the stars.
He will never be missed if we keep his dreams alive.