Essay about carl sagan biography dvd

InApple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh They chose the internal code name "Sagan," in honor of the astronomer. Though the project name was strictly internal and never used in public marketing, when Sagan learned of this internal usage, he sued Apple Computer to use a different project name. Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway, renaming the project "Butthead Astronomer.

Sagan has been widely portrayed as an atheist or agnostic, but some have also argued that his views resembled pantheism, citing quotes such as: "The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous.

Essay about carl sagan biography dvd: Based on interviews with

But if by 'God' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying Sagan was a significant figure, and his supporters credit his importance to his popularisation of the natural sciences, opposing both restraints on science and reactionary applications of science, defending democratic traditions, resisting nationalism, defending humanism, and arguing against geocentric and anthropocentric views.

Sagan on July 5, Asteroid Sagan is also named in his honor. The movie Contact see abovebased on Sagan's novel of the same name, and finished after his death, movingly ends with the dedication "For Carl. Time, Inc. Shklovskii, Intelligent Life in the Universe. Mars and the Mind of Man. Bantam Books, Sagan, Carl, et. While working on the series, Sagan neglected his academic responsibilities, canceled courses, and left research students - who had chosen Cornell specifically to work under his guidance - without supervision, forcing them to seek other advisors.

This behavior drew significant criticism from colleagues, which escalated as fame brought its drawbacks, including harassing phone calls, death threats, and an influx of fans or eccentrics roaming the university grounds in search of him. While working on the production of CosmosSagan fell deeply in love with Ann Druyan, who collaborated with him on its production and writing.

Although he was still married at the time, Sagan moved to Los Angeles to live with Druyan during the series' production. Inhe divorced his second wife and married Druyan. The couple later had a daughter and a son. They continued to collaborate professionally, including co-authoring several books. The resulting book, Contactpublished inwas another major success and was later adapted into a Hollywood film starring Jodie Foster in What would happen if we actually met intelligent extraterrestrials?

The trailer for the film Contact :. The Voyager spacecraft, launched incarried a more elaborate message about humanity than the Pioneer plaques. Attached to Voyager was a gold-plated copper record —a kind of "time capsule" of life on Earth. The essay about carl sagan biography dvd contained natural sounds such as ocean waves, music from various periods and cultures, voice greetings in dozens of languages, and images of life on Earth, all stored in audio form.

Instructions for playing the record were etched onto its cover, based on the assumption that any extraterrestrial beings who might find it would have some ability to perceive and interpret visuals and sounds in ways similar to humans. Sagan chaired the committee that selected the content, with its artistic direction led by his new partner, Ann Druyan.

The record also included an audio representation of Druyan's brainwaves. Cosmic Love. Sagan was also a strong supporter of SETI Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligencean initiative dedicated to scanning space for radio signals that might indicate the presence of intelligent alien civilizations. He collaborated with his colleague, astronomer Frank Drake, to design the Arecibo message—a radio signal broadcast into space with the aim of reaching extraterrestrial beings and drawing their attention to humanity's existence.

The resulting image, taken from about six billion kilometers away, showed Earth as a tiny speck—less than a pixel—against the vast emptiness of space. Earth captured by the Voyager spacecraft from approximately six billion kilometers away. President Ronald Reagan, the government increased defense spending and promoted the "Star Wars" initiative, a program aimed at deploying defense systems in space.

Sagan, an opponent of nuclear weapons since his student days, co-authored an influential scientific paper with four colleagues on the potential effects of nuclear war. In this paper, they coined the term "nuclear winter," referring to climate changes caused by massive amounts of dust rising into the atmosphere following large-scale nuclear explosions.

Sagan went on to co-author two books on the dangers of nuclear weapons and frequently discussed the topic in media interviews. However, unlike his work on space exploration, his stance on the politically sensitive issue of nuclear weapons drew significant opposition. Critics included those who viewed disarmament as a threat to U. This opposition sometimes manifested in personal attacks on Sagan in the media, a stark contrast to the favorable coverage he had previously enjoyed.

Many believe that Sagan's advocacy and his efforts to highlight the dangers of war through the concept of nuclear winter ultimately helped pave the way for the disarmament negotiations and the eventual signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces INF Treaty by U. During this period, Sagan also faced challenges from budget cuts to U. Sagan attended David A.

Boody Junior High School in his native Bensonhurst and had his bar mitzvah when he turned Sagan became president of the school's chemistry club, and set up his own laboratory at home. He taught himself about molecules by making cardboard cutouts to help him visualize how they were formed: "I found that about as interesting as doing [chemical] experiments.

In his junior year of high school, he discovered that professional astronomers were paid for doing something he always enjoyed, and decided on astronomy as a career goal: "That was a splendid day—when I began to suspect that if I tried hard I could do astronomy full-time, not just part-time. Before the end of high school, Sagan entered an essay writing contest in which he explored the idea that human contact with advanced life forms from another planet might be as disastrous for people on Earth as Native Americans' first contact with Europeans had been for Native Americans.

Its chancellor, Robert Maynard Hutchinshad recently retooled the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago into an "ideal meritocracy" built on Great BooksSocratic dialoguecomprehensive examinationsand early entrance to college with no age requirement. As an honors-program undergraduateSagan worked in the laboratory of geneticist H.

Muller and wrote a thesis on the origins of life with physical chemist Harold Urey. He also joined the Ryerson Astronomical Society. He went on to do graduate work at the University of Chicago, earning a Master of Science in physics in and a Doctor of Philosophy in astronomy and astrophysics in His doctoral thesis, submitted to the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, was entitled Physical Studies of the Planets.

The title of Sagan's dissertation reflected interests he had in common with Kuiper, who had been president of the International Astronomical Union 's commission on "Physical Studies of Planets and Satellites" throughout the s. InSagan and Kuiper worked on the classified military Project Aa secret United States Air Force plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon and document its effects.

A follow-up letter to the journal by project leader Leonard Reiffel confirmed Sagan's security leak. After the publication of Sagan's Science article, inHarvard University astronomers Fred Whipple and Donald Menzel offered Sagan the opportunity to give a colloquium at Harvard and subsequently offered him a lecturer position at the institution.

Sagan instead asked to be made an assistant professor, and eventually Whipple and Menzel were able to convince Harvard to offer Sagan the assistant professor position he requested. InSagan was denied academic tenure at Harvard. He later indicated that the decision was very unexpected. Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking.

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites now down to 10 seconds or lesslowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

Long before the ill-fated tenure process, Cornell University astronomer Thomas Gold had courted Sagan to move to Ithaca, New Yorkand join the recently hired essay about carl sagan biography dvd Frank Drake among the faculty at Cornell. Following the denial of tenure from Harvard, Sagan accepted Gold's offer and remained a faculty member at Cornell for nearly 30 years until his death in Unlike Harvard, the smaller and more laid-back astronomy department at Cornell welcomed Sagan's growing celebrity status.

Inhe became the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Sagan was associated with the U. Sagan contributed to many of the robotic spacecraft missions that explored the Solar Systemarranging experiments on many of the expeditions. Sagan assembled the first physical message that was sent into space: a gold-plated plaqueattached to the space probe Pioneer 10launched in Pioneer 11also carrying another copy of the plaque, was launched the following year.

He continued to refine his designs; the most elaborate message he helped to develop and assemble was the Voyager Golden Recordwhich was sent out with the Voyager space probes in Sagan often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station at the expense of further robotic missions. Former student David Morrison described Sagan as "an 'idea person' and a master of intuitive physical arguments and ' back of the envelope ' calculations", [ 37 ] and Gerard Kuiper said that "Some persons work best in specializing on a major program in the laboratory; others are best in liaison between sciences.

Sagan belongs in the latter group. Sagan's contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of the planet Venus. His own view was that Venus was dry and very hot as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined. As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratoryhe contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and management of the project.

Mariner 2 confirmed his conclusions on the surface conditions of Venus in Sagan was among [ clarification needed ] the first to hypothesize that Saturn 's moon Titan might possess oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter 's moon Europa might possess subsurface oceans of water. This would make Europa potentially habitable.

The mystery of Titan's reddish haze was also solved with Sagan's help. The reddish haze was revealed to be due to complex organic molecules constantly raining down onto Titan's surface. Sagan further contributed insights regarding the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiteras well as seasonal changes on Mars. He also perceived global warming as a growing, man-made danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot, life-hostile planet through a kind of runaway greenhouse effect.

Essay about carl sagan biography dvd: Carl Edward Sagan was

He studied the observed color variations on Mars' surface and concluded that they were not seasonal or vegetational changes as most believed, [ clarification needed ] but shifts in surface dust caused by windstorms. Sagan is also known for his research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial lifeincluding experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation.

He is also the recipient of the Public Welfare Medalthe highest award of the National Academy of Sciences for "distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare. As of [update]Sagan is the most cited SETI scientist and one of the most cited planetary scientists. InSagan co-wrote and narrated the award-winning part PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyagewhich became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until The show has been seen by at least million people across 60 countries.

Because of his earlier popularity as a science writer from his best-selling books, including The Dragons of Edenwhich won him a Pulitzer Prize inhe was asked to write and narrate the show. It was targeted to a general audience of viewers, who Sagan felt had lost interest in science, partly due to a stifled educational system. Each of the 13 episodes was created to focus on a particular subject or person, thereby demonstrating the synergy of the universe.

Essay about carl sagan biography dvd: Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, –

The show won an Emmy[ 62 ] along with a Peabody Awardand transformed Sagan from an obscure astronomer into a pop-culture icon. After Cosmos aired, Sagan became associated with the catchphrase "billions and billions", although he never actually used the phrase in the Cosmos series. Richard Feynmana precursor to Sagan, used the phrase "billions and billions" many times in his " red books.

Frank Zappa satirized the line in the song "Be in My Video", noting as well "atomic light. As a humorous tribute to Sagan and his association with the catchphrase "billions and billions", a sagan has been defined as a unit of measurement equivalent to a very large number of anything. Sagan's number is the number of stars in the observable universe.

Sagan's ability to convey his ideas allowed many people to understand the cosmos better—simultaneously emphasizing the value and worthiness of the human race, and the relative insignificance of the Earth in comparison to the Universe.

Essay about carl sagan biography dvd: Sagan's episode opus took viewers

Sagan was a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to listen with radio telescopes for signals from potential intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms. Sagan was so persuasive that by he was able to get a petition advocating SETI published in the journal Sciencesigned by 70 scientists, including seven Nobel Prize winners.

This signaled a tremendous increase in the respectability of a then-controversial field. Sagan also helped Frank Drake write the Arecibo messagea radio message beamed into space from the Arecibo radio telescope on November 16,aimed at informing potential extraterrestrials about Earth. Sagan was chief technology officer of the professional planetary research journal Icarus for 12 years.

At the height of the Cold WarSagan became involved in nuclear disarmament efforts by promoting hypotheses on the effects of nuclear warwhen Paul Crutzen 's "Twilight at Noon" concept suggested that a substantial nuclear exchange could trigger a nuclear twilight and upset the delicate balance of life on Earth by cooling the surface. Inhe was one of five authors—the "S"—in the follow-up "TTAPS" model as the research article came to be knownwhich contained the first use of the term " nuclear winter ", which his colleague Richard P.

Turco had coined. Sagan received a great deal of skepticism and disdain for the use of media to disseminate a very uncertain hypothesis. A personal correspondence with nuclear physicist Edward Teller around began amicably, with Teller expressing support for continued research to ascertain the credibility of the winter hypothesis. However, Sagan and Teller's correspondence would ultimately result in Teller writing: "A propagandist is one who uses incomplete information to produce maximum persuasion.

I can compliment you on being, indeed, an excellent propagandist, remembering that a propagandist is the better the less he appears to be one. The adult Sagan remained a fan of science fiction, although disliking stories that were not realistic such as ignoring the inverse-square law or, he said, did not include "thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures.

Sagan also wrote the best-selling science fiction novel Contact inbased on a film treatment he wrote with his wife, Ann Druyan, inbut he did not live to see the book's motion-picture adaptationwhich starred Jodie Foster and won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. On it, everyone you ever heard of The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Sagan was also known for his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of scientific skepticism and against pseudosciencesuch as his debunking of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction.

To mark the tenth anniversary of Sagan's death, David Morrisona former student of Sagan, recalled "Sagan's immense contributions to planetary research, the public understanding of science, and the skeptical movement" in Skeptical Inquirer. Following Saddam Hussein 's threats to light Kuwait 's oil wells on fire in response to any physical challenge to Iraqi control of the oil assets, Sagan together with his "TTAPS" colleagues and Paul Crutzenwarned in January in The Baltimore Sun and Wilmington Morning Star newspapers that if the fires were left to burn over a period of several months, enough smoke from the or so Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia In the televised debate, Sagan argued that the effects of the smoke would be similar to the effects of a nuclear winterwith Singer arguing to the contrary.

After the debate, the fires burnt for many months before extinguishing efforts were complete. The results of the smoke did not produce continental-sized cooling. Sagan remained hopeful that the natural NEO impact threat and the intrinsically double-edged essence of the methods to prevent these threats would serve as a "new and potent motivation to maturing international relations.

Sagan was a critic of Platohaving said of the ancient Greek philosopher: "Science and mathematics were to be removed from the hands of the merchants and the artisans. This tendency found its most effective advocate in a follower of Pythagoras named Plato" and [ 92 ]. He Plato believed that ideas were far more real than the natural world.

He advised the astronomers not to waste their time observing the stars and planets. It was better, he believed, just to think about them. Plato expressed hostility to observation and experiment. He taught contempt for the real world and disdain for the practical application of scientific knowledge. Plato's followers succeeded in extinguishing the light of science and experiment that had been kindled by Democritus and the other Ionians.

In as part of his book The Demon-Haunted WorldSagan popularized a set of tools for skeptical thinking called the "baloney detection kit"a phrase first coined by Arthur Felberbaum, a friend of his wife Ann Druyan. Speaking about his activities in popularizing science, Sagan said that there were at least two reasons for scientists to share the purposes of science and its contemporary state.

Simple self-interest was one: much of the funding for science came from the public, and the public therefore had the right to know how the money was being spent. If scientists increased public admiration for science, there was a good chance of having more public supporters. Following the success of CosmosSagan set up his own publishing firm, Cosmos Store, to publish science books for the general public.

It was not successful. While Sagan was widely adored by the general public, his reputation in the scientific community was more polarized. One of Sagan's harshest critics, Harold Ureyfelt that Sagan was getting too much publicity for a scientist and was treating some scientific theories too casually. While Urey was an "old-time empiricist" who avoided theorizing about the unknown, Sagan was by contrast willing to speculate openly about such matters.

Sagan's Harvard friend Lester Grinspoon also stated: "I know Harvard well enough to know there are people there who certainly do not like people who are outspoken. Wherever you turned, there was one astronomer being quoted on everything, one astronomer whose face you were seeing on TV, and one astronomer whose books had the preferred display slot at the local bookstore.

Some, like Urey, later believed that Sagan's popular brand of scientific advocacy was beneficial to the science as a whole. I congratulate you You are a man of many talents. Sagan was accused of borrowing some ideas of others for his own benefit and countered these claims by explaining that the misappropriation was an unfortunate side effect of his role as a science communicator and explainer, and that he attempted to give proper credit whenever possible.

Sagan believed that the Drake equationon substitution of reasonable estimates, suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would form, but that the lack of evidence of such civilizations highlighted by the Fermi paradox suggests technological civilizations tend to self-destruct. This stimulated his interest in identifying and publicizing ways that humanity could destroy itself, with the hope of avoiding such a cataclysm and eventually becoming a spacefaring species.

Sagan's deep concern regarding the potential destruction of human civilization in a nuclear holocaust was conveyed in a memorable cinematic sequence in the final episode of Cosmoscalled "Who Speaks for Earth? In MarchReagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative —a multibillion-dollar project to develop a comprehensive defense against attack by nuclear missileswhich was quickly dubbed the "Star Wars" program.

Sagan spoke out against the project, arguing that it was technically impossible to develop a system with the level of perfection required, and far more expensive to build such a system than it would be for an enemy to defeat it through decoys and other means—and that its construction would seriously destabilize the "nuclear balance" between the United States and the Soviet Unionmaking further progress toward nuclear disarmament impossible.

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared a unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weaponswhich would begin on August 6, —the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima —the Reagan administration dismissed the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refused to follow suit. In response, US anti-nuclear and peace activists staged a series of protest actions at the Nevada Test Sitebeginning on Easter Sunday in and continuing through Hundreds of people in the " Nevada Desert Experience " group were arrested, including Sagan, who was arrested on two separate occasions as he climbed over a chain-link fence at the test site during the underground Operation Charioteer and United States's Musketeer nuclear test series of detonations.

Sagan was also a vocal advocate of the controversial notion of testosterone poisoningarguing in that human males could become gripped by an "unusually severe [case of] testosterone poisoning" and this could compel them to become genocidal. InCarl Sagan was interviewed by Ted Turner whether he believed in socialism and responded that: "I'm not sure what a socialist is.

But I believe the government has a responsibility to care for the people I'm talking about making the people self-reliant. Sagan was married three times. Inhe married biologist Lynn Margulis. The couple had two children, Jeremy and Dorion Sagan. Their marriage ended in Sagan married artist Linda Salzman in and they had a child together, Nick Saganand divorced in During these marriages, Carl Sagan focused heavily on his career, a factor which may have contributed to Sagan's first divorce.

Carl Sagan and Druyan remained married until his death in While teaching at Cornell, he lived in an Egyptian essay about carl sagan biography dvd house in Ithaca perched on the edge of a cliff that had formerly been the headquarters of a Cornell University secret society. Inengineers at Apple Computer code-named the Power Macintosh "Carl Sagan" in the hope that Apple would make "billions and billions" with the sale of the PowerMac It was never Apple's intention to cause Dr.

Sagan or his family any embarrassment or concern. I have just finished The Cosmic Connection and loved every word of it. You are my idea of a good writer because you have an unmannered style, and when I read what you write, I hear you talking. One thing about the book made me nervous. It was entirely too obvious that you are smarter than I am.

I hate that. Sagan was acquainted with science fiction fandom through his friendship with Isaac Asimovand he spoke at the Nebula Awards ceremony in Sagan wrote frequently about religion and the relationship between religion and science, expressing his skepticism about the conventional conceptualization of God as a sapient being. For example:.

Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein —considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.

In another description of his view on the concept of God, Sagan wrote:. The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying On atheismSagan commented in An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling essay about carl sagan biography dvd against the existence of God.

I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.

Sagan also commented on Christianity and the Jefferson Biblestating "My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts, the religion of Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the New Testament. There wasn't much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring document.

Sagan thought that spirituality should be scientifically informed and that traditional religions should be abandoned and replaced with belief systems that revolve around the scientific method, [ ] but also the mystery and incompleteness of scientific fields. Regarding spirituality and its relationship with science, Sagan stated:. What we breathe is air, which is certainly matter, however thin.

Despite usage to the contrary, there is no necessary implication in the word 'spiritual' that we are talking of anything other than matter including the matter of which the brain is madeor anything outside the realm of science. On occasion, I will feel free to use the word. Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. An environmental appeal, "Preserving and Cherishing the Earth", primarily written by Sagan and signed by him and other noted scientists as well as religious leaders, and published in Januarystated that "The historical record makes clear that religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal conduct and commitment Thus, there is a vital role for religion and science.

In reply to a question in about his religious beliefs, Sagan answered, "I'm agnostic. When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me—it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again.

Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. Science Physics. Science Scientists. This Author: Carl Sagan. This Narrator: Julian Lopez-Morillas. This Publisher: Audio Scholar.