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Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 –
December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and science popularizer.
He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for ExtraTerrestrial
Intelligence (SETI). He is world-famous for his popular science books
and the television series Cosmos, which he co-wrote and presented. In
his works, he frequently advocated the scientific method.
****
Education and scientific career
Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York.
His parents were Jewish; his father, Sam Sagan, was a garment worker and
his mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was a housewife. Sagan attended the
University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree (1955) and
a master's degree (1956) in physics, before earning his doctorate (1960)
in astronomy and astrophysics. He taught at Harvard University until
1968, when he moved to Cornell University.
Sagan became a full professor at Cornell in
1971 and directed a lab there. He contributed to most of the unmanned
space missions that explored our solar system. He conceived the idea of
adding an unalterable and universal message on spacecraft, destined to
leave the solar system, that could be understood by any extraterrestrial
intelligence that might find it. The first message that was actually
sent into space was a gold-anodized plaque, attached to the space probe
Pioneer 10. He continued to refine his designs and the most elaborate
such message he helped to develop was the Voyager Golden Record that was
sent out with the Voyager space probes.
Scientific achievements
Sagan was among the first to hypothesize
that Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa may possess oceans (a subsurface
ocean, in the case of Europa) or lakes, thus making the hypothesized
water ocean on Europa potentially habitable for life. Europa's
subsurface ocean was later indirectly confirmed by the spacecraft
Galileo.
He furthered insights regarding the
atmosphere of Venus, seasonal changes on Mars, and Saturn's moon Titan.
Sagan established that the atmosphere of Venus is extremely hot and
dense. 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 greenhouse gases. He suggested that the
seasonal changes on Mars were due to windblown dust, not to vegetation
changes, as others had proposed.
Scientific advocacy
Sagan was a proponent of the search for
extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to listen with
large radio telescopes for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial
lifeforms. He advocated sending probes to other planets. Sagan was
Editor in Chief of Icarus (a professional journal concerning planetary
research) for 12 years. He cofounded the Planetary Society and was a
member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees.
He was well known as a coauthor of the
scientific paper that predicted nuclear winter would follow nuclear war.
Sagan famously predicted that smoky oil fires in Kuwait (set by Saddam
Hussein's army) would cause an ecological disaster of black clouds.
Retired atmospheric physicist, Fred Singer, dismissed Sagan's prediction
as nonsense, predicting that the smoke would dissipate in a matter of
days. In his book The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan gave a list of errors
he had made (including his predictions about the effects of the Kuwaiti
oil fires) as an example of how science is tentative.
Social concerns
Sagan believed that the Drake equation
suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would
form, but that the lack of evidence of such civilizations (the Fermi
paradox) suggests that technological civilizations tend to destroy
themselves rather quickly. This stimulated his interest in identifying
and publicizing ways that humanity could destroy itself, with the hope
of avoiding such destruction and eventually becoming a space-faring
species.
Sagan, a life-long follower of liberalism,
became more politically active after marrying leftist Ann Druyan and
performed acts of civil disobedience at nuclear weapons sites during the
Nuclear freeze era. He spoke out against President Ronald Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative, or the "Star Wars" program, which he felt
was technically impossible to build and perfect, far more expensive to
create than for an enemy to defeat through decoys and other means, and
destabilizing to Cold War nuclear weapons disarmament progress.
Carl Sagan was an avid user of marijuana,
although he never publicly admitted it during his life. Under the
pseudonym "Mr. X," he wrote an essay concerning cannabis smoking in the
1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered, whose editor was Lester Grinspoon. In
the essay, Sagan commented that marijuana encouraged some of his works
and enhanced experiences. After Sagan's death, Grinspoon disclosed this
to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson. When the biography, entitled Carl
Sagan: A Life, was published in 1999, the marijuana exposure stirred
some media attention.
Popularization of science
Sagan's capability to convey his ideas
allowed many people to better understand the cosmos. He delivered the
1977/1978 Christmas Lectures for Young People at the Royal Institution.
He wrote (with Ann Druyan, eventually his third wife) and narrated the
highly popular thirteen part PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal
Voyage (modeled on Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man); he also wrote
books to popularize science, such as Cosmos, which reflected and
expanded upon some of the themes of A Personal Voyage, The Dragons of
Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, which won a
Pulitzer Prize, and Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of
Science. Sagan also wrote the best-selling science fiction novel
Contact, but never lived to see the book's 1997 motion picture
adaptation, which starred Jodie Foster and won the 1998 Hugo Award.
From Cosmos and his frequent appearances on
The Tonight Show, Sagan became associated with the catch phrase,
"billions and billions." (He never actually used that phrase in Cosmos,
but his distinctive delivery and frequent use of billions made this a
favorite phrase of Johnny Carson and others, doing the many affectionate
impressions of him. Sagan took this in good humor, and his final book
was entitled Billions and Billions - see below.) The humorous unit of
the Sagan has now been coined to stand for any count of at least
4,000,000,000.
He wrote a sequel to Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot:
A Vision of the Human Future in Space, which was selected as a notable
book of 1995 by The New York Times. Carl Sagan also wrote an
introduction for the bestselling book by Stephen Hawking, A Brief
History of Time.
Sagan presents a speculation concerning the
origin of the swastika symbol in his book, Comet. Sagan hypothesized
that a comet approached so close to Earth in antiquity that the jets of
gas streaming out of it were visible, bent by the comet's rotation. The
book Comet reproduces an ancient Chinese manuscript that shows comet
tail varieties; most are variations on simple comet tails, but the last
shows the comet nucleus with four bent arms extending from it, showing a
swastika.
Sagan caused mixed reactions among other
professional scientists. On the one hand, there was general support for
his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific
understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of
skepticism and against pseudoscience; most notably his debunking of the
book Worlds In Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky. On the other hand,
there was some unease that the public would misunderstand some of the
personal positions and interests that Sagan took as being part of the
scientific consensus, rather than his own personal views, and there was
some unease, which some believe to have been motivated in part by
professional jealousy, that scientific views contrary to those that
Sagan took (such as on the severity of nuclear winter) were not being
sufficiently presented to the public.
Sagan's arguments against Velikovsky's
catastrophism have been criticized by some of his colleagues. Dr. Robert
Jastrow of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies wrote: "Professor
Sagan's calculations, in effect, ignore the law of gravity. Here, Dr.
Velikovsky was the better astronomer." His comments on the Kuwait oil
well fires during the first Gulf War were shown later to be in error;
Sagan himself acknowledged his error in print.
Late in his life, Sagan's books developed
his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world. In The Demon-Haunted
World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, he presented tools for testing
arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent ones, essentially
advocating wide use of the scientific method. The compilation, Billions
and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the End of the Millennium,
published after Sagan's death, contains essays written by Sagan, such as
his views on abortion, and Ann Druyan's account of his death as a
non-believer.
Personality
In 1994, Apple Computer began developing
the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name "Carl 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 —
other projects had names like "Cold fusion" and "Piltdown Man", and he
was displeased at being associated with what he considered
pseudoscience. Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with
his demands anyway, renaming the project "BHA" (Butthead Astronomer).
Sagan sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected
him to contempt and ridicule. Sagan lost this lawsuit as well; still,
the 7100 saw another name change: it was now called "LAW" (Lawyers Are
Wimps).
Sagan is regarded by most as an atheist or
agnostic, observing statements 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. 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... it does not
make much sense to pray to the law of gravity."
Sagan married three times; the famous
biologist, Lynn Margulis (mother of Dorion Sagan and Jeremy Sagan) in
1957, artist Linda Salzman (mother of Nick Sagan) in 1968, and author
Ann Druyan (mother of Sasha and Sam) in 1981, to whom he remained
married until his death.
Legacy
After a long and difficult fight with
myelodysplasia, Sagan died at the age of 62, on December 20, 1996, at
the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Sagan
was a significant figure, and his supporters credit his importance to
his popularization 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.
The landing site of the unmanned Mars
Pathfinder spacecraft was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, in
honor of Dr. Sagan on July 5, 1997. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is also named in
his honor.
The 1997 movie, Contact (see above), based
on Sagan's novel of the same name, and finished after his death, ends
with the dedication "For Carl."
In an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, a
quick shot is shown of the relic rover Sojourner, part of the Mars
Pathfinder mission, placed by a historical marker at Carl Sagan Memorial
Station on the Martian surface. The marker displays a quote from Sagan:
"Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I
was with you."
In 2004, the electronic music group Sagan
released the CD/DVD "Unseen Forces." The music was accompanied by a DVD
which featured music video format parodies of many of the historical
sketches from "Cosmos."
Awards and medals
Apollo Achievement Award - National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
Chicken Little Honorable Mention - 1991 -
National Anxiety Center; a dubious achievement award from an
organization which is skeptical (Commonwealth spelling: sceptical) about
many pessimistic appraisals of the state of the environment
Distinguished Public Service - National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
Emmy - Outstanding individual achievement -
1981 - PBS series Cosmos
Emmy - Outstanding Informational Series -
1981 - PBS series Cosmos
Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal -
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Helen Caldicott Leadership Award - Women's
Action for Nuclear Disarmament
Homer Award - 1997 - Contact
Hugo Award - 1998 - Contact
Hugo Award - 1981 - Cosmos
Hugo Award - 1997 - The Demon-Haunted World
Humanist of the Year - 1981 - awarded by
the American Humanist Association
In Praise of Reason Award - 1987 -
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Isaac Asimov Award - 1994 - Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award -
American Astronautical Society
John W. Campbell Memorial Award - 1974 -
The Cosmic Connection
Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific - 1974
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal - Soviet
Cosmonauts Federation
Locus Poll Award 1986 - Contact
Lowell Thomas Award - Explorers Club - 75th
Anniversary
Masursky Award - American Astronomical
Society
Peabody - 1980 - PBS series Cosmos
Public Welfare Medal - 1994 - National
Academy of Sciences
Pulitzer Prize for Literature - 1978 - The
Dragons of Eden
SF Chronicle Award - 1998 - Contact
Carl Sagan Memorial Award - Named in his
honor
Named 99th "Greatest American" on the June
5th, 2005 "Greatest American" show on the Discovery Channel.
Related books and media
Sagan, Carl and Jonathon Norton Leonard and
editors of Life, Planets. Time, Inc., 1966
Sagan, Carl and I.S. Shklovskii,
Intelligent Life in the Universe. Random House, 1966
Sagan, Carl, Communication with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence. MIT Press, 1973
Sagan, Carl, et. al. Mars and the Mind of
Man. Harper & Row, 1973
Sagan, Carl, Other Worlds. Bantam Books,
1975
Sagan, Carl, et. al. Murmurs of Earth: The
Voyager Interstellar Record. Random House, 1977
Sagan, Carl et. al. The Nuclear Winter: The
World After Nuclear War. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985
Sagan, Carl, Contact. Simon and Schuster,
1985; Reissued August 1997 by Doubleday Books, ISBN 1568654243, 352 pgs
Sagan, Carl and Richard Turco, A Path Where
No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race. Random
House, 1990
Sagan, Carl, The Dragons of Eden:
Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. Ballantine Books,
December 1989, ISBN 0345346297, 288 pgs
Sagan, Carl, Broca's Brain: Reflections on
the Romance of Science. Ballantine Books, October 1993, ISBN 0345336895,
416 pgs
Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, Shadows of
Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are. Ballantine Books, October
1993, ISBN 0345384725, 528 pgs
Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, Comet.
Ballantine Books, February 1997, ISBN 0345412222, 496 pgs
Sagan, Carl, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the
Human Future in Space. Ballantine Books, September 1997, ISBN
0345376595, 384 pgs
Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, Billions &
Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium.
Ballantine Books, June 1998, ISBN 0345379187, 320 pgs
Sagan, Carl, The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle in the Dark. Ballantine Books, March 1997, ISBN
0345409469, 480 pgs
Sagan, Carl and Jerome Agel, Cosmic
Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Cambridge University Press,
January 15, 2000, ISBN 0521783038, 301 pgs
Sagan, Carl, Cosmos. Random House, May 7,
2002, ISBN 0375508325, 384 pgs
Zemeckis, Robert, Contact. Warner Studios,
1997, IMDB
Davidson, Keay, Carl Sagan: A Life. John
Wiley & Sons, August 31, 2000, ISBN 0471395366, 560 pgs
Head, Tom (editor), Conversations with Carl
Sagan. University Press of Mississippi, 2005, ISBN 1578067367, 170 pgs
****
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