Happy Carl Sagan Day… or, to be more accurate, belated Carl Sagan Day 🙂
November 7th is the birthday of that great communicator of science & skepticism, Carl Sagan. In a time when many of his fellow scientists were loath to communicate directly with the public, Sagan was a unique link between the scientific community and the general populace. He communicated the power, joy, and importance of science to us through lectures, books, and television. In particular, I think I can honestly say that an entire generation of scientists were inspired by Carl Sagan’s book and television series Cosmos (which aired in 1980) – I count myself among them. Were it not for the inspiration provided to me in my teenage years by my beat-up copy of the book Cosmos, I may have never pursued a career in science…
The unforgettable introduction to Cosmos: The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean is available on Youtube…
And a recently auto-tuned remix of Carl Sagan’s dialog from Cosmos, called “A Glorious Dawn (featuring Stephen Hawking)”, is also available on Youtube. Check it out…
**Note: You can download your own copy of “A Glorious Dawn” from its creator’s website – SymphonyofScience.com
– where there are many other cool videos & music files available.