- "History is full of people who out of fear,
or ignorance, or lust for power
has destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which
truly belongs
to us all. We must not let it happen
again."
- Carl Sagan, Cosmos.
-
Dr. Carl Sagan worked as an author, astronomer and teacher. Started out
at Harvard and then went on to the Smithsonian Observatory and then finally
in 1970 to Cornell University as a professor of astronomy and space
sciences.
Before spending most of his time giving lectures, writing or promoting
books or appearing on TV, he made important contributions to the study of the
atmospheres of our solar system. He was the first to explain the high
surface temperature of Venus as an result of the greenhouse effect. He
also contributed to the studies of the origins of life and the importance of
the atmospheric environment.
He was also involved in most projects of sending unmanned spacecraft for
space exploration; Mariner, Pioneer, Voyager, Viking and Galileo. He
was a strong advocate for SETI and helped collect a lot of money for different
SETI research projects. At Cornell he created a new field of science,
exobiology, dedicated to the study of alien life forms.
Carl Sagan wrote and co-wrote many books on various aspects of science, see
below, and he also hosted the world famous and acclaimed TV-series Cosmos.
Most of all, he was a teacher for all of us physics and astronomy
junkies.
Dr. Carl Sagan died of a bone marrow disease in 1996.
Bibliography
- Planets, 1966.
- Intelligent Life in the Universe, 1966.
- Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 1973.
- The Cosmic Connection. An Extraterrestrial Perspective, 1973.
- Mars and the Mind of Man, 1973.
- Other Worlds, 1975.
- The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence,
1977.
- Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record, 1977.
- Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, 1979.
- Cosmos, 1980.
- Comet, 1985.
- Contact: A Novel, 1985.
- The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War, 1985.
- A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race,
1990.
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for who we are, 1992.
- Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1994.
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark,1996.
- Billions and Billions : Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the
Millennium. New York: Random House, 1997.
reference: cnn, scientific american