Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation

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The author of thirty books, Sagan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence in 1978, and his novel Contact, is now a major motion picture. Spurred in part by the popularity of the TV series, Cosmos spent 50 weeks on the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list and 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list to become the best-selling science book ever published at the time. I had expected Cosmos to be a real deep dive into the workings of our Solar System etc but what amazed me was that Cosmos is much more about history and in particular ancient history. Sagan dives deeply into the various great men of science over the centuries and how their discoveries helped change the way we view the Cosmos. To quote the first line of the first chapter: "The cosmos is all that ever is or ever was or ever will be.

In ancient Greece, some philosophers ( Aristarchus of Samos, Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Theodorus of Samos, Empedocles, Democritus) freely pursue scientific knowledge, while others ( Plato, Aristotle, and the Pythagoreans) advocate slavery and epistemic secrecy. Sagan provided a real understanding of what is known about the universe, and an idea of what is left to be discovered. I have rarely read something more entertaining, clear, enthusiastic, intelligent, instructive, etc than this book. The special edition premiered as one marathon program on the TBS network, and was later broadcast in Japan, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Argentina.

Of the 21 cues, "Comet 16" is the only one that has been officially released, although some of the new music appears in the 2000 remastered DVD release.

Episodes began airing March 9, 2014 [12] on the Fox Network and the next day on National Geographic Channel.Many of the ingredients necessary are formed of chemical elements formed in the life and deaths of stars (such as our own Sun), resulting in massive red giants and supernovae or collapsing into white dwarfs, neutron stars, pulsars, and even black holes. This book was written shortly after the ground-breaking documentary series of the same name also presented by the author.

Just like Carl Sagan was looking at early astronomers' work and appreciating it with the benefit of hindsight, today's amateur astronomers can look at Carl Sagan's book and get a better understanding of the recent scientific history, with its debates and evolution. In 2013, a new edition of Cosmos was published, with a foreword by Ann Druyan and an essay by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Some versions of the series, including the first North American home video release (though not the DVD release), included a specially-made fourteenth episode, which consisted of an hour-long interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, released in 1981 [9] in which the two discussed the series and new discoveries made in the years since its first broadcast. David Whitehouse of the British Broadcasting Corporation went so far as to say that "there is not a book on astronomy – in fact not one on science – that comes close to the eloquence and intellectual sweep of Cosmos.The soundtrack includes pieces of music provided by Greek composer Vangelis, such as Alpha, Pulstar, and Heaven and Hell Part 1 (the last movement serves as the signature theme music for the show, and is directly referenced by the title of the fourth episode).