Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan (/sen/; November 9, 1934

December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer,
cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. His contributions were
central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures
of Venus. However, he is best known for his contributions
to the scientic research of extraterrestrial life, including
experimental demonstration of the production of amino
acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the rst physical messages that were sent into space:
the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by
any extraterrestrial intelligence that might nd them.

a housewife from New York. Carl was named in honor

of Rachels biological mother, Chaiya Clara, in Sagans
words, the mother she never knew. Sagan graduated
from Rahway High School in Rahway, New Jersey, in
1951.[7]
He had a sister, Carol, and the family lived in a modest apartment near the Atlantic Ocean, in Bensonhurst, a
Brooklyn neighborhood. According to Sagan, they were
Reform Jews, the most liberal of North American Judaisms four main groups. Both Sagan and his sister
agreed that their father was not especially religious, but
that their mother denitely believed in God, and was active in the temple ... and served only kosher meat.[7]:12
During the depths of the Depression, his father worked
as a theater usher.

He published more than 600 scientic papers[2] and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than
20 books. Sagan is known for many of his popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Brocas Brain
and Pale Blue Dot, and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. The most widely watched series in
the history of American public television, Cosmos has
been seen by at least 500 million people across 60 different countries.[3] The book Cosmos was published to
accompany the series. He also wrote the science ction
novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 lm of the same name.

According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagans inner

war was a result of his close relationship with both of
his parents, who were in many ways opposites. Sagan
traced his later analytical urges to his mother, a woman
who had known extreme poverty as a child in New
York City during World War I and the 1920s.[7]:2 As a
young woman she had held her own intellectual ambitions, but they were frustrated by social restrictions: her
poverty, her status as a woman and a wife, and her Jewish ethnicity. Davidson notes that she therefore worshiped her only son, Carl. He would fulll her unfullled
Sagan always advocated scientic skeptical inquiry and dreams.[7]:2
the scientic method, pioneered exobiology and pro- However, his sense of wonder came from his father,
moted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence who was a quiet and soft-hearted escapee from the
(SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of Czar. In his free time he gave apples to the poor or
astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the helped soothe labor-management tensions within New
Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works Yorks tumultuous garment industry.[7]:2 Although he
received numerous awards and honors, including the was awed by Carls brilliance, his boyish chatter about
NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National stars and dinosaurs", he took his sons inquisitiveness in
Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer stride and saw it as part of his growing up.[7]:2 In his later
Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Dragons years as a writer and scientist, Sagan would often draw on
of Eden, and, regarding Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, two his childhood memories to illustrate scientic points, as
Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and the Hugo Award. he did in his book, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.[7]:9
He married three times and had ve children. After suf- Sagan describes his parents inuence on his later thinkfering from myelodysplasia, Sagan died of pneumonia at ing:
the age of 62 on December 20, 1996.

Early life

My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing
me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting
modes of thought that are central to the scientic method.[8]

Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York.[4] His father, Samuel Sagan, was an immigrant garment worker
from Kamianets-Podilskyi, then Russian Empire,[5][6] in
todays Ukraine. His mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was
1

1.1

2 EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC CAREER

1939 Worlds Fair

Sagan recalls that one of his most dening moments was

when his parents took him to the 1939 New York Worlds
Fair when he was four years old. The exhibits became a
turning point in his life. He later recalled the moving map
of the America of Tomorrow exhibit: It showed beautiful highways and cloverleaves and little General Motors
cars all carrying people to skyscrapers, buildings with
lovely spires, ying buttressesand it looked great!"[7]:14
At other exhibits, he remembered how a ashlight that
shone on a photoelectric cell created a crackling sound,
and how the sound from a tuning fork became a wave on
an oscilloscope. He also witnessed the future media technology that would replace radio: television. Sagan wrote:
Plainly, the world held wonders of a kind I had
never guessed. How could a tone become a picture and light become a noise?[7]:14

I went to the librarian and asked for a book

about stars ... And the answer was stunning.
It was that the Sun was a star but really close.
The stars were suns, but so far away they were
just little points of light ... The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind
of religious experience. There was a magnicence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never
left me. Never ever left me.[7]:18
At about age six or seven, he and a close friend took trips
to the American Museum of Natural History in New York
City. While there, they went to the Hayden Planetarium
and walked around the museums exhibits of space objects, such as meteorites, and displays of dinosaurs and
animals in natural settings. Sagan writes about those visits:
I was transxed by the dioramaslifelike representations of animals and their habitats all
over the world. Penguins on the dimly lit
Antarctic ice; ... a family of gorillas, the male
beating his chest, ... an American grizzly bear
standing on his hind legs, ten or twelve feet tall,
and staring me right in the eye.[7]:18

He also saw one of the Fairs most publicized events, the

burial of a time capsule at Flushing Meadows, which contained mementos of the 1930s to be recovered by Earths
descendants in a future millennium. The time capsule
thrilled Carl, writes Davidson. As an adult, Sagan and
his colleagues would create similar time capsulesones
that would be sent out into the galaxy; these were the
Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record records, His parents helped nurture his growing interest in science
[9]
all of which were spinos of Sagans memories of the by buying him chemistry sets and reading materials. His
interest in space, however, was his primary focus, espeWorlds Fair.[7]:15
cially after reading science ction stories by writers such
as H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, which stirred
his imagination about life on other planets such as Mars.
1.2 World War II
According to biographer Ray Spangenburg, these early
During World War II Sagans family worried about the years as Sagan tried to understand the mysteries of the
fate of their European relatives. Sagan, however, was planets became a driving force in his life, a continual
intellect, and a quest that would never be
generally unaware of the details of the ongoing war. He spark to his
[8]
forgotten.
writes, Sure, we had relatives who were caught up in
the Holocaust. Hitler was not a popular fellow in our
household ... But on the other hand, I was fairly insulated from the horrors of the war. His sister, Carol,
said that their mother above all wanted to protect Carl
... She had an extraordinarily dicult time dealing with
World War II and the Holocaust.[7]:15 Sagans book, The
Demon-Haunted World (1996), included his memories of
this conicted period, when his family dealt with the realities of the war in Europe but tried to prevent it from
undermining his optimistic spirit.[8]

1.3

Inquisitiveness about nature

Soon after entering elementary school he began to express a strong inquisitiveness about nature. Sagan recalled taking his rst trips to the public library alone, at
the age of ve, when his mother got him a library card.
He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his
friends or their parents could give him a clear answer:

In 1947 he discovered Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which introduced him to more hard science ction speculations than those in Burroughss novels. That
same year inaugurated the "ying saucer" mass hysteria
with the young Carl suspecting the discs might be alien
spaceships.[10]

2 Education and scientic career

He attended the University of Chicago, where he participated in the Ryerson Astronomical Society,[11] received
a bachelor of arts in self-proclaimed nothing with general and special honors in 1954, a bachelor of science in
physics in 1955, and a master of science in physics in
1956 before earning a PhD in 1960 with the dissertation
Physical Studies of Planets submitted to the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.[12][13][14][15] The
title of Sagans thesis reects his shared interests with

3
Gerard Kuiper, his dissertation director, who through- 3 Scientic achievements
out the 1950s had been president of the International Astronomical Union's commission on Physical Studies of
Former student David Morrison describes Sagan as an
Planets and Satellites.[16]
'idea person' and a master of intuitive physical arguments
During his time as an honors program undergraduate, and 'back of the envelope' calculations,[18] and Gerard
Sagan worked in the laboratory of the geneticist H. J. Kuiper said that Some persons work best in specializing
Muller and wrote a thesis on the origins of life with on a major program in the laboratory; others are best in
physical chemist H. C. Urey. He used the summer months liaison between sciences. Dr. Sagan belongs in the latter
of his graduate studies to work with planetary scientist group.[18]
Gerard Kuiper, physicist George Gamow, and chemist
Sagans contributions were central to the discovery of the
Melvin Calvin. From 1960 to 1962 Sagan was a Miller
high surface temperatures of the planet Venus. In the
[17]
Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. From
early 1960s no one knew for certain the basic conditions
1962 to 1968, he worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysof that planets surface, and Sagan listed the possibilities
ical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the
in a report later depicted for popularization in a Time
same time, he worked with geneticist Joshua Lederberg.
Life book, Planets. His own view was that Venus was
Sagan lectured and did research at Harvard University un- dry and very hot as opposed to the balmy paradise othtil 1968, when he moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, ers had imagined. He had investigated radio emissions
New York, after being denied tenure at Harvard. It has from Venus and concluded that there was a surface tembeen suggested that Sagan was denied tenure in part be- perature of 500 C (900 F). As a visiting scientist to
cause of his publicized scientic advocacy, which some NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he contributed to the
scientists perceived as being self-promotion;[18] Harold rst Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design
Urey wrote a letter to the tenure committee recommend- and management of the project. Mariner 2 conrmed his
ing against tenure for Sagan.[10] He became a full pro- conclusions on the surface conditions of Venus in 1962.
fessor at Cornell in 1971, and directed the Laboratory
Sagan was among the rst to hypothesize that Saturn's
for Planetary Studies there. From 1972 to 1981, Sagan
moon Titan might possess oceans of liquid compounds on
was associate director of the Center for Radiophysics and
its surface and that Jupiter's moon Europa might possess
Space Research (CRSR) at Cornell.
subsurface oceans of water. This would make Europa poSagan was associated with the U.S. space program from tentially habitable.[20] Europas subsurface ocean of water
its inception. From the 1950s onward, he worked as an was later indirectly conrmed by the spacecraft Galileo.
advisor to NASA, where one of his duties included brief- The mystery of Titans reddish haze was also solved with
ing the Apollo astronauts before their ights to the Moon. Sagans help. The reddish haze was revealed to be due to
Sagan contributed to many of the robotic spacecraft mis- complex organic molecules constantly raining down onto
sions that explored the Solar System, arranging experi- Titans surface.[21]
ments on many of the expeditions. He conceived the idea
He further contributed insights regarding the atmospheres
of adding an unalterable and universal message on spaceof Venus and Jupiter as well as seasonal changes on Mars.
craft destined to leave the Solar System that could poHe also perceived global warming as a growing, mantentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence
made danger and likened it to the natural development
that might nd it. Sagan assembled the rst physical mesof Venus into a hot, life-hostile planet through a kind
sage that was sent into space: a gold-anodized plaque, atof runaway greenhouse eect.[22] Sagan and his Cortached to the space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972.
nell colleague Edwin Ernest Salpeter speculated about
Pioneer 11, also carrying another copy of the plaque, was
life in Jupiters clouds, given the planets dense atmolaunched the following year. He continued to rene his
spheric composition rich in organic molecules. He studdesigns; the most elaborate message he helped to develop
ied the observed color variations on Mars surface and
and assemble was the Voyager Golden Record that was
concluded that they were not seasonal or vegetational
sent out with the Voyager space probes in 1977. Sagan
changes as most believed but shifts in surface dust caused
often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle
by windstorms.
and the International Space Station at the expense of fur[19]
Sagan is best known, however, for his research on the
ther robotic missions.
possibilities of extraterrestrial life, including experimenSagan taught a course on critical thinking at Cornell
tal demonstration of the production of amino acids from
University until he died in 1996 from pneumonia, a
basic chemicals by radiation.[23]
few months after nding that he was in remission of
He is also the 1994 recipient of the Public Welfare
myelodysplastic syndrome.
Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of
Sciences for distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare.[24] He was denied membership in the Academy, reportedly because his
media activities made him unpopular with many other

SCIENTIFIC AND CRITICAL THINKING ADVOCACY

scientists.[25][26][27]

Sagan was criticized for putting too much attention into

the series, with several of his classes at Cornell being cancelled and complaints from his colleagues.[18]

Sagan was a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientic community to listen
with radio telescopes for signals from potential intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms. Sagan was so persuasive that by 1982 he was able to get a petition advocating SETI published in the journal Science and signed
by 70 scientists, including seven Nobel Prize winners.
This was a tremendous increase in the respectability of
this controversial eld. Sagan also helped Frank Drake
write the Arecibo message, a radio message beamed into
space from the Arecibo radio telescope on November 16,
1974, aimed at informing potential extraterrestrials about
Earth.

Scientic and critical thinking

advocacy

Sagans ability to convey his ideas allowed many people

to understand the cosmos bettersimultaneously emphasizing the value and worthiness of the human race, and the
relative insignicance of the Earth in comparison to the
Universe. He delivered the 1977 series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London.[28] He hosted and,
with Ann Druyan, co-wrote and co-produced the highly
popular thirteen-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.[29]

Sagan was chief technology ocer of the professional

planetary research journal Icarus for twelve years. He cofounded The Planetary Society, the largest space-interest
group in the world, with over 100,000 members in more
than 149 countries, and was a member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees. Sagan served as Chairman of the
Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society, as President of the Planetology Section
of the American Geophysical Union, and as Chairman of
the Astronomy Section of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Sagan in Cosmos (1980)

Cosmos covered a wide range of scientic subjects including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the
Universe. The series was rst broadcast by PBS in 1980,
winning an Emmy[30] and a Peabody Award. It has been
broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500
million people,[3][31] making it the most widely watched
PBS program in history.[32] In addition, Time magazine
ran a cover story about Sagan soon after the show broadcast, referring to him as creator, chief writer and hostnarrator of the new public television series Cosmos, [and]
takes the controls of his fantasy spaceship.[33] However,

The Planetary Society members at the organizations founding.

Carl Sagan is seated on the right.

At the height of the Cold War, Sagan became involved

in public awareness eorts for the eects of nuclear
war when a 1982 mathematical climate model, titled
Twilight at Noon suggested that a substantial nuclear
exchange could trigger a nuclear twilight and upset the
delicate balance of life on Earth by cooling the surface. In
1983 he was one of ve authorsthe Sin the follow-

5
up TTAPS report, as the research paper came to be
known, which contained the term "nuclear winter" for
the rst time, a term coined by his colleague Richard P.
Turco.[34][35] In 1984 he co-authored the book The Cold
and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War and in 1990
he co-authored the book A Path Where No Man Thought:
Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race, which explains the nuclear winter hypothesis and with that advocates nuclear disarmament.
Sagan also wrote books to popularize science, such as
Cosmos, which reected and expanded upon some of the
themes of A Personal Voyage and became the best-selling
science book ever published in English;[36] The Dragons
of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, which won a Pulitzer Prize; and Brocas Brain: Reections on the Romance of Science. Sagan also wrote the
best-selling science ction novel Contact in 1985, based
on a lm treatment he wrote with his wife in 1979, but he
did not live to see the books 1997 motion picture adaptation, which starred Jodie Foster and won the 1998 Hugo
Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

the skeptical movement in Skeptical Inquirer.[18]

Following Saddam Hussein's threats to light Kuwait's oil
wells on re in response to any physical challenge to
Iraqi control of the oil assets, Sagan and his nuclear
winter/"TTAPS colleagues warned in January 1991
in the Baltimore Sun and Wilmington Morning Star
newspapers[37][38] that if the res were left to burn over a
period of several months, enough smoke from the 600 or
so 1991 Kuwaiti oil res might get so high as to disrupt
agriculture in much of South Asia ... and that this possibility should aect the war plans"; these claims were
also the subject of a televised debate between Sagan and
physicist Fred Singer on 22 January, aired on the ABC
News program Nightline.[39][40]

Sagan admitted he was wrong about the extent of danger from

the Kuwaiti oil res.

Pale Blue Dot: Earth is a bright pixel when photographed from

Voyager 1 six billion kilometers out (beyond Pluto). Sagan encouraged NASA to generate this image.

In the televised debate, Sagan argued that the eects of

the smoke would be similar to the eects of a nuclear
winter, with Singer arguing to the contrary. After the debate, the res burnt for many months before extinguishing eorts were complete, the results of the smoke did
not produce continental sized cooling. Sagan later conceded in The Demon-Haunted World that the prediction
did not turn out to be correct: it was pitch black at noon
and temperatures dropped 46 C over the Persian Gulf,
but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and
Asia was spared.[41]
In his later years Sagan advocated the creation of an organized search for near-Earth objects (NEO) that might impact the Earth.[42] When others suggested creating large
nuclear bombs that could be used to alter the orbit of
a NEO that was predicted to hit the Earth, Sagan proposed the Deection Dilemma: If we create the ability to deect an asteroid away from the Earth, then we
may also create the ability to deect an asteroid towards the Earthproviding an evil power with a true
doomsday bomb.[43][44] His interest in the use of nuclear
weapons in space grew out of his work in 1958 for the
Armour Research Foundation's Project A119, concerning the possibility of detonating a nuclear device on the
Lunar surface.[45]

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. He appeared
on PBS' Charlie Rose program in January 1995.[19] Sagan
also wrote the introduction for Stephen Hawking's bestseller, A Brief History of Time. Sagan was also known
for his popularization of science, his eorts to increase
scientic understanding among the general public, and
his positions in favor of scientic skepticism and against
pseudoscience, such as his debunking of the Betty and
Barney Hill abduction. To mark the tenth anniversary
of Sagans death, David Morrison, a former student of
Sagans, recalled Sagans immense contributions to plan- Sagan was a critic of Plato. Sagan said of Plato: Scietary research, the public understanding of science, and ence and mathematics were to be removed from the hands

SOCIAL CONCERNS

of the merchants and the artisans. This tendency found

its most eective advocate in a follower of Pythagoras
named Plato. and 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 scientic knowledge. Platos followers succeeded in extinguishing the
light of science and experiment that had been kindled by
Democritus and the other Ionians.[46]

(Richard Feynman, a precursor to Sagan, is observed

to use the phrase billions and billions many times in
his "red books".) However, Sagans frequent use of the
word billions, and distinctive delivery emphasizing the
b (which he did intentionally, in place of more cumbersome alternatives such as billions with a 'b'", in order
to distinguish the word from millions),[48] made him
a favorite target of comic performers, including Johnny
Carson,[50] Gary Kroeger, Mike Myers, Bronson Pinchot,
Penn Jillette, Harry Shearer, and others. Frank Zappa
satirized the line in the song "Be in My Video", noting
as well atomic light. Sagan took this all in good humor,
and his nal book was entitled Billions and Billions, which
opened with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of this catch4.1 Popularizing science
phrase, observing that Carson was an amateur astronomer
and that Carsons comic caricature often included real
Speaking about his activities in popularizing science, science.[48]
Sagan said that there were at least two reasons for scienHe is also known for expressing wonderment at the vasttists to explain what science is about. Naked self-interest
ness of space and time, as in his phrase The total number
was one because much of the funding for science came
of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand
from the public, and the public had a right to know how
on all the beaches of the planet Earth.
their money was being spent. If scientists increased public excitement about science, there was a good chance As a humorous tribute to Sagan and his association with
of having more public supporters. The other reason was the catchphrase billions and billions, a sagan has been
the excitement of communicating ones own excitement dened as a unit of measurement equivalent to a very large
number of anything.[51][52][53]
about science to others.[47]

4.2

Billions and billions

5 Social concerns

See also: Sagans number

From Cosmos and his frequent appearances on The

Sagan believed that the Drake equation, on 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. Sagans deep concern regarding the potential destruction of human civilization in a nuclear holocaust was conveyed in a memorable cinematic sequence in the nal episode of Cosmos,
called Who Speaks for Earth?" Sagan had already resigned from the Air Force Scientic Advisory Board's
Sagan with a model of the Viking lander that would land on UFO investigating Condon Committee and voluntarily
Mars. Sagan examined possible landing sites for Viking along surrendered his top secret clearance in protest over the
Vietnam War.[54] Following his marriage to his third wife
with Mike Carr and Hal Masursky.
(novelist Ann Druyan) in June 1981, Sagan became more
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Sagan became politically activeparticularly in opposing escalation of
associated with the catchphrase billions and billions. the nuclear arms race under President Ronald Reagan.
Sagan said that he never actually used the phrase in the In March 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic DeCosmos series.[48] The closest that he ever came was fense Initiativea multi-billion dollar project to develop
in the book Cosmos, where he talked of billions upon a comprehensive defense against attack by nuclear misbillions":[49]
siles, which was quickly dubbed the Star Wars program.
A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and
starsbillions upon billions of stars.[22]

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

45,000
Number of warheads

40,000

United States
USSR/Russia

35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Year

The United States and Soviet Union/Russia nuclear stockpiles, in

total number of nuclear bombs/warheads in existence throughout
the Cold War and post-Cold War era.

such a system than it would be for an enemy to defeat it

through decoys and other meansand that its construction would seriously destabilize the nuclear balance between the United States and the Soviet Union, making
further progress toward nuclear disarmament impossible.

Sagan. After Sagan and Margulis divorced, he married

artist Linda Salzman in 1968, mother of Nick Sagan.
During these marriages, Sagan focused heavily on his career, a factor which may have contributed to Sagans rst
divorce.[18] In 1981, Sagan married author Ann Druyan,
mother of Alexandra Rachel (Sasha) Sagan and Samuel
Democritus Sagan. Sagan and Druyan remained married
until his death in 1996.
Isaac Asimov described Sagan as one of only two people
he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other,
he claimed, was the computer scientist and articial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky.[59]
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. Othersfor example Baruch Spinoza and
Albert Einsteinconsidered 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.[60]

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared a unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons, which
would begin on August 6, 1985the 40th anniversary of
the atomic bombing of Hiroshimathe 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 Site, beginning on Easter Sunday in 1986 and continuing through 1987. Hundreds of In another description of his view on the concept of God,
people in the "Nevada Desert Experience" group were ar- Sagan emphatically writes:
rested, including Sagan, who was arrested on two sepaThe idea that God is an oversized white
rate occasions as he climbed over a chain-link fence at
male with a owing beard who sits in the sky
the test site during the underground Operation Charioand tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous.
teer and United Statess Musketeer nuclear test series of
But if by God one means the set of physical
detonations.[55]
laws that govern the universe, then clearly there
Sagan was also a vocal advocate of the controversial
is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatnotion of "Testosterone poisoning", arguing in 1992
isfying ... it does not make much sense to pray
that human males could become gripped by an usuto the law of gravity.[61]
ally severe [case of] testosterone poisoning and this
could compel them to become genocidal.[56] In his re- On atheism, Sagan commented in 1981:
view of Moondance magazine writer; Daniela Giose's
1990 book Women on War, he argues that females are
An atheist is someone who is certain that
the only half of humanity untainted by testosterone
God
does not exist, someone who has compoisoning.[57]
pelling evidence against the existence of God.
One chapter of his 1993 book, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is dedicated to testosterone and its alleged poisonous eects.[58]

Personal life and beliefs

Sagan was married three times. In 1957, he married biologist Lynn Margulis, mother of Dorion Sagan and Jeremy

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 condent extremes in a subject so
riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire
very little condence indeed.[62]

PERSONAL LIFE AND BELIEFS

Sagan also commented on Christianity, stating My longtime view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts, the religion of
Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jeerson 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.[63]
Regarding the relationship between spirituality and science, Sagan stated: 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.[64]
An environmental appeal, Preserving and Cherishing the
Earth, signed by Sagan with other noted scientists in
January 1990, stated that The historical record makes
clear that religious teaching, example, and leadership are
powerfully able to inuence personal conduct and commitment... Thus, there is a vital role for religion and
science.[65]
In reply to a question in 1996 about his religious beliefs, Sagan answered, I'm agnostic.[66] Sagan maintained that the idea of a creator God of the Universe was
dicult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientic discovery that could challenge it would be
an innitely old Universe.[67] Sagans views on religion
have been interpreted as a form of pantheism comparable
to Einsteins belief in Spinozas God.[68] His son, Dorion
Sagan said, My father believed in the God of Spinoza
and Einstein, God not behind nature but as nature, equivalent to it.[69] His last wife, Ann Druyan, stated:
When my husband died, because he was
so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to meit
still sometimes happensand 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 unagging 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.[70]
In 2006, Ann Druyan edited Sagans 1985 Glasgow
Giord Lectures in Natural Theology into a book, The
Varieties of Scientic Experience: A Personal View of the
Search for God, in which he elaborates on his views of
divinity in the natural world.
Sagan is also widely regarded as a freethinker or skeptic;
one of his most famous quotations, in Cosmos, was, Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence[71]
(called the Sagan Standard by some[72] ). This was
based on a nearly identical statement by fellow founder of

Carl Sagan (center) speaks with CDC employees in 1988.

the Committee for the Scientic Investigation of Claims

of the Paranormal, Marcello Truzzi, An extraordinary
claim requires extraordinary proof.[73][74] This idea had
been earlier aphorized in Thodore Flournoy's work From
India to the Planet Mars (1899) from a longer quote
by Pierre-Simon Laplace (17491827), a French mathematician and astronomer, as the Principle of Laplace:
The weight of the evidence should be proportioned to
the strangeness of the facts.[75]
Late in his life, Sagans books elaborated on his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world. In The DemonHaunted World, he presented tools for testing arguments
and detecting fallacious or fraudulent ones, essentially advocating wide use of critical thinking and the scientic
method. The compilation Billions and Billions: Thoughts
on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, published in 1997 after Sagans death, contains essays written
by Sagan, such as his views on abortion, and his widow
Ann Druyans account of his death as a skeptic, agnostic,
and freethinker.
Sagan warned against humans tendency towards
anthropocentrism. He was the faculty adviser for the
Cornell Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
In the Cosmos chapter Blues For a Red Planet, Sagan
wrote, If there is life on Mars, I believe we should do
nothing with Mars. Mars then belongs to the Martians,
even if the Martians are only microbes.[76]
Sagan was a user and advocate of marijuana. Under
the pseudonym Mr. X, he contributed an essay about
smoking cannabis to the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered.[77][78] The essay explained that marijuana use had
helped to inspire some of Sagans works and enhance sensual and intellectual experiences. After Sagans death,
his friend Lester Grinspoon disclosed this information to
Sagans biographer, Keay Davidson. The publishing of
the biography, Carl Sagan: A Life, in 1999 brought media attention to this aspect of Sagans life.[79][80][81] Not
long after his death, widow Ann Druyan had gone on to
preside over the board of directors of the National Orga-

9
nization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a therefore, a legitimate topic of study.[91]
non-prot organization dedicated to reforming cannabis In 1966 Sagan was a member of the Ad Hoc Commitlaws.[82][83]
tee to Review Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's
In 1994, engineers at Apple Computer code-named the UFO investigation project. The committee concluded
Power Macintosh 7100 Carl Sagan in the hope that Ap- Blue Book had been lacking as a scientic study, and
ple would make billions and billions with the sale of the recommended a university-based project to give the UFO
PowerMac 7100.[4] The name was only used internally, phenomenon closer scientic scrutiny. The result was the
but Sagan was concerned that it would become a prod- Condon Committee (196668), led by physicist Edward
uct endorsement and sent Apple a cease-and-desist let- Condon, and in their nal report they formally concluded
ter. Apple complied, but engineers retaliated by chang- that UFOs, regardless of what any of them actually were,
ing the internal codename to BHA for Butt-Head As- did not behave in a manner consistent with a threat to natronomer.[84][85] Sagan then sued Apple for libel, a form tional security.
of defamation, in federal court. The court granted Ap- Sociologist Ron Westrum writes that The high point of
ples motion to dismiss Sagans claims and opined in dicta Sagans treatment of the UFO question was the AAAS'
that a reader aware of the context would understand Ap- symposium in 1969. A wide range of educated opinions
ple was clearly attempting to retaliate in a humorous and on the subject were oered by participants, including not
satirical way, and that It strains reason to conclude that only proponents such as James McDonald and J. Allen
Defendant was attempting to criticize Plaintis reputa- Hynek but also skeptics like astronomers William Harttion or competency as an astronomer. One does not se- mann and Donald Menzel. The roster of speakers was
riously attack the expertise of a scientist using the un- balanced, and it is to Sagans credit that this event was
dened phrase butt-head.[84][86] Sagan then sued for presented in spite of pressure from Edward Condon.[90]
Apples original use of his name and likeness, but again With physicist Thornton Page, Sagan edited the lectures
lost.[87] Sagan appealed the ruling.[87] In November 1995, and discussions given at the symposium; these were puban out-of-court settlement was reached and Apples oce lished in 1972 as UFOs: A Scientic Debate. Some of
of trademarks and patents released a conciliatory state- Sagans many books examine UFOs (as did one episode
ment that Apple has always had great respect for Dr. of Cosmos) and he claimed a religious undercurrent to the
Sagan. It was never Apples intention to cause Dr. Sagan phenomenon.
or his family any embarrassment or concern.[88] Apples
third and nal code name for the project was LAW, Sagan again revealed his views on interstellar travel in his
1980 Cosmos series. In one of his last written works,
short for Lawyers are Wimps.[85]
Sagan argued that the chances of extraterrestrial spaceSagan briey served as an adviser on Stanley Kubrick's craft visiting Earth are vanishingly small. However,
lm 2001: A Space Odyssey.[7]:168 Sagan proposed Sagan did think it plausible that Cold War concerns conthat the lm suggest, rather than depict, extraterrestrial tributed to governments misleading their citizens about
superintelligence.[89]
UFOs, and that some UFO reports and analyses, and
perhaps voluminous les, have been made inaccessible
to the public which pays the bills ... Its time for the les
to be declassied and made generally available. He cau7 Sagan and UFOs
tioned against jumping to conclusions about suppressed
UFO data and stressed that there was no strong evidence
In 1947, the year that inaugurated the "ying saucer"
that aliens were visiting the Earth either in the past or
craze, the young Sagan suspected the discs might be
present.[92]
alien spaceships.[10]
Sagans interest in UFO reports prompted him on August
3, 1952, to write a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Dean
Acheson to ask how the United States would respond if
ying saucers turned out to be extraterrestrial.[7]:5152 He
later had several conversations on the subject in 1964
with Jacques Valle.[90] Though quite skeptical of any extraordinary answer to the UFO question, Sagan thought
scientists should study the phenomenon, at least because
there was widespread public interest in UFO reports.
Stuart Appelle notes that Sagan wrote frequently on what
he perceived as the logical and empirical fallacies regarding UFOs and the abduction experience. Sagan rejected an extraterrestrial explanation for the phenomenon
but felt there were both empirical and pedagogical benets for examining UFO reports and that the subject was,

8 Death
After suering from myelodysplasia, and receiving three
bone marrow transplants, Sagan died of pneumonia at the
age of 62 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, on December 20, 1996.[93]
He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, New
York.[94]

10

10 AWARDS AND HONORS

The Carl Sagan Memorial Award presented jointly
since 1997 by the American Astronomical Society
and The Planetary Society,
The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science presented
since 1998 by the American Astronomical Societys
Division for Planetary Sciences (AAS/DPS) for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general publicCarl Sagan was one of
the original organizing committee members of the
DPS, and

Stone dedicated to Carl Sagan in the Celebrity Path of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Posthumous recognition

The Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of

Science presented by the Council of Scientic Society Presidents (CSSP)Sagan was the rst recipient of the CSSP award in 1993.[96]
In 2006, the Carl Sagan Medal was awarded to astrobiologist and author David Grinspoon, the son of Sagans
close friend Lester Grinspoon.

The 1997 movie Contact, based on Sagans novel of the

August 2007 the Independent Investigations Group (IIG)
same name and nished after his death, ends with the dedawarded Sagan posthumously a Lifetime Achievement
ication For Carl. His photo can also be seen at 59:25 in
Award. This honor has also been awarded to Harry Houthe lm.
dini and James Randi.[97]
In 1997 the Sagan Planet Walk was opened in Ithaca,
Beginning in 2009, a musical project known as Symphony
New York. It is a walking-scale model of the Solar Sysof Science sampled several excerpts of Sagan from his
tem, extending 1.2 km from the center of The Commons
series Cosmos and remixed them to electronic music.
in downtown Ithaca to the Sciencenter, a hands-on muTo date, the videos have received over 21 million views
seum. The exhibition was created in memory of Carl
worldwide on YouTube.[98]
Sagan, who was an Ithaca resident and Cornell Professor. Professor Sagan had been a founding member of the In February 2015, the Finnish-based symphonic metal
band Nightwish released the song Sagan as a non-album
museums advisory board.[95]
bonus track for their single "lan.[99] The song, written
The landing site of the unmanned Mars Pathnder spaceby the bands songwriter/composer/keyboardist Tuomas
craft was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station on
Holopainen, is an homage to the life and work of the late
July 5, 1997. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named in his honor.
Carl Sagan.
Sagans son, Nick Sagan, wrote several episodes in the
Star Trek franchise. In an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise entitled "Terra Prime", a quick shot is shown of the 10 Awards and honors
relic rover Sojourner, part of the Mars Pathnder mission,
placed by a historical marker at Carl Sagan Memorial Sta Annual Award for Television Excellence1981
tion on the Martian surface. The marker displays a quote
Ohio State UniversityPBS series Cosmos: A Perfrom Sagan: Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm
sonal Voyage
glad you're there, and I wish I was with you. Sagans student Steve Squyres led the team that landed the rovers
Apollo Achievement AwardNational Aeronautics
Spirit and Opportunity successfully on Mars in 2004.
and Space Administration
On November 9, 2001, on what would have been Sagans
NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
67th birthday, the Ames Research Center dedicated the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
site for the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in
(1977)
the Cosmos. Carl was an incredible visionary, and now
his legacy can be preserved and advanced by a 21st cen EmmyOutstanding Individual Achievement
tury research and education laboratory committed to en1981PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage[30]
hancing our understanding of life in the universe and fur EmmyOutstanding
Informational
Series
thering the cause of space exploration for all time, said
[30]
1981PBS
series
Cosmos:
A
Personal
Voyage
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. Ann Druyan was at
the Center as it opened its doors on October 22, 2006.
Exceptional Scientic Achievement Medal
Sagan has at least three awards named in his honor:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

11
Special non-ction Campbell Memorial Award
1974The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial
Perspective[103]
Joseph Priestley Award"For distinguished contributions to the welfare of mankind
Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacic1974
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky MedalAwarded by the
Soviet Cosmonauts Federation
Locus Award 1986Contact
Lowell Thomas AwardThe Explorers Club75th
Anniversary
Masursky AwardAmerican Astronomical Society
Miller Research
(19601962)

FellowshipMiller

Institute

Oersted Medal1990American Association of

Physics Teachers
Peabody Award1980PBS series Cosmos: A
Personal Voyage
Le Prix Galabert dastronautiqueInternational Astronautical Federation (IAF)
Public Welfare Medal1994National Academy
of Sciences[104]
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction1978
The Dragons of Eden

NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal

Helen Caldicott Leadership Award Awarded by

Womens Action for Nuclear Disarmament

Science Fiction Chronicle Award1998

Dramatic PresentationContact

Hugo Award1981Best Dramatic PresentationCosmos: A Personal Voyage

Named the "99th Greatest American" on June 5,

2005, Greatest American television series on the
Discovery Channel

Hugo Award1981Best Related Non-Fiction

BookCosmos

Named an honorary member of the Demosthenian

Literary Society on November 10, 2011

Hugo
Award1998Best
PresentationContact

New Jersey Hall of Fame2009Inductee.[105]

Dramatic

Humanist of the Year1981Awarded by the

American Humanist Association [100]
American Philosophical Society1995Elected
to membership.[101]
In Praise of Reason Award1987Committee for
the Scientic Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Isaac Asimov Award1994Committee for the
Scientic Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award1982
American Astronautical Society[102]

11 Publications
Sagan, Carl; Leonard, Jonathan Norton (1966).
Planets. Life Science Library. Editors of Life.
New York: Time, Inc. LCCN 66022436. OCLC
346361.
; Shklovskii, I.S. (1966) [Originally published
1962 as , , ; Moscow:
USSR Academy of Sciences Publisher]. Intelligent
Life in the Universe. Authorized translation by Paula
Fern. San Francisco: Holden-Day, Inc. LCCN
64018404. OCLC 317314.

12

13

REFERENCES

; Page, Thornton, eds. (1972). UFOs: A Scientic Debate. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
ISBN 0-801-40740-0. LCCN 72004572. OCLC
415373.

; Druyan, Ann (1992). Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are (1st ed.).
New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-53481-6.
LCCN 92050155. OCLC 25675747.

, ed. (1973). Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. ISBN 0-262-19106-7. LCCN 73013999.
OCLC 700752.

(1994). Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1st ed.). New York: Random
House. ISBN 0-679-43841-6. LCCN 94018121.
OCLC 30736355.

; Bradbury, Ray; Clarke, Arthur C. et al.

(1973). Mars and the Mind of Man (1st ed.).
New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-060-10443-0.
LCCN 72009746. OCLC 613541.

(1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1st ed.). New York:
Random House. ISBN 0-394-53512-X. LCCN
95034076. OCLC 779687822. (Note: errata slip
inserted.)

(1973). The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Produced by Jerome Agel (1st
ed.). Garden City, NY: Anchor Press. ISBN 0-38500457-5. LCCN 73081117. OCLC 756158.
(1975). Other Worlds. Produced by Jerome
Agel. Toronto, NY: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-55266439-1. OCLC 3029556.
(1977). The Dragons of Eden: Speculations
on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (1st ed.).
New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-41045-9.
LCCN 76053472. OCLC 2922889.
; Drake, F. D.; Lomberg, Jon et al. (1978).
Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record
(1st ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-39441047-5. LCCN 77005991. OCLC 4037611.
(1979). Brocas Brain: Reections on the Romance of Science (1st ed.). New York: Random
House. ISBN 0-394-50169-1. LCCN 78021810.
OCLC 4493944.
(1980). Cosmos (1st ed.). New York: Random
House. ISBN 0-394-50294-9. LCCN 80005286.
OCLC 6280573.
; Ehrlich, Paul R.; Kennedy, Donald et al.
(1984). The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War: The Conference on the Long-Term
Worldwide Biological Consequences of Nuclear War.
Foreword by Lewis Thomas (1st ed.). New York:
W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-01870-9.
LCCN 84006070. OCLC 10697281.
; Druyan, Ann (1985). Comet (1st ed.). New
York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-54908-2.
LCCN 85008308. OCLC 811602694.
(1985). Contact: A Novel. New York:
Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-43400-4. LCCN
85014645. OCLC 12344811.
; Turco, Richard (1990). A Path Where No
Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the
Arms Race (1st ed.). New York: Random House.
ISBN 0-394-58307-8. LCCN 89043155. OCLC
20217496.

; Druyan, Ann (1997). Billions and Billions:

Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (1st ed.). New York: Random House.
ISBN 0-679-41160-7. LCCN 96052730. OCLC
36066119.
(2006) [Edited from 1985 Giord Lectures,
University of Glasgow]. Druyan, Ann, ed. The
Varieties of Scientic Experience: A Personal View
of the Search for God. New York: Penguin Press.
ISBN 1-59420-107-2. LCCN 2006044827. OCLC
69021064.

12 See also
List of peace activists
Neil deGrasse Tyson

13 References
[1] Sagan 1994, p. 68
[2] Some of Carl Sagans papers are available on the
SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).
[3] StarChild: Dr. Carl Sagan. StarChild. NASA. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
[4] Poundstone 1999, pp. 363364, 374375
[5] Carl Sagan. Internet Accuracy Project. Grandville, MI:
Internet Accuracy Project. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
[6] Carl Sagan. The Famous People. The Famous People.
Retrieved August 22, 2012.
[7] Davidson 1999
[8] Spangenburg & Moser 2004, pp. 25
[9] Carl Sagan. Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org.
Retrieved August 22, 2012.
[10] American National Biography Online, Carl Sagan.

13

[11] Ryerson Astronomical Society. Ryerson Astronomical

Society (RAS). University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
[12] Sagan, Carl (June 1960), Physical Studies of the Planets
(dissertation), University of Chicago, p. ii, A thesis in four
parts submitted in partial fulllment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department
of Astronomy, University of Chicago, June, 1960.
[13] Graduate students receive rst Sagan teaching awards.
University of Chicago Chronicle (University of Chicago
News Oce) 13 (6). November 11, 1993. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
[14] Head 2006, p. xxi
[15] Spangenburg & Moser 2004, p. 28
[16] Tatarewicz, Joseph N. (1990), Space Technology & Planetary Astronomy, Science, technology, and society, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, p. 22, ISBN 0-25335655-5
[17] Happy (Belated) Birthday Carl!". University of California, Berkeley The Berkeley Science Review. Retrieved
December 1, 2013.
[18] Morrison, David (JanuaryFebruary 2007). Carl Sagans
Life and Legacy as Scientist, Teacher, and Skeptic.
Skeptical Inquirer (Amherst, NY: Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) 31.1: 2938. ISSN 0194-6730. Retrieved
August 31, 2013.
[19] Sagan, Carl (January 5, 1995). An Interview with Carl
Sagan. (Interview). Charlie Rose. PBS. New York. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
[20] Much of Sagans research in the eld of planetary science
is outlined by William Poundstone. Poundstones biography of Sagan includes an 8-page list of Sagans scientic
articles published from 1957 to 1998. Detailed information about Sagans scientic work comes from the primary
research articles. Example: Sagan, C.; Thompson, W.R.;
Khare, B.N. (1992). Titan: A Laboratory for Prebiological Organic Chemistry. Accounts of Chemical Research
(Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society) 25 (7):
286292. doi:10.1021/ar00019a003. There is commentary on this research article about Titan at David J. Darling's The Encyclopedia of Science.

[25] Benford, Gregory (1997). A Tribute to Carl Sagan: Popular & Pilloried. Skeptic (The Skeptics Society) 13 (1).
[26] Shermer, Michael. Candle in the Dark. The Works of
Michael Shermer. Michael Shermer. Retrieved March 10,
2013. Article originally published in November 2003 issue of Scientic American.
[27] Impey, Chris (JanuaryFebruary 2000). Carl Sagan,
Carl Sagan: Biographies Echo an Extraordinary Life.
American Scientist (Book review) (Sigma Xi) 88 (1). ISSN
0003-0996. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
[28] Christmas Lectures 1977: The Planets : Ri Channel.
Ri Channel. London: Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Retrieved February 7, 2012.
[29] Vergano, Dan (March 16, 2014). Who Was Carl
Sagan?". National Geographic Daily News. Washington,
D.C.: National Geographic Society. Retrieved May 13,
2014.
[30] Cosmos. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
[31] Carl Sagan. EMuseum. Minnesota State University,
Mankato. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010.
Retrieved August 30, 2013.
[32] CosmoLearning Astronomy.
trieved October 8, 2009.

CosmoLearning.

Re-

[33] Golden, Frederic (October 20, 1980). The Cosmic Explainer. Time. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
[34] Turco, R.P.; Toon, O.B.; Ackerman, T.P.; Pollack, J.B.;
Sagan, C. (January 12, 1990). Climate and smoke: an
appraisal of nuclear winter. Science (Washington, D.C.:
American Association for the Advancement of Science)
247 (4939): 166176. doi:10.2307/2873486. Retrieved
August 31, 2013. JSTOR link to full text article. Carl
Sagan discussed his involvement in the political nuclear
winter debates and his erroneous global cooling prediction
for the Gulf War res in his book, The Demon-Haunted
World.
[35] US Military History Companion
[36] Meet Carl Sagan. The Science Channel. Discovery
Communications. Archived from the original on May 18,
2007. Retrieved August 31, 2013.

[21] Pafumi, G.R. (2010). Is Our Vision of God Obsolete?:

Often What We Believe is not What We Observe. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris. p. 338. ISBN 978-1-4415-9041-1.
OCLC 710798384. Retrieved August 30, 2013.

[37] PAGE 1 OF 2: Burning oil wells could be disaster, Sagan

says January 23, 1991.

[22] Sagan, Carl (1985) [Originally published 1980]. Cosmos

(1st Ballantine Books ed.). New York: Ballantine
Books. ISBN 0-345-33135-4. LCCN 80005286. OCLC
12814276.

[39] Hirschmann, Kris. The Kuwaiti Oil Fires. Facts on File.

[23] Sagan, Carl Edward. Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth

ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. May 2001.
Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
[24] Carl Sagan. Pasadena, CA: The Planetary Society. Retrieved August 30, 2013.

[38] Wilmington morning Star January 21st, 1991

[40] FIRST ISRAELI SCUD FATALITIES OIL FIRES IN

KUWAIT. Nightline. yes. 1991-01-22. ABC.
[41] Sagan 1995, p. 257
[42] Head 2006, p. 8687
[43] Morrison, David (October 3, 2007). Taking a Hit: Asteroid Impacts & Evolution. Astronomical Society of the
Pacic (Podcast). Astronomical Society of the Pacic.
Retrieved August 31, 2013.

14

[44] Sagan, Carl; Ostro, Steven J. (Summer 1994). LongRange Consequences Of Interplanetary Collisions
(PDF). Issues in Science and Technology (Washington,
D.C.: National Academy of Sciences) 10 (4): 67
72.
Bibcode:1994IST....10...67S. ISSN 0748-5492.
Retrieved August 31, 2013.
[45] Gault, Matthew (28 November 2013). When Earth
Dreamed of Nuking the Moon. medium.com. War is
Boring. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
[46] Sagan, Carl (writer/host) (November 9, 1980). The
Backbone of Night. Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
Episode 7. PBS.
[47] Dicke, William (December 21, 1996). Carl Sagan, an
Astronomer Who Excelled at Popularizing Science, Is
Dead at 62. The New York Times. Retrieved August 31,
2013.

13

REFERENCES

[60] Sagan, Carl (1980) [Originally published 1979]. Brocas

Brain: Reections on the Romance of Science (Reprint
ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 330. ISBN 0345-33689-5. LCCN 78021810. OCLC 428008204.
[61] Quotes on Religion Carl Sagan. Atheism.about.com.
IAC. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
[62] Head 2006, p. 70
[63] Schei, Kenneth A. (1996). An Atheist for Jesus. Synthesis.
ISBN 0-926491-01-6.
[64] Bennett, Jerey O.; Donahue, Megan O.; Schneider,
Nicholas et al. (2009). The Cosmic Perspective (6th (student) ed.). Boston: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-32163366-8. LCCN 2009040910. OCLC 569911190.
[65] Preserving and Cherishing the Earth. The Yale Forum
on Religion and Ecology. 2013. Retrieved 9 November
2013.

[48] Sagan & Druyan 1997, pp. 34

[49] Shapiro, Fred R., ed. (2006). The Yale Book of Quotations. Foreword by Joseph Epstein. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press. p. 660. ISBN 978-0-300-107982. LCCN 2006012317. OCLC 66527213.
[50] Frazier, Kendrick, ed. (JulyAugust 2005). Carl
Sagan Takes Questions: More From His 'Wonder and
Skepticism' CSICOP 1994 Keynote. Skeptical Inquirer
(Amherst, NY: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry)
29.4. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
[51] Sagan. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House.
Retrieved August 31, 2013. Jargon File 4.2.0.
[52] Sare, William (April 17, 1994). Footprints on the Infobahn. The New York Times. Retrieved August 31,
2013.
[53] Gressho, P.M. (2004). Scheel D. and Wasternack
C.(eds) Plant Signal Transduction (PDF). Annals of
Botany (Book review) (Oxford University Press) 93 (6):
783784. doi:10.1093/aob/mch102. Retrieved August
31, 2013.
[54] Druyan, Ann (November 2000). A New Sense of the
Sacred Carl Sagans 'Cosmic Connection'". The Humanist
(Washington, D.C.: American Humanist Association) 60
(6). Retrieved August 29, 2013.
[55] Spangenburg & Moser 2004, p. 106
[56] Rethinking Risk and the Precautionary Principle, edited
by Julian Morris. pg 116
[57] Women On War, Daniela Giose.

[66] Head, Tom (1997). Conversations with Carl. Skeptic

(The Skeptics Society) 13 (1): 3238. Excerpted in Head
2006
[67] Sagan, Carl (1997) [Originally published 1995]. The
Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
(1st Ballantine Books ed.). New York: Ballantine Books.
p. 278. ISBN 0-345-40946-9. LCCN 95034076. OCLC
36504316.
[68] Tracy, David (1990). Kenosis, Sunyata, and Trinity:
A Dialogue with Masao Abe. In Cobb, John B., Jr.;
Ives, Christopher. The Emptying God: A Buddhist-JewishChristian Conversation. Faith Meets Faith Series. Essays by Masao Abe. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. p.
52. ISBN 0-883-44670-7. LCCN 90031442. OCLC
318355646.
[69] edited by Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan (2007). Dazzle
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of the year speech. americanhumanist.org. Retrieved 25
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[84] Poundstone 1999, p. 364

[86] Sagan v. Apple Computer, Inc., 874 F.Supp. 1072

(USDC C.D. Cal. 1994), CV 94-2180 LGB (BRx); 1994 [102] John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award. Springeld, VA:
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2013.
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[103] The John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Lawrence,
KS: Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Retrieved
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September 3, 2013.
[89] Sagan, Carl (2000) [Originally published 1973]. "'Hello,
Central Casting? Send Me Twenty Extraterrestrials". [104] Public Welfare Medal. Washington, D.C.: National
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Carl Sagans Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Produced by Jerome Agel; new contributions
by Freeman Dyson, Ann Druyan, and David Morrison [105] Mascarenhas, Rohan (May 3, 2009). 2009 New Jersey
(2nd ed.). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University
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Ledger (Newark, NJ: Advance Publications). Retrieved
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September 3, 2013.

16

14

15

Further reading

Terzian, Yervant; Bilson, Elizabeth, eds. (1997).

Carl Sagans Universe. Cambridge; New York:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57603-2.
LCCN 96040511. OCLC 36130681.
Achenbach, Joel (1999). Captured by Aliens: The
Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe.
New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-848562. LCCN 99037592. OCLC 41606346.
Davidson, Keay (1999). Carl Sagan: A Life. New
York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-25286-7.
LCCN 99036206. OCLC 41580617.
Poundstone, William (1999). Carl Sagan: A Life in
the Cosmos. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
ISBN 0-8050-5766-8. LCCN 99014615. OCLC
40979822.
Spangenburg, Ray; Moser, Kit (2004). Carl Sagan:
A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing
Group. ISBN 0-313-32265-1. LCCN 2004015176.
OCLC 55846272.
Head, Tom, ed. (2006). Conversations with Carl
Sagan (1st ed.). Jackson, MS: University Press
of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-736-7. LCCN
2005048747. OCLC 60375648.
Morrison, David (2006). Carl Sagan: The Peoples Astronomer. AmeriQuests (Nashville, TN:
Vanderbilt University) 3 (2). ISSN 1553-4316. Retrieved August 30, 2013.

15

External links

The Carl Sagan Portal

Sagan interviewed by Ted Turner, CNN, 1989,
video: 44 minutes.
Video of skit on YouTube from The Tonight Show
Starring Johnny Carson mentioning billions and billions
BBC Radio program Great Lives on Carl Sagans
life
A man whose time has comeInterview with
Carl Sagan by Ian Ridpath, New Scientist, July 4,
1974
Carl Sagan at the Internet Movie Database
Works by or about Carl Sagan in libraries (WorldCat
catalog)
Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at
Wonderfest

EXTERNAL LINKS

Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
Carl Sagans Life and Legacy as Scientist, Teacher,
and Skeptic, by David Morrison, Committee for
Skeptical Inquiry
A Tribute to Carl Sagan: Our Place in the Universe, by Bill Nye, The Skeptics Society
Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science, presented by the American Astronomical Societys Division for Planetary
Sciences (AAS/DPS)

17

16
16.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

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