Popular, influential, controversial, Carl Sagan is without a doubt one of the most familiar names of the scientific world.
Although his work in the American space exploration efforts and in academia were notable, he is best remembered by his boyish looks and baritone voice in the TV documentary “Cosmos”, and the term “billions and billions”, which in fact he only used after it was popularized by the media.
But if he was loved by the audience, his popularity and his personal vision of science made him an oddball in serious scientific circles.
And while some of his views may seem dated and antiquated by today’s standards -notably his aversion to horoscopes-, others astound by their clarity in accurately predicting the future.
Regarded as an activist and a “showman of science”, Carl Sagan was a product of his time, molded by the boundaries of the historical moment he got to live in, but his vision projected itself beyond and remains universal.
Charismatic, often contradictory and complex, Carl Sagan became the poster boy of a new generation of scientists, who detached from the old conventions and rode at the crest of the wave during the time of the most accelerated technological advance in the past century.
Carl Sagan was born in 1934, an age still sprinkled with the silver dust of Hollywood stars and dreams of a prosperous future.
As part of a Ukrainian Jewish family living in Brooklyn, he witnessed from a distance the atrocities of WWII in Europe. By his teens he was fascinated by science fiction stories, particularly those of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his hero John Carter, which sowed in him a lifelong passion for Mars.
Although his parents had only elementary education, they fostered Carl’s curiosity and passion for science, helping him develop his critical thinking. In one memorable occasion, Carl’s parents took him to the World Fair of 1939, where 4-year-old Carl first envisioned the marvelous possibilities that science could bring for the future.
All this cultural input happened while living in the rarefied atmosphere of the cold war threat. Later, Carl also lived through the social revolutions of the 1960s, such as the Civil Rights movement, the protests against the nuclear bomb, the Vietnam War, and the Feminist movement, among others.
All these elements influenced Sagan’s structure of values and beliefs, including his perspective on life and science. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of his main interests -carried out with all the required scientific rigor- was the search for extraterrestrial life, something which most of his peers took as an absurd, a joke, and that one of his main concerns later in life was campaigning against the use of nuclear weapons.
Carl already stood out from his peers since his early school days, and in high school he was voted “Class brains” and “Most likely to succeed”.
Despite his academic brilliancy, 16-year-old Carl had to content himself to attend the University of Chicago because it was one of the few universities willing to admit younger students. His initial ambition had been to study rocket science, but the University did not offer such degree, so he changed it instead for Astrophysics.
He used his Summer breaks to work under renowned scientists such as Nobel laureate H.J. Muller, Gerard Kuiper, George Gamow, and Melvin Calvin, thus enlarging his experience and understanding of science and carving his path for a future position in scientific research.
In addition to his avid interest in science, Carl was ambitious and sought to achieve success in all areas, which included becoming the captain of the indoor basketball team at the University of Chicago.
All these qualities alongside his relentless workaholism remained constant throughout his life, and although they helped him to achieve success, they also took a heavy toll on his personal life and his health.
Sagan was lucky to live precisely at a time when space exploration was making its biggest leaps. Thus, he could develop his early interest in astronomy and make considerable contributions to the study of the cosmos and the space missions.
Although weaned in the science fiction that preceded the space race and the arrival of the first man on the moon, Carl Sagan became a significant participant in the space exploration that went with it.
Sagan’s PhD dissertation predicting that no life forms could be found on Venus due to its extreme atmospheric conditions caught the attention of the scientific world and earned him an invitation from the newly formed NASA to join the Mariner II mission in 1962.
By then, Sagan had already started his collaboration with NASA as a visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, briefing the Apollo astronauts before their flights. This collaboration extended through several missions -notably the Apollo, Mariner II and IX, Pioneer, Viking I and II, Voyager I and II, and Galileo- well into the late 1990s.
However, despite his academic brilliancy, his early exposition on the media (as his 1967 appearance on the BBC program ‘
Where is Everybody?”), and his interest in popularizing science was frowned upon by the most conservative scientists, particularly at Harvard, where Sagan worked as professor assistant.
These discordant perspectives between Sagan and the Academia may have been the underlying reason why in 1968, despite his academic credentials and teaching qualifications, Harvard passed from offering him tenure.
However, Cornell University extended him an invitation, and not only offered him tenure but also to become the Director of their newly founded Laboratory for Planetary Sciences.
At Cornell Sagan developed most of his academic career. From 1972 to 1980, he was associate director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research of the university, and in 1976 he became the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, a position that he retained for the rest of his life.
Carl Sagan broke the stereotype of what a scientist should be.
Until the mid 1970s, the word "scientist" evoked the image of an old man formally dressed, standing before blackboards, exposing theories in what felt like incomprehensible gibberish to the common people.
Instead, Carl was young in looks and demeanor, dressed casually, and in his paused baritone of perfect diction, he talked about science in terms accessible to everyone.
This was a teaching trend already established by other renown scientists such as Sir Richard Feynman and Sir Roger Penrose, but Sagan took it to America, where prime time television delivered it to mass audiences and to the rest of the world.
In 1977 Carl Sagan made an appearance in the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at the time the most watched program on the United States television. That same year he graced the cover of Newsweek magazine, a feat he repeated in 1980 for Time magazine, following the success of “Cosmos”.
These were only the first of many more covers that would follow over the years. The scientific community frowned upon this exposition, but Sagan used it to propel his serious scientific projects and to continue spreading interest for science among the general public.
In 1972, Sagan helped to design and put together a disc with data carried by the Pioneer 10 as an interstellar message to possible forms of intelligent life in outer space.
The design -which included a graphic code of the location of planet Earth, among other relevant data- arose shock waves in the scientific world and gained much media publicity due to the graphic depiction of a naked man and woman (drew by who would become his second wife, artist Linda Salzman), something which Sagan took pains to explain in the many interviews that followed as well as in his 1978 book “The Cosmic Connection”.
Sagan was also the originator of the memorable
Golden Record carried by the Voyager I and II with sounds of the Earth, among other data. Sagan himself helped to compile the sounds and even recorded his own heartbeat for it.
A pioneer in the field of exobiology (the possibility of extra-terrestrial life), Sagan’s scientific research also shed light on the temperature and atmospheric conditions of Venus, the seasonal changes on Mars, and the cause for Titan’s reddish haze, all of which enhanced our knowledge of the planets and our own world.
In 1980, Sagan joined other notable scientists to form the Planetary Society, an organization with the goal to inspire, inform, and involve the general public in the space exploration, and which would also influence the government’s decisions regarding spaceflight funding.
The Founders of the Planetary Society, 1980
However, for all his important work at NASA and the academia, the project Sagan would be best remembered for was the ambitious PBS documentary series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”.
Written along Ann Druyan (who would become his third wife) and shot during the span of 3 years in 12 countries and over 40 locations around the world, “Cosmos” was Carl Sagan’s greatest triumph in popularizing science and it’s still a reference for many to this day.
Although much of its content refers to the space, space travel, and the planets, "Cosmos" is not only about astrophysics but about the entire universe, from the atom to the farthest galaxy. It is also a journey through the history of science and knowledge across human cultures, all presented with the latest in special effects, careful historic recreations, beautiful photography, exotic locations, and exquisite music.
“Cosmos” is an elegant and carefully selected cultural immersion for the mind and the senses. The purpose of the program was not only to teach, but to delight while learning.
The series was translated into over seven languages, was watched by over 500 million people in more that 60 countries, and still remains the most successful scientific documentary series in the history of public television.
This is perhaps Sagan's greatest achievement, and the reason why he is so fondly remembered up to this day by so many: he had the gift of teaching, the ability to share his passion for science and knowledge in terms that everyone could understand and relate to.
His occasional use of humor (in “The Dragons of Eden”, when explaining a lab test: “Lashley also reported no apparent change in the general behavior of a rat when significant fractions -say, 10 percent- of its brain were removed. But no one asked the rat its opinion.”), his interest in extraterrestrial life (a popular subject at the time, and one eschewed by ‘real’ scientists due to its speculative nature), and his occasional mistakes (for instance, his much publicised paper predicting an atomic winter following a nuclear war, a theory that was heavily disputed by other renown scientists), only made him more relatable to the public.
Carl Sagan was not a distant scientist locked away in his lab - he was ‘one of us’.
Unlike most reputed scientists, Sagan dared to examine popular ideas that others would not even consider, such as the existence of life in other planets and the possibility that Earth had been visited by extraterrestrial life in the distant past.
Regardless of the result of his lucubrations, the sole fact that he took these ideas seriously enough to examine them with scientific rigour endeared him to the general public in the feeling that he took their interests and concerns seriously.
People loved Carl Sagan because, despite his erudition, he made everyone part of his knowledge and no one felt inferior or stupid. On the contrary - listening to Sagan’s explanations people felt 'smart' because they got to understand topics that other scientists made incomprehensible - you can't hate someone who makes you feel good about yourself.
Sagan explained it himself in these humble terms: "I think I’m able to explain things because understanding wasn’t entirely easy for me. Some things that the most brilliant students were able to see instantly I had to work to understand. I can remember what I had to do to figure it out. The very brilliant ones figure it out so fast they never see the mechanics of understanding."
Carl Sagan at NASA
Never idle, Sagan was usually engaged in several projects at the same time. For instance, throughout the shooting and production of “Cosmos” he continued his academic tenure at Cornell and his work for NASA.
In addition to writing books, papers, and articles for scientific journals and magazines, Sagan also authored entries for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the foreword for the first edition of Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”.
Interestingly, Sagan did not type but mainly dictated his thoughts to his secretary in tapes that were later painstakingly transcribed. Thus, much of this material may contain what can be qualified as “ramblings of the intellect”, and it may be partly why his detractors accused him of ‘stealing’ ideas and lacking a rigorous methodology.
Among his multitude of roles, Sagan was co-founder of the Planetary Society, member of the SETI Institute administration board, president of the astronomy section of the US Association for the Advancement of Science, president of the Planetary Sciences division of the American Society of Astronomy, editor of Icarus magazine, and was even a science consultant for Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
During the first minutes of the first episode of "Cosmos", Sagan warns us that "we wish to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads, but to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact."
This seemed to have been Sagan's personal motto, a balanced combination of science and imagination that ultimately endeared him to the common public. However, it was and still is a controversial mix for any respectable scientist.
However, true to his scientific approach, Sagan remained firmly grounded in skepticism, basing his opinions on irrefutable hard evidence.
And while he never closed the door to the possibility of life in other planets, he was also the first to admit no evidence of it. However, he also famously stated that ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’.
“No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home
for human beings. It’s this world or nothing.
That’s a very powerful perception”.
– Carl Sagan
The combined factors of not having found evidence of life on other planets, the 1986 Challenger tragedy that paralyzed the space exploration efforts, and the alarming rise of human-made threats on our planet pushed Sagan in the 1980s to become an outspoken advocate for the ban of nuclear weapons.
His lectures and speeches on the subject can still be found online and are a living testament of Sagan’s erudition and passion for this subject.
A passion that led him to oppose President Reagan’s “Star Wars” program from his hospital bed in 1983, and had him and wife Ann Druyan arrested during a peaceful anti-nuclear demonstration in Nevada, in 1986.
Politics and religion were two other of Sagan’s favorite topics of discussion. Although an ethnic jew, Carl Sagan remained an agnostic all his life, and always spoke and wrote critically about religion in general.
His outspoken opinions about these topics in his books, speeches, and lectures did not help to improve his status among his detractors and scientific peers, who deemed he was using his clout to politicize science, accusing him of an excess of ego and of neglecting his academic work in favor of his celebrity status.
Carl Sagan wrote more than 20 books, as the sole writer or in collaboration.
Some of them include “Pale Blue Dot”, “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, “The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, “Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, the fiction novel “Contact”, and three books written with his third wife, Ann Druyan: “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, “Comet”, and “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”.
Sagan received multiple awards and accolades throughout his life, and among them are the Apollo Achievement Award bestowed by NASA, the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal bestowed by NASA, the Pulitzer Prize for General non-Fiction for his book “The Dragons of Eden”, two Emmys for his PBS documentary “Cosmos”, the Oersted Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Helen Caldecott Leadership Award, among many others.
Interestingly, Sagan also received multiple awards in the science fiction realm, among which are three Hugo Awards, the Isaac Asimov Award, the Peabody Award, and the SciFi Chronicle Award for his novel “Contact”.
He was also inducted in the International Space Hall of Fame in 2004, and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 1992 Sagan was shortlisted to become a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, an honor that many thought obvious he should receive. But following a much-publicised opposition from several academy members, his nomination was ultimately rejected citing not enough relevant research and derivative work.
Although publicly he expressed no particular regret, the snub hurt Sagan deeply.
In 1994, the National Academy of Sciences bestowed him a sort of ‘consolation prize’ by awarding him an honorary medal for his contributions to the public understanding of science. But by then, Sagan had other concerns on his mind.
Following a series of health tests, the doctors informed him that he suffered from myelodysplasia, a rare form of blood cancer. He required a bone marrow transplant, and luckily his sister proved to be a perfect match to be a donor. However, the first transplant was not successful enough and a second one had to be performed.
After three marrow bone transplants, Carl Sagan finally succumbed to pneumonia on December 20th, 1996. He was 62.
Only after Sagan’s death the National Academy of Sciences finally corrected its notorious 1992 omission and admitted Sagan postmortem as a
member.
In 1997 the film “Contact”, based on Sagan’s book and in whose production he was involved as scientific advisor, premiered with a succinct but heartfelt dedication just before the closing titles: “For Carl”.
Sagan’s inquisitive mind and sharp view on all the topics populating the world made him one of the most respected commentators of his time. Here are a few of his most memorable quotes:
“Science is not just a joy, but it’s a practical matter. The future of the country, the future of the world depends on the proper and humane use of science and technology.”
“Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.”
“The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.”
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.”
“We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.”
“Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term.”
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we’ve bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So, the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise.”
In 2022, a visionary paragraph from his 1995 book “The Demon-Haunted World”
became viral and highlighted Sagan’s sharp intuition to see the future, written at a time when internet had not yet developed into a tool of popular use, and social media or viral videos were still decades away:
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”.
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
Brilliant, workaholic, charismatic, inspiring, flawed, human - Carl Sagan had a full life, and his vast legacy of knowledge, science, and thought remains a beacon that still sheds light on the future.
Although his personal scientific research may have been minor to scientific standards, his contribution to space exploration, to our knowledge of the planets, our understanding of phenomena such as global warming, and the popularization of science is undeniable.
With his name immortalized in books and scientific divulgation material, as well as in awards and buildings, Carl Sagan’s invaluable legacy lives on and still continues to bear fruits, as new generations of scientists name him their inspiration for taking their first steps into the fascinating and ever progressing world of science.
To Learn More
*Read Carl Sagan’s contribution to the Encyclopaedia Britannica with his article on extraterrestrial life, updated by his first wife, evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, and his son Dorion Sagan:
https://www.britannica.com/science/extraterrestrial-life
*Read the articles about extraterrestrial life by Carl Sagan, and his exchange with the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, which provide a fascinating insight into both scientists’ approaches:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pine/sagan.html
*For a complete list of Carl Sagan’s books and publications, check this Wikipedia listing, which includes a description of each volume:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Works_by_Carls_Sagan
*Want to learn more details about Carl Sagan’s life and work? Then click this link to read and download his biography published by the National Academy of Sciences:
https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/sagan-carl.pdf
*Want to learn about Carl Sagan’s life in more detail? We recommend these biographies, both published in 1999: “Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos” by William Poundstone (Henry Holt), and “Carl Sagan: A Life”, by Keay Davidson (Wiley & Sons).
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, National Academy of Sciences, NASA, The Dragons of Eden, by Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, by Carl Sagan, Smithsonian magazine, NOVA, MUY Interesante, Wikipedia
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