Author Archive for Celebrating Sagan
Carl Sagan and His Fully Armed Spaceship of the Imagination
Carl Sagan on his Spaceship of the Imagination
My path to Carl Sagan began with magic. In my my early 20′s I developed a hobby for card tricks and slight of hand. Penn and Teller were my main influences and through them I discovered (The Amazing) James Randi. I remember James Randi once saying Richard Dawkin’s book, The Blind Watchmaker should be required reading in all American classrooms. Hearing that I decided to read the book. I found it amazing. After that I read every Richard Dawkins book I could find. Through these books I discovered Carl Sagan.
Reading Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark changed my life. The way he explained the scientific method and the value of skepticism made me want to learn to more. The Demon-Haunted World remains one of my favorite books of all time.
Commander Capricorn gives an order to Major Pisces: Fire the Homeopathic Medicine Ray!!!
In Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, his stories about the Heike Crab, and Eratosthenes’ calculation of the circumference of the earth blew my mind. Today these stories still resonate with me and I look forward to the day when I will share them with my children.
The Cosmos episode, “The Harmony of the Worlds”, in which Sagan challenges Astrology, inspired me to draw the comic. I thought it would be funny to have him encounter the forces of pseudo-science as he flew through the Cosmos in his spaceship of the Imagination. The design of Carl’s spaceship and his iconic wardrobe were fun for me to draw. I enjoy his mannerisms and his careful choice of words, so I tried to echo them in his dialog for the strip.
Homeopathy is no match for SCIENCE!
While Carl Sagan’s books have remained my favorites, I currently enjoy following scientists like Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene and Michio Kaku. I love the quest they are on, the questions they ask, and I appreciate the way they communicate with their readers.
To see the entire storyboard, and to check out the rest of Michael’s work, visit his site Ninjerktsu.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Demon Haunted World
Gunnar shared a Sagan related video that he made via the submission form. Check out his take on science as a candle in the dark:
Popularity: 49% [?]
A Theory of the Universe
Sophie writes: I wrote this in 2008 with my little brother after we had read “An Index of Possibilities,” a large softcover tome which is not related to Carl in any way other than it is a map of life from cosmos to quantum. I found Carl Sagan shortly afterwards, echoing the sentiments of our thoughts.
To end, I want to suggest that the old adage taken from John Donne’s Mediation XVII, ‘No man is an island’ could be modernised to express the idea that ‘Every man is a planet’, and that every man and woman has his or her own gravitation, orbit, weather system and sun. No man or woman exists as a section apart from the world. All is necessarily connected and responsive, interrelated and communicative. We exchange information to that which surrounds us, and that which we surround. To go further than that, it is not only true that men are planets, but according to me, Sophie Ward, I believe that ‘Every man is a universe’ and that in light of the parallels of man and universe that make up my theory, get ready for it: The multiverse is a man.
To read the whole post, please visit Sophie Ward’s website at Paper Castle Press.
Popularity: 25% [?]
The Known Universe
Danny Ledonne says, “Beautiful stuff – Sagan would want a front row seat.”
Popularity: 12% [?]
Remembering Carl Sagan
Alex Michael Bonnici at The Discovery Enterprise writes:
Today on Discovery Enterprise we commemorate the memory of Carl Sagan who died an untimely death thirteen years ago today. Carl Sagan, was an astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). For me personally he will always be remembered and revered as a great teacher who communicated the joys and transcendence of scientific discovery. Carl Sagan’s enduring legacy will always be linked to his ability to convey the wonders of science to the general public and his skill in inspiring the next generation of scientists. Carl Sagan’s name will also be forever linked to the greatest science television series in history – Cosmos.
Popularity: 17% [?]
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch…
Popularity: 92% [?]
God, the Universe and Everything Else
Popularity: 53% [?]
Galaxy Garden.
Regular Celebrating Sagan contributor Larry Klaes sent an email notifying us about the new ‘Galaxy Garden’ website.
The Galaxy Garden is a 100-foot diameter outdoor scale model of the Milky Way, mapped in living plants and flowers and based on current astrophysical data.Artist Jon Lomberg conceived and designed the garden to encourage scientific education about our place in the Universe.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Altair VI: Sagan on Mars Landing Sites
Journalist Larry Klaes sent us this link at Altair VI, where David Portee’s wrote an excellent blog post about Sagan’s roll in determining landing sites for a Mars lander.
Carl Sagan, an assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard, and Paul Swan, Senior Project Scientist at Avco Corporation, published results of their study of possible Voyager Mars landing sites in the January-February 1965 issue of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. For their study, they invoked a Voyager design Avco had developed in 1963 on contract to NASA Headquarters. The “split-payload” design comprised an orbiter “bus” and a landing capsule. They would leave Earth together on a Saturn IB rocket with an “S-VI” upper stage.
The Voyager lander would be sterilized to prevent biological contamination of Mars. Near Mars it would separate from the orbiter, enter the martian atmosphere, and float to the surface on a parachute. It would operate on Mars for 180 days. The Voyager orbiter, meanwhile, would fire rockets to slow down and enter martian polar orbit, where it would photograph the surface and serve as a radio relay for the lander.
Popularity: 12% [?]
