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Summary: Knowing your place
Review: Only recently have I had the pleasure of reading COSMOS. Carl Sagan's wisdom and openness drips off every page. Like many others I give him credit for opening my eyes and ears to the world (and universe around me). This book especially becomes important During a world disaster. Showing how we must be open to other's ways of living, thinking, and right to life. this book should be required reading for all humans.
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Summary: A work of art!!!
Review: Carl Sagan is a wonderful writer in the sense that he takes very complex subjects such as einstein's theory of relativity and makes it very easiily understandable to the layman. He has such a passion for his work, that he is able to draw people into his world with his wonderful examples and descriptions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested even in the least bit about the universe. If i could, i would rate this book a 6! It is just that good.
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Summary: The icon of awareness in the realm of science and astronomy.
Review: I barely remember the program leaflet..."Introducing Doctor Carl Sagan - Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University." It seems like just yesterday. I was a teenager in New England, and some guy was invited to give a lecture about astronomy at the high school auditorium. I'd never heard of Carl Sagan before, but when his credentials were publicized, I had the notion that his talk would most likely be very interesting. That is, if he was a capable speaker. You never know - I'd been put to sleep by the best of them. Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink! I was literally riveted to a fluid voice that sounded (and felt) like the eternal trickle of clear water from a bottomless well. His lecture was a celebration of passion and prose. His accounts and speculations of the Planetary Sciences and Exobiology seemed to drain into my head through an ectoplasmic funnel. There were brief moments when my awareness would be perched on just his phrases and expressions, as though he were coining new terminology - "Billions and billions". And afterward he mingled, and I shook his hand. His enthusiasm for science was infectious, like a virus. If you weren't careful, he was going to get you interested. His demeanor and presence were a magnetic force to be reckoned with, and you were darned glad it was. Then the TV series Cosmos hit the screen we all nodded, and said that we just knew he was going to be famous someday. Before he died in 1997, over half a billion people saw Cosmos on TV, and it was the best-selling science book ever published in the English language. Some of the science in Cosmos is now out of date. But that doesn't change the fact that this book and its author will remain forever the symbols of awareness in the realm of science and astronomy. Plus, its philosophies and ideals are as current as today, and for all time. Cosmos was really the beginning of enlightened public interest in the Universe. The juicy morsel that got us to salivate over what has become the ultimate banquet. When the science of Sagan was new, and its theories current, we all dreamt in hoards of being closer to it all; of knowing what he knows; of learning beyond the boundaries that he so ardently confronted. And now that he's gone, there is this legacy - the original manuscript of collective understanding; the quintessential tablet of science for the past, present, and future. Cosmos was the first book to be placed on the Belmont Society's "Required Reading List for the amateur astronomer". It is mostly available in paperback, but a few hardcover editions are still around. Whichever you find, read it with a slight note of reverence. It would be well deserved.
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Summary: Layman's Science
Review: I have never been much of a scientist, but Carl Sagan makes me wish I was. In Cosmos, Sagan takes the readers through the history, present (as of 1980), and future of astronomy. In under 300 pages, he summarized all that I learned in a semester long astronomy class and much more, all in clear, concise, and interesting prose. He asks and answers many questions I have had about the universe beyond Earth, and proposes many theories and scenarios that he wishes he knew more about. He writes in a way that every reader can understand, even when the subject is a terribly complex problem that only the greatest astronomers have dared to tackle. This trait as well as his own curiosity, make the reader feel comfortable and assured even if they will never be more than hopelessly amatuer astronomers. Aside from the broad exploration of the Cosmos, Sagan makes interesting cases for the advancement of knoledge and peace on Earth and takes fascinating tangents that are very thought provoking. This is the best science book I have ever read and while I will never be much of a scientist, it makes me jealous of those who are.
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Summary: The Best Populist Author of Science
Review: Cosmos takes a sweeping look at, well, the Cosmos. Carl Sagan brings perspective to our view of the starry night sky, as well as the living creatures here and all around us. We visit the planets of the Solar system and learn, from a practical layman's viewpoint, what they are like. Remember, as one of the best populist authors of science, ever, he knows how to keep you interested, laughing, and turning pages. It is all terribly interesting, especially if you don't know that Venus is almost as hot as a kiln -- but at first scientists thought it was nothing but jungle! And the Milky Way galaxy, if we could watch it spin in super high speed, looks a little like a spinning popcorn popper. But you'll understand that more if you read the book. If you were to read just 3 books by Carl Sagan, I'd first of all say get these Four: The Demon-Haunted World, Cosmos, Dragons of Eden, and Billions & Billions. In that order. But you won't know without conducting your own experiments, right? Read 'em all!
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Summary: COMOS
Review: COSMOS IS SIMPLY THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ . IT IS CLEAR AND THOUGHT PROVOKING , I HAVE READ IT THROUGH TWICE AND READ BITS AND PIECES FROM TIME TO TIME . IF YOU LOVE SCIENCE I GUARENTEE YOU LOVE THIS BOOK
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Summary: Sagan died in 1996, not 1997
Review: Carl Sagan died December 20th, 1996. The short paragraph at the top of the page says 1997. The least we can do is get the date of his death right. Cosmos is wonderful, one of a great man's greatest works.
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Summary: Science made Poetry.
Review: "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan is by far one of the most influential non-fiction books I have ever read, with "Demon-Haunted World" and Stephen Hawkings' "A Brief History of Time" as the other two. 70% of the world's population evade science for one of three reasons: 1) Its complexity. 2) Its lack of entertainment. 3)Its cold indifference, lack of magic and beauty. But anyone who understands science slightly will know none of these things are real! Science is the quest of knowledge and truth, objective truth, not a subjective view that depends solely on the state of mind of the observer. Those who try to solve a mathematical problem or tried to determine the variables and constants of a physical phenomena (conservation of angular momentum, gravity,) know the beauty behind one of the most noble activities of the human being. If Isaac Newton and Edgar Allan Poe talked about the Universe, I beat my Mind they would share many points in common. A great mind expanding book by on of the very best science authors/memorable figures of modern history, Carl Sagan.
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Summary: A masterpiece in popular science
Review: I read the book after wtaching Sagan's TV series, as many people of my generation. And it had a great influence in my scientific career. Few other books can compete with such a lively vision of science. Thanks, Carl.
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Summary: A wonderful book about everything, for everyone
Review: Cosmos is more than just a book about space. The word Cosmos itself, derived from ancient Greek, implies the deep interconnectedness of all things, in which we all play a part. Although it was written over two decades ago, and therefore you may think that it may not be so relevant in its facts today, its underlying dual-purposes, to educate and to inspire, remain just as relevant as ever. It serves as an introduction to science, and the late Carl Sagan, one of the great humanists of our time, does an excellent job in bringing us into that world by not presenting simply hard facts and technobabble. Instead, he tries to make the book accessible to the scientific novice, and shows how it is relevant to every aspect of our daily lives. And we learn about the development of human understanding, not only in terms of 'Where did we come from?' and 'How did the universe get created?', but the development of ourselves, as people who began our existence from the most humble of beginnings, and were intelligent enough to ask ourselves 'Who are we?' and of course 'Why are we here?'. He shows why science is not only relevant to us here and now, but how it can help us to understand the future, and in the final chapter, he makes it clear that through the rampant destruction of our environment, that future may not be so long-reaching as we might dream it. Sagan manages to gently educate us in a stylish and entertaining way, and his book Cosmos leaves us feeling richer for the experience. I certainly recommend this to anyone. After all, it does concern everyone!
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