Carl Sagan was a storyteller. He told stories that could have easily made it into the most elite of science fiction libraries, but the stories he told were all true. Whether Sagan spoke of the cataclysm with which the universe began, or the possible origins of human intelligence, his stories were always conveyed in a way that captivated and educated even the most skeptical of listeners. Sagan viewed science as the guiding light that can lead humanity to the ultimate truth, a light that should be made available to every man, woman, and child on Earth. Throughout his amazing career, Sagan had a unique and rare combination of qualities that allowed him to describe the awesomely complex and beautiful universe he saw in a way that inspired those around him. Carl Sagan did not contribute any revolutionary theorems, nor did he do many groundbreaking experiments, but what he did do was as important to the endeavors of science as the work of Albert Einstein or James Clerk Maxwell. Carl Sagan showed people the beauty of truth, and the eloquence of the science that can lead them to it.

Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, NY, November 9^th 1934. His mother, Rachel Molly Gruber Sagan, was a woman described by many as �vivacious�[1] to say the least, but with no education to speak of. His father, Samuel Sagan, was considerably more educated, having attended Columbia University after coming to the United States from Russia.[2] Carl�s childhood was one full of love and support. His mother would often tell him �he was brilliant,� and was frequently described as �� [worshiping] the ground he floated above.��[3] Carl, despite all the love and support, often complained of what seems, in retrospect, to be hallucinations. He once recalled how he was �frightened ... by real-seeming but wholly imaginary monsters, especially at night or in the dark.� How ironic that a young boy terrified of the dark would grow up to be an astronomer.[4] This extremely overactive imagination caused his usually loving mother to become very worried, which in turn had a deep effect on Sagan, causing him to be very obedient. Young Carl didn�t view his obedience as restricting, however, since his imagination was free to do whatever it wanted.

From a very early age, Sagan knew he wanted to be an astronomer. When he was around five he learned �that each star in the night sky represented a faraway sun,� and from that point on �he [would be] fascinated by astronomy.�[5] Sagan would often recount for interviews how he would lay on his back in a field at night, trying to position himself as to see nothing but stars. He would imagine that orbiting one of those specks of light was a planet, much like Earth, with a boy, much like himself, thinking many of the same thoughts he was thinking. He found great comfort in the thought that there was somebody out there. His family, while technically Jewish, �showed little religious interest�[6] overall. So while others would look up to the night sky and envision God and his domain, Carl was left to determine what he saw based on experience and the books he read, which were primarily science fiction. Carl spent a great deal of time as a child reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, a popular science fiction author that wrote predominantly about the exploration and colonization of Mars.[7] This, undoubtedly, seeded his young and impressionable mind with what would be the beginnings of his life�s work.

While his parents were always very supportive of young Carl, they were worried that he would waste his life staring at the stars, an enterprise they didn�t think could one could get paid for taking part in. Sagan recalled a conversation with his grandfather around age 12 when �his grandfather asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. �An astronomer,� replied [Carl] without hesitating. His grandfather then asked, �but how will you make your living?��[8] Carl would later learn in high school about the possibility of becoming a university professor of astronomy, which is obviously a paying job, and from that point on there was no stopping young Sagan. Prior to this realization, Carl had always been a very intelligent boy who did well in school, as well as being an extremely avid reader and card carrying member of the local library (a rarity for a boy of his age), but had never really stood out to anybody but his mother. After this, however, he excelled in school, and won a scholarship to the University of Chicago in 1950, at age 16. This was the so called official starting point for what was to be an incredible scientific career, not to mention the proverbial star being born. (No pun intended.)

At the University of Chicago Sagan continued to excel, his young age seemingly not hindering his progress in the slightest. He received his bachelor�s degree in physics at age 19, in 1955. He then continued on and finished the master�s program in only a year, receiving his degree in 1956, again in physics. At this point, Sagan�s research started to focus on finding �evidence of life in outer space,� as well as the study of� �the origins of organisms with the geneticists Hermann J. Muller and Joshua Lederberg,�[9] both Nobel laureates. Both Muller and Lederberg played a very important role in Sagan's eventual track in life, encouraging the young scientist to persevere in his work on exobiology (the study of non-terrestrial life), a field Sagan later helped to pioneer and validate. Sagan was discouraged with his early research because he didn�t see that the technology was available to aid his search, but the Nobel laureates gave him some much deserved positive encouragement, which was all Sagan really needed. Sagan received his Ph.D. at age 25 in astrophysics and astronomy with a thesis titled �Physical Studies of the Planets.�[10] The thesis dealt with thousands of observations Sagan had conducted during his doctoral studies concerning the planets in our solar system, with an emphasis on Venus and Mars. This emphasis would show up in his post-doctoral work, and would constitute some of his first major contributions to science.

During Sagan�s final few months at the University of Chicago, while doing research for his doctoral thesis, he had encountered a fascinating question that many astronomers had struggled with for years; why did the color of Mars vary? There were many theories as to why the surface of Mars seemed to darken and lighten, one of which was that �the dark, greenish areas might be vegetation of some sort.�[11] After a great deal of study, Sagan �proposed that the dark areas were hills, which the Martian wind stripped of the finer, lighter-colored dust particles that collected in the valleys.�[12] This conclusion, in retrospect, is somewhat ironic because later in life Sagan would become a huge promoter of the idea that life may exist on the Red Planet. In this case, however, Sagan was adamant that the color variations were not caused by Martian life, as many would have loved to believe. Sagan�s predictions were later confirmed by the Mariner 9 probe in 1971, which took high-resolution photographs of the surface of Mars. While this accomplishment was quite impressive, Sagan is better known for his work with Earth�s other closest neighbor, Venus.

In 1961, while at the University of California at Berkeley where he had moved to do post-doctoral studies, Carl Sagan published his first professional article titled �The Planet Venus,� in the March edition of Science magazine. Sagan suggested that Venus, which had been thought be a sister planet of Earth with a relatively mild climate, was actually a barren wasteland which reached temperatures upwards of 400 degrees centigrade that were caused by a runaway greenhouse effect.[13] Many in the scientific community dismissed Sagan�s research, which was the culmination of his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago primarily because of the fact planetary study was �a field looked down upon by astronomers and astrophysicists preoccupied with cosmology and galactic phenomena.�[14] Sagan proposed that certain types of gases, such as SO₂, inhibit the ability of infrared radiation to escape from the atmosphere of Venus. While the greenhouse theory was defined and the term coined by Svante Arrhenius in 1896, and the concept of the greenhouse effect was identified as early as the 1860�s[15], Carl Sagan was the first to apply the concept to Venus. Greenhouse gases do not inhibit the travel of ultraviolet radiation, which passes through the atmosphere and strikes the planet and is then radiated back as infrared. Since the heat cannot escape, it builds up, slowly increasing the overall temperature of the planet. Sagan believed that the combination of gases that were predominant in Venus� atmosphere would cause this greenhouse effect, and that while many millions of years ago Venus may have been Earth�s sister, it was far from mild any longer. These predictions were particularly poignant because the environmental movement was just beginning to be noticed by the general public and many environmentalists were worried, and still are, that the same thing is happening to Earth with the build up of CO₂ due to the combustion of fossil fuels. Later in life Sagan would be a huge supporter of environmentalism, and warned vehemently about the threat of the greenhouse effect on Earth. All Sagan and the environmentalists needed was some proof.

Luckily for Sagan, the Cold War was in full swing, and the race for space was at one of its highest points, surpassed only by the Apollo missions that would follow in a few short years. In order to compete with the various space endeavors of the former Soviet Union, NASA announced in 1958 its intention to launch several spacecraft to the nearest planets in our solar system, including Venus, which would be called the Mariner series. Mariner 2, as fate would have it, was bound for the subject of Sagan�s early scientific life, Venus. Despite a great deal of controversy surrounding the probes and whether or not they should have visible spectrum cameras, the findings they sent back were some of the first signs that Carl Sagan wasn�t just any other dreamy-eyed astronomer. When the data from Mariner 2 was finally received by NASA it was �found to be completely consistent with Sagan's model.�[16] Just as Sagan had predicted, �the infrared radiometer observed Venus at wavelengths of 8.4 and 10.4 microns, measured the temperature of the upper atmosphere of Venus at �34 degrees centigrade,� and the �microwave radiometer scanned the face and limb of Venus at wavelengths of 13.5 and 19 microns� a measurement consistent with a hot planetary surface,�[17] presenting a perfect representation of the greenhouse effect. It was a triumph for Sagan, as well as for environmentalists, who still use Venus as an example of what Earth could someday become. Ironically enough, �Sagan was in the midst of an evidently contentious divorce, [and] apparently did not contribute directly to the paper, and his indirect contribution was acknowledged only in a footnote.�[18] While his divorce from Lynn Alexander in 1963 may have prevented his direct contribution to the paper, there are many conflicting reports about the nature of the divorce. Both Lynn and Carl showed no hostility toward each other later in life, and it is probable that the reports of a �contentious divorce� were exaggerated. Their marriage might have lasted for only a few years, but it was survived by two sons, Jeremy and Dorion. In general, the scientific community celebrated him for his predictions, and Sagan was suddenly considered one of the world�s leading astronomers.

Thanks to his newfound fame, Sagan was first awarded a position at Stanford University, but left in less than a year to take a position at Harvard University and worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1963 to 1968.[19] It was during this time period where Sagan began to tap his famous ability to write for laymen. Sagan published over 600 articles during his lifetime[20], with that vast majority of those being directed not at fellow scientists, but toward common people. Sagan wrote on a wide variety of topics, including the Life entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, various entries for Encyclopedia Americana, and articles for the Time-Life science library[21].�In the December 1967 issue of National Geographic, Sagan�s article �Mars, a New World to Explore� appeared,[22] which talked not only about the possibility of life on Mars, but various proposals for the exploration and colonization of Mars, most of which originated with Sagan. Throughout Sagan�s writings there are definite themes of his intense desire for humankind to explore space, and to try to find out both where we originated and for what we are destined. These themes are evident is Sagan�s first book, titled Intelligent Life in the Universe, which he co-authored with I. S. Shklovskii in 1966. The book �consisted of arguments and speculations for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations trying to contact Earth,�[23] and received much praise from book reviews and the media, while at the same time earning Sagan much criticism from his scientific peers. The roots of the criticism are found in the fact that Sagan often introduced theories as facts, even when there was little basis in science for them. While it is true that his writings are full of wishful thinking, his predictions are so often proven correct that many have learned to take his enthusiasm both with a grain of salt as well as an open mind.

Sagan was offered a position as the director of planetary studies at Cornell University in 1968, which he saw as a great opportunity and gladly accepted it. Sagan would end up spending the majority of the rest of his life at the institution, and it would be there that he would become famous with the general public for his writings, TV appearances, and other activities. It was also in 1968 that Sagan married Linda Salzman, and artist that would eventually, thanks to her relationship with Sagan, create the illustrations that would be placed on the Pioneer 10 and 11 plaques that are still drifting through space millions of miles from Earth. Sagan was heavily involved in the design of the Pioneer and Voyage spacecrafts, and was also the designer of the famous �gold record� which contains various music, images, and a star charts pointing to Earth, that was attached to the Voyager probe before its launch in hopes of it someday being viewed by an alien civilization. The marriage, however, was even shorter than the previous one, and probably failed for the same reason; Sagan�s near obsessive nature when it came to his work. Like many other great scientists, including Einstein, Sagan�s science came before all else, including both his wife and children. There were also suggestions that Sagan fell in love at first sight with Ann Druyan, his future third wife, and this contributed to this divorce, which happened in the early 70�s, but not before having another son, Nicholas.[24] In 1971, Sagan �became a professor of astronomy and space science at Cornell,�[25] his first real teaching job.

Sagan would become one of the most sought after teachers at Cornell because of his incredible ability to captivate people and clearly explain scientific ideas, and later because of his celebrity. It was probably his early time at Cornell that started to make him realize that while he was a capable, even great scientist, his skills at explanation were even more impressive. His staggering intellect combined with those skills was a mixture that was as rare as the brilliance of individuals like Einstein, and just as vital to the endeavor of science. It was the early 1970�s when he began to concentrate on bringing science to the public. It was also around this time when he met his third and final wife, Ann Druyan, whom he would eventually marry in 1977, and with which he would have two more children, both girls, Sasha and Sam[26]. Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan were a perfect match as Ann is known as the �free thought heroine,� and she co-authored several books with Sagan, including Comet and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

Sagan is best known not for his science, although his career was quite extensive and he accomplished a great deal, but instead for his role as �arguably the greatest science popularizer of the 20th century.�[27] Sagan authored or co-authored 27 books in his lifetime, including the Pulitzer prize winning book The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, in 1977, a book which details "a history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday.�[28] Sagan also wrote Broca�s Brain in 1979, in which Sagan �explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consequences.�[29] His writings, however, we�re not confined to the cosmos. In 1985, Sagan published The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War, a chilling depiction of what the world would be like when a nuclear winter sets in and the planet slowly freezes to death because of particulate matter blocking the sun�s warmth in the atmosphere. Sagan would go on to be an extremely vocal opponent to nuclear testing, and would even be arrested for his protesting after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Some of his other notable works include: The Cosmic Connection. An Extraterrestrial Perspective. (1973), Comet. (1985), Contact (1985), �Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for who we are. (1992), Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. (1994), and The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. (1996). Sagan�s books have held the number one spot on the NY Times bestseller list for over 70 weeks, a record for any single author, and his book Cosmos was up until recently the best selling science book of all time[30]. It was replaced by Stephen Hawking�s A Brief History of Time, which was contributed heavily to by Sagan himself. Carl Sagan would not become the world celebrity he was, however, if it weren�t for his Emmy and Peabody award winning television series, Cosmos.

Cosmos is what truly introduced Carl Sagan to the world. The series, which aired on PBS in 1980, had over 500 million viewers in over 60 countries around the world.[31] Sagan wrote, directed, and hosted the series that is perhaps best described by a portion of the opening dialog from the first episode:

It was Cosmos, and the book based off the series that was release the same year, that made Carl Sagan a household name. Often considered Sagan�s masterpiece, and one of the best summaries of astronomical knowledge, not to mention physics, paleontology, anthropology, psychology, and a host of other subjects, to ever be presented to the general public, it launched Sagan�s career as a celebrity science popularizer. It was also heavily criticized by the scientific community for, again, Sagan�s portrayal of theory as fact. Many scientists resented Sagan�s success even after his death, and labeled him as a man out to boost his ego, a man doing no real good for science, but a great deal of this may be viewed as jealousy. Sagan may have presented theory as fact, but the message and nature of his work were sincere; it was to open the minds of people around the world to the beauty and eloquence of science, and revealed the wonders that lay around them everyday. Cosmos threw Sagan into the limelight, which turned out to be a place in which he thrived.

Carl Sagan was one of the most frequent guests of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the history of the show, appearing a total of 25 times over a period of 9 years. My Blogpapers, national magazines like Time, and even Playboy, all scrambled to get a chance to interview him. Using his new fame he was able to get many grants for research, which he used to fund projects like SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a cause he was passionate for his entire life. Sagan even hosted several science programs on the BBC, which were very well received. [32] He eventually formed a production company, originally intended as a convenience to create Cosmos. It ultimately evolved into an organization dedicated to the popularization science by producing educational films on various topics in science. Sagan also founded the Planetary Society in 1980, an organization devoted to the encouragement of all nations to explore space, to provide public information and education about the exploration of the solar system, and the continued search for extraterrestrial life.[33] For his efforts, and despite some criticism from envious peers, Carl Sagan is one of the most awarded and recognized figures in science in the past century.

Carl Sagan�s list of awards and honors is so vast that it is incredibly difficult to find any one source that has a list of them all. Sagan�s resum� is over 250 pages long, most of which is comprised of a list of his awards, but unfortunately is nearly impossible to get posthumously. Some of the more major ones included the NASA Apollo Achievement Award, the Distinguished Public Service Award, 22 honorary degrees from Americans colleges and universities[34], the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolokovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonautics Federation, the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society[35], the Pulitzer prize (for The Dragons of Eden), the Emmy and Peabody awards for Cosmos, a Grammy for his recorded narration of A Pale Blue Dot, as well as the �Public Welfare Medal, [which is] the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences, �for distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare.��[36] The award from the National Academy of Sciences was bitter sweet, as on the advice of several members of the board, Sagan was denied admittance to the academy. The members cited their belief that Sagan�s purely scientific contributions didn�t merit admission, which is clearly not true, and was most likely based more on personal bias than qualifications. Sagan was later given an honorary, non-voting seat, but the token was for the most part ignored by Sagan.

As a cruel twist of fate, Carl Sagan became ill with a type of bone marrow cancer called Myelodysplasia that he developed in the early 1990�s.� Sagan battled back and forth with the disease, going in and out of clinics, and was subjected to huge doses of chemotherapy that ravaged his appearance.[37] Throughout it all, Sagan continued to make appearances at causes he believed in, and did his best to continue the work he loved. For a while in 1995, Sagan�s health seemed to be returning to him, and he moved to Seattle, Washington, but his health quickly turned for the worse on December 20^th, 1996. He had come down with pneumonia,� and it would claim his life that day. Despite many rumors, Sagan never had any deathbed conversion. He had been an agnostic throughout his life because he believed �extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.�[38] Sagan would never live to see his book, Contact, turned into a major motion picture, although he had co-authored the script with his wife Ann. He would never live to see the Mars rover explore the alien terrain that so fascinated him. And worst of all, he would never live to see the day when humankind makes contact with extraterrestrial life. He leaves behind a legacy of scientific discovery, free thought, and creativity that is unparallel in its scope and influence. His last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, is a book full of Carl Sagan�s hopes for humanity. Toward the end of the book he states what could be considered a summation of his goals in life:

 His fears, founded or not, show Sagan�s commitments were not to himself, they were to all of humanity. Carl Sagan was the people�s scientist, a kind storyteller that gave the world a great gift, and he will forever be remembered that way.

Works Cited

Bibliography