By Emily Levesque, University of Washington
When asked to think of an expert science communicator, someone who excels at sharing the wonders of the cosmos and the beauty of billions of stars with an everyday audience, Carl Sagan’s name often comes to mind. From the Cosmos TV series, to his award-winning books and other writings, Sagan is often seen as a leading figure in the world of science communication.
Who Was Carl Sagan?
Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn in 1934. Neither of his parents were scientists, but he nevertheless credited them both with fostering his senses of wonder and skepticism at an early age. The Hayden Planetarium fanned the flames of Sagan’s early interest in astronomy, and science fiction authors, from H. G. Wells to Robert Heinlein, caught his imagination and strengthened his passion for storytelling.
Sagan earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, studying under eminent planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper. As a planetary scientist, his work ranged from radio observations of Venus to work on the habitability of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons. Sagan’s work also necessitated studying biology, evolution, and climate science—an unusual approach at the time when researchers tended to choose and stick with a single specialty. Most astronomers at the time didn’t venture far outside their own field.
Sagan moved from Harvard to Cornell in 1968, where he was encouraged to continue his multidisciplinary work and foster his growing interest in science communication and popular writing.
This article comes directly from content in the video series Great Heroes and Discoveries of Astronomy. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Cosmos
In 1977, Sagan published The Dragons of Eden, a book that explored the evolution of intelligence. The book, his debut popular science publication, won a Pulitzer Prize, and in the aftermath of this success, he was approached by PBS to write and star in a science television series designed for a general audience.
Cosmos premiered in 1980, to both popular and critical acclaim. Sagan’s skill for writing, and his clear, direct speaking style connected well with audiences. The show also used the dazzling cinematic special effects that had delighted people in Star Wars to tell not a fictional story, but a real one. Sagan could wander through an illustration of space-time or simulate flying between planets and stars on an imagined spaceship. His journeys visually resembled the adventures of Star Trek or Star Wars, but now the story was of our own universe, and the science of how it worked.
Sagan’s Legacy
After the sensational success of Cosmos, Carl Sagan went on to become the most recognizable and well-known science communicator of all time. Even in the midst of his success, however, some colleagues still turned up their noses at Sagan, seeing him as a lesser scientist because he was speaking to the public instead of to his peers, and working on TV shows instead of research papers.
Still, his efforts made him a hero to young viewers, who now saw astronomy and science as a world they could inhabit. He also made a crucial impact on older viewers who could now look at things like the Hubble Space Telescope and other taxpayer-funded endeavors and see, through Sagan’s eyes, the value they offered.
Carl Sagan passed away in 1996 at the age of 62, but his legacy remains in the immense surge of science communication venues and professionals. Planetariums and museums continue to offer accessible introductions to the science of astronomy. Entire television channels now feature scientists that share their excitement with a wide audience, including a number of astronomers. Cosmos itself was rebooted in 2014, this time hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson—another New York-born astronomer who corresponded with Carl Sagan as a teen, and eventually took up a post at the Hayden Planetarium as director.
Importance of Science Communication
Today, popular science books regularly become bestsellers, and span a vast array of topics. With the advent of social media, grassroots science outreach has popped up everywhere from YouTube to Twitter.
Science is about sharing knowledge, and so science communication is a fundamental part of scientific research. In the field of astronomy, where the importance of work might not be immediately clear, communication becomes all the more vital.
Astronomy: A Gateway Science
A society that funds research should be encouraged to hear about the results, and to understand how these results fit into the larger world. Pure scientific research also always offers the possibility of unexpected scientific gains. Think of general relativity, a brilliant but not terribly practical theory when it was first described in 1915; and now think about how the smartphone in our pocket or the navigation in our car crucially depends on Einstein’s theories.
Astronomy can also be thought of as a gateway science. We may not regularly invent new technology or cure diseases, but the cosmos clearly captures people’s imaginations in a way that few other things can. Someone may read about black holes and decide to study them, or they may ask questions about the computers that simulate black holes and become inspired to build a better computer. Or they may go into another field entirely, but still cherish the importance of scientific inquiry. An enthusiasm for the stars can easily turn into an enthusiasm for other realms of science.
Common Questions about Carl Sagan
As a planetary scientist, Carl Sagan‘s work ranged from radio observations of Venus to work on the habitability of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons. Sagan’s work also necessitated studying biology, evolution, and climate science.
The Dragons of Eden was published by Carl Sagan in 1977. The book explored the evolution of intelligence. It won a Pulitzer Prize, and in the aftermath of this success, Sagan was approached by PBS to write and star in a science television series designed for a general audience, leading to the launch of Cosmos.
Science is about sharing knowledge, and so science communication is a fundamental part of scientific research. In the field of astronomy, where the importance of work might not be immediately clear, communication becomes all the more vital.
