Date: May 22, 2010

Title: Carl Sagan

Podcaster: Craig Robertson

Link: Craig’s website – www.myfavoriteauthor.net

Description: This podcast is a brief look into the life and times of one of modern day’s great astronomers, Carl Sagan. I discuss his scientific contributions, along with his tremendous accomplishments in science education and public awareness.

Bio: Craig Robertson is a physician in the Sacramento, CA area, and science fiction author. In the 1970’s he studied astronomy and geophysics at UC Berkeley. In addition to his busy Internal Medicine practice, he has written several science fiction novels available on Podiobooks.com as podcasts, and as ebooks on Amazon and Barnes and Noble’s sites. His lifelong love of astronomy keeps him young at heart and continually challenges him to maintain an open mind and a sharp wit. He can be contacted at his website, www.myfavoriteauthor.net.

Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is brought to you by Kate, Matt, Erin and Tom Lamb and dedicated to the narrator of this podcast, Craig Robertson – uncle, brother, physician, astronomer. Thank you for sharing your passion for astronomy with our family and others.

Additional sponsorship for this episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” has been provided by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. Discovering the hidden Universe through radio astronomy. Visit us on www.icrar.org to find out more.

Transcript:

Carl Sagan, Astronomy Educator Extraordinary

Hello again, this is Craig Robertson, Podiobook author of Anon Time, The Innerglow Effect, and very soon The Prisoner of NaNoWriMo, presenting my third biography of one of astronomy’s great contributers. Today I will examine the life and works of Carl Sagan. Unlike my previous podcasts on Gamov and Hoyle, Sagan is both more contemporary and, though he did some basic research as they had, his contributions are more educational and organizational. I doubt there are any listeners who are not familiar with Carl Sagan, such was the impact of his television shows, books, and talk show appearances. His efforts to make the sciences accessible to the public achieved unprecedented success. Sagan’s imagination spanned the gamut of astronomy, cosmology, and the ethics of science, but his special interests lay in the origins of life on Earth and the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. In studying his history while preparing this report, I was fascinated to learn Sagan was a much more complex and idiosyncratic figure than I had previously believed. His public image and private life blended in an often unpredictable manner, making it wonderfully difficult to pigeon-hole his legacy.

Born in Brooklyn New York in 1934, his parents Sam and Rachel were of Russian Jewish heritage, his father working in the garment industry. The family was of modest means, but Carl was able to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago. He began his studies there at age 16, and left 9 years later with a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Sagan’s main original contributions to science were made in the areas of planetary studies and the origins of life. In the 1950, the prevailing scientific opinion was that the surface of Venus was rather cool, and that life might well exist there in some form. Radio measurements from the planet were thought to be a result of charged particle interactions high in the atmosphere. In 1961 Sagan theorized that the radio data could be explained simply by assuming the surface temperatures were very hot indeed, in the range of 500 degrees centigrade. He further hypothesized that this high temperature could easily be achieved by the runaway greenhouse effects of solar radiation being trapped by the carbon dioxide cloud cover know to exist. His research was confirmed in 1967 by a Soviet unmanned mission.

Telescopic observations of Mars demonstrated shifting patterns of light and color on the surface, leading many to suggest seasonally varying vegetation was present. By reviewing radar and other topographic measurements of Mars, along with temperature, wind velocity, and atmospheric changes, Sagan concluded that dust blown by fierce winds caused the observed surface changes, not seasonal vegetation. These theories were confirmed during the Mariner 9 visit.

Sagan successfully ventured out of astronomical research in the 1950’s by extending the earlier biological work of Urey and Miller. The pair had reproduced the conditions and materials thought to be present in Earth’s primordial atmosphere and shown that the building blocks of life, amino acids, could be spontaneously created. This research laid a powerful foundation for theories on origins of life. Sagan irradiated a mixture of similar organic compounds and was able to produce not only amino acids, but ATP, the powerhouse of all cellular activity.

Outside of basic research, Sagan contributed energetically to the American space effort from it’s beginnings. He advised NASA on the Pioneer, Mariner, Voyager, and Galileo missions, and personally briefed the Apollo astronauts before their lunar flights. Combining his work with NASA and his passion for possibility of extraterrestrial life, he conceived the notion of adding unalterable universal messages to space craft destine to leave our solar system. Any far off advanced civilization which discovered the probes would know other minds were out there, and something important about their nature. Gold-anodized plaques were attached to Pioneer 10 and 11, and he finally perfected his vision by placing a gold record of Earth sounds and messages on the Voyager ship.

In the end however, it was Sagan’s work in popular books, television, and as a political activist which made his a public icon. Carl is best and most widely known for his Emmy and Peabody Award winning TV series which began in 1980 Cosmos and it’s companion Hugo Award winning book. The show is estimated to have been viewed by over 500 million people in 60 countries, making it the most watched program in PBS history. Continuing the superlatives, the text editions of Cosmos became the best selling science book ever published in English. Sagan hosted and narrated the series, and his wit, charm and passion made his a bonafied star. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johny Carson, and he became the rub of many comedic parodies due to his distinctive speech and use of the word ‘billion’. Prior to Cosmos, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his non-fiction book The Dragons of Eden, which is a very approachable account of the development of the human intellect. Toward the end of his life he wrote the tremendously successful science fiction novel Contact, which won him another Hugo Award and was adapted into a hit movie in 1997. Poignantly, the movie was released just months after he succumbed to pneumonia following a long battle with cancer, so he was never able to see it.

No biography of Carl Sagan would be complete without highlighting his passionate role as a social activist. Along with Anne and Paul Ehrlich he developed the concept of nuclear winter, and in 1983 he co-authored Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions. He argued that the dust and ash resulting from a major nuclear war would in effect render the Earth barren and end life as we know it by blocking the Sun’s light enough to collapse ecosystems on a global scale. He actively protested against American nuclear weapons development, and was arrested twice at the testing facility in Nevada. He incorrectly advocated the oil fires during the 1991 Gulf War would disrupt Asian agriculture. He organized a search for near-Earth objects which might pose a threat, and then worried that technologies to deflect them might lead to their manipulation and use as weapons of war.

Never a stranger to controversy, he continued to be a free thinker and was accused of being egocentric and stubborn at times. Many contemporary scientists not so subtly derided his popularizations and celebrity status as unworthy of a proper academic. No doubt jealousy had some bearing on their feelings. A self described agnostic, he repeatedly questioned the possibility of a sentient all powerful God, and once remarked, “A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.” Carl was an advocate for the legalization and use of marijuana, and said it encouraged some of his work. He helped develop the understanding of the Drake Equation to estimate the probability of life elsewhere, but reasoned the fact that to date no signs of life have been detected was because highly advanced societies tended to self-exterminate rapidly, not the most uplifting of advocacies.

He is unfortunately remembered for his poor response to a public relations fiasco with Apple Computer in 1994. A system was being developed, and one series was code named “Carl Sagan”, ostensibly to honor him, and was never intended to be used in public marketing and distribution. He was displeased learning of this, and that his name was used along with “Cold Fusion” and “Piltdown Man”. He feared these references to pseudo-science were an affront, so he sued and lost to have his name removed. Afterward, Apple voluntarily changed the name of the series to “Butt-Head Astronomer”, causing him to sue, and once again lose, for contempt and personal ridicule. Nothing positive can seem to be extrapolated about his personality from those misadventures.

In the end, perhaps all persons, most particularly high profile public figures with drive and aspiration, can be found to be mixed bags of conflicting motivations and achievements. When judged by the critical and often fickle audience which we are, I suppose none of our icons can be expected to be spotless. Lord Acton once said, “Seek no artistic unity in character.” Carl Sagan brings this quote to mind for me, and frankly I doubt he’d mind it being applied to him. For my part, the best summary of his life and times is the unit named in his honor, the sagan. It is defined as a number at least as great as 4 billion. Why, you might ask, such a non-intuitive denomination. He is humorously remembered for repeatedly saying, and wrote a book titled, ‘billions and billions’. Since ‘billions’ is at least 2 billion, ‘billions’ plus ‘billions’ must be greater than at the least, 4 billion. What better and affectionate yet sassy tribute could be made to such a man as Carl Sagan.

Thank you for listening, I hope you’ve enjoyed my presentation and I’ve added to your understanding and wonder for all things astronomical. I’d love to hear any feedback you might have. You can do so on 365 Days of Astronomy’s site, or directly at my website, www.myfavoriteauthor.net. Until next time, sweet rest and pleasant dreams my friends…..Craig

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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