Carl Sagan Popular Books
Carl Sagan Biography & Facts
Carl Edward Sagan (; SAY-gən; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. He argued in favor of the hypothesis, which has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus are the result of the greenhouse effect. Initially an assistant professor at Harvard, Sagan later moved to Cornell, where he spent most of his career. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. He wrote many popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain, Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World. He also co-wrote and narrated the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television: Cosmos has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries. A book, also called Cosmos, was published to accompany the series. Sagan also wrote a science-fiction novel, published in 1985, called Contact, which became the basis for the 1997 film Contact. His papers, comprising 595,000 items, are archived in the Library of Congress. Sagan was a popular public advocate of skeptical scientific inquiry and the scientific method; he pioneered the field of exobiology and promoted the search for extra-terrestrial intelligent life (SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (for his book The Dragons of Eden), and (for Cosmos: A Personal Voyage), two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award, and the Hugo Award. He married three times and had five children. After developing myelodysplasia, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 on December 20, 1996. Early life Childhood Carl Edward Sagan was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of New York City's Brooklyn borough on November 9, 1934. His mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was a housewife from New York City; his father, Samuel Sagan, was a Ukrainian-born garment worker who had emigrated from Kamianets-Podilskyi (then in the Russian Empire). Sagan was named in honor of his maternal grandmother, Chaiya Clara, who had died while giving birth to her second child; she was, in Sagan's words, "the mother she [Rachel] never knew." Sagan's maternal grandfather later married a woman named Rose, whom. Sagan's sister, Carol, would later say, was "never accepted" as Rachel's mother because Rachel "knew she [Rose] wasn't her birth mother." Sagan's family lived in a modest apartment in Bensonhurst. He later described his family as Reform Jews, the most liberal of Judaism's four main branches. He and his sister agreed that their father was not especially religious, but that their mother "definitely believed in God, and was active in the temple [...] and served only kosher meat." During the worst years of the Depression, his father worked as a movie theater usher. According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagan experienced a kind of "inner war" as a result of his close relationship with both his parents, who were in many ways "opposites." He traced his analytical inclinations to his mother, who had been extremely poor as a child in New York City during World War I and the 1920s, and whose later intellectual ambitions were sabotaged by her poverty, status as a woman and wife, and Jewish ethnicity. Davidson suggested she "worshipped her only son, Carl" because "he would fulfill her unfulfilled dreams." Sagan believed that he had inherited his sense of wonder from his father, who spent his free time giving apples to the poor or helping soothe tensions between workers and management within New York City's garment industry. Although awed by his son's intellectual abilities, Sagan's father also took his inquisitiveness in stride, viewing it as part of growing up. Later, during his career, Sagan would draw on his childhood memories to illustrate scientific points, as he did in his book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Describing his parents' influence on his later thinking, Sagan said: "My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method." He recalled that a defining moment in his development came when his parents took him, at age four, to the 1939 New York World's Fair. He later described his vivid memories of several exhibits there. One, titled America of Tomorrow, included a moving map, which, as he recalled, "showed beautiful highways and cloverleaves and little General Motors cars all carrying people to skyscrapers, buildings with lovely spires, flying buttresses—and it looked great!" Another involved a flashlight shining on a photoelectric cell, which created a crackling sound, and another showed how the sound from a tuning fork became a wave on an oscilloscope. He also saw an exhibit of the then-nascent medium known as television. Remembering it, he later wrote: "Plainly, the world held wonders of a kind I had never guessed. How could a tone become a picture and light become a noise?" Sagan also saw one of the fair's most publicized events: the burial at Flushing Meadows of a time capsule, which contained mementos from the 1930s to be recovered by Earth's descendants in a future millennium. Davidson wrote that this "thrilled Carl." As an adult, inspired by his memories of the World's Fair, Sagan and his colleagues would create similar time capsules to be sent out into the galaxy: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record précis. During World War II, Sagan's parents worried about the fate of their European relatives, but he was generally unaware of the details of the ongoing war. He wrote, "Sure, we had relatives who were caught up in the Holocaust. Hitler was not a popular fellow in our household... but on the other hand, I was fairly insulated from the horrors of the war." His sister, Carol, said that their mother "above all wanted to protect Carl... she had an extraordinarily difficult time dealing with World War II and the Holocaust." Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World (1996) included his memories of this conflicted period, when his family dealt with the realities of the war in Europe, .... Discover the Carl Sagan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Carl Sagan books.
Best Seller Carl Sagan Books of 2024
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The Quantum Universe
Brian Cox & Jeff ForshawInternational bestselling authors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's fascinating, entertaining, and clear introduction to quantum mechanics In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Fo...
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Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
Pu SonglingThe Strange Tales of Pu Songling (16401715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wor...
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Greek Science After Aristotle
Dr G E R LloydIn his previous volume in this series, Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle, G. E. R. Lloyd pointed out that although there is no exact equivalent to our term ‘science’ in Gree...
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Science in the Soul
Richard DawkinsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The legendary biologist and bestselling author mounts a timely and passionate defense of science and clear thinking with this careerspanning collection o...
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The Magick of Physics
Felix FlickerAn awardwinning Oxford physicist draws on classic scifi, fantasy fiction, and everyday phenomena to explain and celebrate the magical properties of the world around us.If you were ...
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Dragons of Eden
Carl Sagan“A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday . . . It's a delight.”The New York TimesDr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great r...
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See You in the Cosmos
Jack Cheng“I haven't read anything that has moved me this much since Wonder.” Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright PlacesA spaceobsessed boy and his dog, Carl Sagan, take ...
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Comet
Carl Sagan & Ann DruyanWhat are these graceful visitors to our skies? We now know that they bring both life and death and teach us about our origins.Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space...
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Shadows of Eternity
Gregory Benford“A fascinating plunge into a new world. I loved the idea of the SETI Library on the moon. Chasing wormholes is also a wild ride!” Jack McDevitt, bestselling author of Octavia GoneS...
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World History 101
Tom HeadUncover the mysteries of the past with this exciting, comprehensive guide on world history.History books are often filled with long descriptions, complex facts, and stories that ca...
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The Science of Star Wars
Mark Brake & Jon ChaseDiscover the science behind the most popular scifi franchise of all time!Capturing the imagination and hearts of crowds worldwide, Star Wars is a fantastic feat of science fiction ...
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For Small Creatures Such as We
Sasha Sagan"A charming book, ringing with the joy of existence." Richard Dawkins"This lyrical exploration of how we can find beauty in the natural world comes from the daughter of Carl Sagan...
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They Are Already Here
Sarah ScolesMore than fifty years since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. But the UFO communitythose who had been thinking about, seeing, and analyzing supposed flying sauce...
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The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” Sam Harris, author of The End of F...
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La diversidad de la ciencia
Carl SaganEn esta obra póstuma, el brillante astrofísico y ganador del Premio Pulitzer Carl Sagan combina magistralmente astronomía, física, biología, filosofía, mitología y teología para ex...
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Carl Sagan
Keay DavidsonA penetrating, mesmerizing biography of a scientific icon"Absolutely fascinating . . . Davidson has done a remarkable job."Sir Arthur C. Clarke"Engaging . . . accessible, carefully...
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On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin & Natalie RammThis exciting anniversary edition has a new introduction and scholarly references by William Bynum, and the cover design is by Damien Hirst. It replaces our existing 1968 edition. ...
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Resumen Completo - Cosmos - Un Viaje Personal - Basado En El Libro De Carl Sagan
Libros MaestrosRESUMEN COMPLETO: COSMOS UN VIAJE PERSONAL BASADO EN EL LIBRO DE CARL SAGAN ¿Estás listo para potenciar tu conocimiento sobre "COSMOS"? ¿Quieres aprender de manera rápi...
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Alien Earths
Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger"In the grand tradition of Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, we now have a new tour guide to the cosmos."―Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh"Abso...
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The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu & Royall TylerThe first complete new translation for 25 years of the acknowledged masterpiece of Japanese literature. Lady Murasaki's great 11th century novel is a beautifully crafted story of l...
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Carl Sagan
William PoundstoneEn esta cautivadora biografía de Carl Sagan, William Poundstone detalla cómo un joven astrónomo, apasionado por la ciencia y obsesionado con la búsqueda de vida en otros mundos, se...
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Case for Mars
Robert ZubrinSince the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dreamthe stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reac...
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Cosmos
Carl Sagan & Ann DruyanRETURNING TO TELEVISION AS AN ALLNEW MINISERIES ON FOX Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In cleareyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewellike blue world i...
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The Four Horsemen
Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris & Daniel DennettIn 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. The video went viral. Now in print for the first t...
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Beautyland
Marie-Helene BertinoA MustRead: Nylon, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, Kirkus Reviews, BookRiot, The Christian Science Monitor, Our Cul...
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Space Craze
Margaret A. WeitekampA space historian's tour through astounding spaceflight history and the Smithsonian's collection of space and science fiction memorabiliaSpanning from the 1929 debut of the fu...
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Contacto
Carl SaganContacto es la única novela escrita por el astrónomo estadounidense Carl Sagan, uno de los mayores divulgadores científicos del siglo XX.Tras cinco años de incesantes búsquedas con...
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Books do Furnish a Life
Richard Dawkins'A rich feast of his essays, reviews, forewords, squibs and conversations, in which talent and passion are married to deep knowledge.' Matt Ridley'Enjoy the unfailing clarity of h...
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Grace in All Simplicity
Robert N. Cahn & Chris QuiggAn enthralling and accessible account of humanity’s quest to make sense of our physical world, told through interwoven tales of inspiration, tragedy, and triumph.How do the remarka...
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The Sirens of Mars
Sarah Stewart Johnson“Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own comingofage story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human cu...
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Star Stuff
Stephanie Roth SissonFor every child who has ever looked up at the stars and asked, "What are they?" comes the story of a curious boy who never stopped wondering: Carl Sagan.When Carl Sagan was a young...
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Sobre el origen del tiempo
Thomas HertogElúltimodiscípulo de Stephen Hawkingpresentalosmásrecientesdescubrimientos delastrofísicosobreeluniverso.«Un libro maravilloso sobre el mayor legado de Stephen Hawking».TheSpectato...
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Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Carl Sagan & Ann DruyanNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Exciting and provocative . . . A tour de force of a book that begs to be seen as well as to be read.”The Washington Post Book WorldWorld renowned scienti...
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The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole
Michelle CuevasA girl's friendship with a lonely black hole leads her to face her own sadness in this original, funny, and touching middle grade novel for fans of Crenshaw and Flora &am...
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The Science of Star Trek
Mark BrakeBoldly go where no man has gone before and discover the real science behind the cyborgs, starships, aliens, and antimatter of the Star Trek galaxy.Star Trek is one of the highestgr...
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Carl Sagan Lied Like a Rug
Douglas SczygelskiThe author shows that Carl Sagan's books are full of lies. Sagan falsely claimed that the Bible says the Earth is flat. He falsely claimed that no Catholic saint ever opposed execu...
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A Tour on the Prairies
Washington IrvingIn 1832, Washington Irving, America’s first literary superstar, returned to the United States after seventeen years abroad and swiftly set out to explore Pawnee countrythe wild unc...
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The Secret Lives of Planets
Paul MurdinAn insider's guide to astronomy reveals everything you need to know about the planets, their satellites, and our place in the solar system.We have the impression that the solar sys...
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Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan“Fascinating . . . memorable . . . revealing . . . perhaps the best of Carl Sagan’s books.”The Washington Post Book World (front page review)In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sag...
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The Ascent Of Man
Jacob BronowskiDr Jacob Bronowksi's The Ascent of Man traces the development of human society through our understanding of science.First published in 1973 to accompany the groundbreaking BBC tele...
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The Science of The Mandalorian
Mark BrakeTake a trip beyond this Earth to explore the myths of The Mandalorian and uncover the anatomy of the newest space western in the Star Wars Universe.Star Wars dominates the film wor...