10 coole Dinge über Carl Sagan

Auch unter seinesgleichen war er ein Riese. Sagan erhielt 22 Ehrentitel von Colleges und Universitäten in den USA, veröffentlichte mehr als 600 wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen und Artikel, verfasste Bestseller und moderierte die rekordbrechende öffentlich-rechtliche Fernsehserie „Cosmos: A Personal Voyage“. Er entdeckte, wie die Venus erhitzt wurde – durch den Treibhauseffekt (was Wissenschaftler später auch auf der Erde erfuhren) und dass die rote Farbe des Mars eher von Sturmstaub als von Vegetation herrührte. NASA-Erkundungen bewiesen schließlich, dass er Recht hatte [Quelle: Kiger ].

Sagan wurde 1934 geboren und wuchs in Brooklyn, New York, auf. Er schloss 1960 sein Studium an der University of Chicago mit einem Doktortitel in Astronomie und Astrophysik ab und lehrte dann in Harvard und Cornell, wo er Direktor des Cornell's Laboratory for Planetary Studies und David-Duncan-Professor für Astronomie und Weltraumwissenschaften wurde.

Einige von Sagans denkwürdigsten Beiträgen ereigneten sich außerhalb des Klassenzimmers. In den 1950er und 1960er Jahren war er Astronautenflüsterer der NASA. Er beriet die Apollo-Crew vor ihren Reisen zum Mond und konzipierte Experimente für andere Planetenexpeditionen, einschließlich einer interstellaren Aufzeichnung, die die unbekannten Bewohner des Weltraums begrüßen sollte [Quelle: Center for Inquiry ]. Und das ist nur eine coole Sache auf unserer Liste.

1. Hosted Public Television's meistgesehene Show
2. Sagte nie sein berühmtes Schlagwort
3. Versucht, Marihuana legalisieren zu lassen
4. Eine universelle Botschaft an Aliens erstellt
5. Verlobte sich vor ihrem ersten Date mit der dritten Frau
6. Mentor von Neil deGrasse Tyson
7. Hat Rollkragenpullover zu seinem charakteristischen Look gemacht
8. Seine Arbeit wurde von einem Karikaturisten aufbewahrt
9. Verklagte Apple wegen Verwendung seines Spitznamens als Codenamen
10. Hatte einen nach ihm benannten Asteroiden (und eine Maßeinheit)

Einst von einem Kritiker als „wissenschaftlicher Robert Redford“ bezeichnet, war Carl Sagan Mitentwickler und Moderator der Erfolgsserie „Cosmos: A Personal Voyage“, einer 13-teiligen Serie, die ursprünglich 1980 auf PBS ausgestrahlt wurde. 10 Jahre lang war es bis „The Civil War“ die meistgesehene Show des Senders in den USA.

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" war eine perfekte Mischung aus Wissenschaft und Einfachheit. Es zeigte Sagans Fähigkeit, komplexe Prinzipien so zu erklären, dass die Zuschauer es leicht verstehen konnten. Sagan hatte sich eine wissenschaftliche Serie vorgestellt, die die visuelle Kraft des Fernsehens nutzt, und mit einem Produktionsbudget von 8 Millionen US-Dollar für eine Reihe von Spezialeffekten hatte er bald Zuschauer, die auf einem virtuellen Raumschiff durch das Universum flitzten [Quelle: Kiger ]. Die Serie gewann 1981 drei Primetime Emmy Awards, einen Hugo Award und einen Peabody Award [Quelle: IMDB ].

Die Show überzeugte auch Millionen von Zuschauern. Dank 500 Millionen Zuschauern aus 60 verschiedenen Ländern ist „Cosmos“ immer noch die weltweit meistgesehene Serie des öffentlichen amerikanischen Fernsehens [Quelle: Kiger ].

Als Carl Sagan während der 13 Folgen von „Cosmos: A Personal Voyage“ „Milliarden“ sagte, wussten es die Zuschauer. Seine Überbetonung des "b" in "Milliarden" war absichtlich; um sicherzustellen, dass das Wort nicht mit "Millionen" verwechselt wurde. Trotzdem hat er nie das Schlagwort "Milliarden und Abermilliarden" ausgesprochen.

Es war Johnny Carson, Moderator von „The Tonight Show“, der Sagans Beziehung zu „Milliarden und Abermilliarden“ von Galaxien zementierte. Sagan trat mehr als zwei Dutzend Mal als Showgast auf, und Carsons beliebte Nachahmung, in der er den Satz wiederholte, hinterließ einen bleibenden Eindruck – einen, den Sagan nie abschütteln konnte. Es wurde von anderen Comedians kopiert und in einem Frank-Zappa-Song persifliert.

In Sagan's (perhaps sarcastically titled) book, "Billions and Billions," he wrote, "Oh, I said there are maybe 100 billion galaxies and 10 billion trillion stars. It's hard to talk about the Cosmos without using big numbers...But I never said 'billions and billions.' For one thing, it's too imprecise.... For a while, out of childish pique, I wouldn't utter or write the phrase even when asked to. But I've gotten over that. So, for the record, here goes: 'Billions and billions.'"

Perhaps taking the meaning of "high in the sky" to another level, Sagan secretly (then not-so-secretly) advocated that marijuana use was beneficial. In an essay he authored in 1969 at age 35 under the name "Mr. X," Sagan outlined marijuana's positive effects on his sensibilities. Marijuana, wrote Sagan, made music, art, food and sex better [source: Wing].

It wasn't until three years after Sagan's 1996 death that the author of "Carl Sagan: A Life," revealed him as the author of the pro-pot post. However, Sagan had already revealed himself as a marijuana advocate years earlier. During at least one interview, Sagan said he supported the legalized use of marijuana by the terminally ill.

"Is it rational to forbid patients who are dying from taking marijuana as a palliative to permit them to gain body weight and to get some food down? It seems madness to say, 'We're worried that they're going to become addicted to marijuana.' There's no evidence whatever that it's an addictive drug, but even if it were, these people are dying," Sagan said. "What are we saving them from?"

In 1977, two NASA spacecraft left Earth's orbit to afford scientists a closer look at Jupiter and Saturn. And then these celestial-bound twin craft did something even more extraordinary: They transported our message to the universe.

The spacecraft were part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission, and each carried a gold-plated disc designed to survive for a billion years in the hopes an alien civilization might receive it as a greeting. The recorded sounds spanned many possibilities, including the first words uttered to a newborn, greetings in 59 different languages, and music from new and ancient civilizations.

It was Sagan who came up with the idea to add a message to the universe, a "bottle cast into the cosmic ocean," as he put it. Although Sagan's voice isn't heard on the record, he was certainly a part of its creation.

The recording also captured one of science's most famous love stories, the one between Sagan and the project's creative director, Ann Druyan. On the next page, you can discover how their personal voyage began with this interstellar one [sources: Kiger, Krulwich].

It was the summer of 1977, and Carl Sagan's newest brainchild was coming to life. For months, he and Ann Druyan -- a writer and producer working as the Voyager recording's creative director -- had been amassing a very special collection. They were creating a cosmic mix tape, a recorded greeting for the universe that would be dispatched with the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space missions.

But it wasn't until Druyan discovered just the right Chinese melody -- a 2,500-year-old song called "Flowing Stream -- that she and Sagan discovered their love for each other. Thrilled with her find, Druyan telephoned Sagan with the news, but was forced to leave a message. When he returned her call, they were on the phone for an hour. And by the time they said their goodbyes, they were engaged to be married -- with nary a first date between them.

The sensation of falling in love was so strong, Druyan had the electrical impulses of her brain and nervous system recorded so that it could be turned into music and placed on the Voyagers' recorded greeting when the spacecraft were launched into space on Aug. 20, 1977.

In 1981, Sagan and Druyan were married, and remained together until Sagan's death 15 years later [source: Krulwich].

What may seem simple to one person often becomes profound to another. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the quick-witted astrophysicist, well known for hosting the 2014 version of the "Cosmos" series, received some valuable life lessons from Sagan as a high school senior.

Back on Dec. 20, 1975, Tyson traveled by bus from New York City to Cornell University to meet Carl Sagan. A busy author, astronomer and professor, Sagan had personally extended Tyson an invitation to visit after seeing his college application to Cornell, where he spoke about his enthusiasm for the stars.

"I already knew I wanted to become a scientist," Tyson would later say, "but that afternoon I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to become."

After the personal tour of his lab, Sagan dropped Tyson off at the bus depot. As the snow was getting heavier, he told Tyson to call him if the bus was delayed so he could spend the night at his house.

Although Tyson opted to attend Harvard for his undergraduate education, Sagan's influence remained strong.

"To this day," Tyson said during an interview, "I have this duty to respond to students who are inquiring about the universe as a career path, to respond to them in the way that Carl Sagan had responded to me."

In March 2014, the "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" exhibit opened at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. The display showcased clips from the show reboot, as well as memorabilia from current host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and original host, Carl Sagan. Among the items was an article so iconic, it is forever linked to Sagan's persona: one of his signature turtlenecks [source: National Geographic].

While Sagan did wear a variety of clothing on "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage," he became as known for sporting a turtleneck, topped with a professorial blazer, as for his passion about the universe. On Carl Sagan Day, an unofficial annual holiday on Nov. 9, the anniversary of his birth, Sagan fans are encouraged to wear a turtleneck sweater with a brown jacket -- and to "celebrate the beauty and wonder of the cosmos he so eloquently described" [source: Center for Inquiry].

When Sagan died of pneumonia while battling bone marrow disease in 1996, he left behind a vast library of his life's work in the home he and his family had inhabited during the 1980s.

The home was in upstate New York, near Cornell, and had once been headquarters to a secret society at the university known as the Sphinx Head Tomb. Later, the Sagans moved to a bigger house but kept the former Sphinx Head Tomb as a space for he and Ann Druyan to collaborate on projects. When Sagan got ill, it became a catchall for his scientific papers, idea-filled notes, photographs and sketches -- some dating back to his boyhood. "Thousands of individual items, boxed away in 18-foot-high filing cabinets," Sagan's daughter, Sasha, would later write [source: Sagan].

Druyan sought out colleges and institutions to preserve the collection, but none could provide the mix of meticulous care and thoughtful exhibition she had in mind. Then she met Seth McFarlane, creator of the "Family Guy" cartoon. As the two began to collaborate on a reboot of Sagan's original "Cosmos" series, McFarlane was instrumental in preserving Sagan's legacy -- all the contents of the Sphinx Head Tomb -- in the Library of Congress.

The Seth McFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive opened to the public at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in November 2013, the same month Sagan would have celebrated his 79th birthday [source: Sagan].

Apple engineers, fond of codenames, in 1994 dubbed the Power Macintosh 7100 "Carl Sagan" in reference to Sagan's supposed catchphrase, "billions and billions." The computer would make "billions and billions" of dollars for Apple, they hoped.

But this internal codename rubbed Sagan the wrong way. He worried that if news of the codename leaked to the public, it could be misconstrued as an endorsement. Sagan fired off a letter to Apple, insisting the company change the codename. Apple's engineers were quick to comply. They switched the codename to BHA, an acronym for "butt-head astronomer."

The move prompted Sagan to sue for libel; the case was dismissed, with the judge writing that "one does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase, 'butt-head.'"

Sagan sued a second time, lost and began a lengthy appeal process. Sagan and Apple settled the suit in 1995. Apple engineers then changed the codename to LAW, for "Lawyers are Wimps."

Despite its string of codenames, the 7100 never did make billions [sources: Davidson, Heisler].

On Nov. 9, 1994, Carl Sagan turned 60 and his friends in the Cornell Astronomy Department hosted a party in his honor. There were speeches by loved ones, colleagues and former students, and letters from people like Arthur C. Clarke and Al Gore.

The highlight, however, was a surprise announcement by Eleanor Helin, who was an expert at discovering asteroids: Her most recent finding, asteroid 4970, had been named "Asteroid Druyan."

The asteroid, named after Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, was locked in an eternal orbit with another notable heavenly body: "Asteroid 2709 Sagan," the asteroid earlier named after Sagan [source: Spangenburg]. This was a wonderful birthday present and expression of love.

On a more humorous note, scientists have paid tribute to Sagan's deathless phrase "billions and billions," by naming a unit of measurement after him. The sagan is a number equal to at least 4 billion [source: Know Your Meme].

Author's Note: 10 Cool Things About Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan accomplished so much, it's difficult to think this top 10 list can do justice. Sagan fans are sure to read this and wonder why their favorite details of his life are not listed. Be gentle. It would have required a voluminous tome to capture the facts -- and nuances -- of Sagan's well-lived life. My attempt may not have been not exhaustive, but it was done in a spirit of discovery I think Sagan would have appreciated.

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