When I was eleven I bought my first book about science. It was called "Cosmos" and my parents had never seen a book so rare. Right now I'm seeing it on the shelf.
ten years ago today, Carl Sagan died, a wonderful science writer and a researcher of merit. A good biography would force me to talk about his contribution to the study represented by the Mars Viking missions , risk analysis and Nuclear Winter struggle to reduce the likelihood of nuclear war or their studies on the effect runaway greenhouse as we see Venus. Omalaled sure could do it beautifully. But I prefer to speak of the fascination of a kid who discovers a huge world to explore in a single grain of sand. Of sense of surprise and wonder to understand that we are a unique product of evolution, an irreplaceable treasure. Of our smallness in the midst of leaving tiny Cosmos both our personal problems, as the ambitions and aspirations of dictators and autocrats throughout history. I read and reread a book avidly as I moved from ancient Greece to the far reaches of the solar system. Since the beginning of the universe to the possibility of complete destruction by our own hand, in a deliberate war or induced by a silly mistake. Even today, twenty years later, it remains a book to learn and think. Later
read many more books, both Sagan and other authors, who helped me to extend and complete that initial image. But Carl Sagan and "Cosmos" acted as the master copy that you just define your career. After reading "Cosmos" had to be science. And he must try to maintain a vision as broad and as varied as generous as possible. It's the same curiosity with which I'm reading books and blogs. And in a way and at a much more modest scale, is the attempt to return. Today we have millions of pages and blogs talking on behalf of the Earth. I think Carl Sagan would have been happy.
Category: Science in general , History of Science
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