Book

Book

xx, 540 pages. Preface, Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

xx, 540 pages. Preface, Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Publisher's ephemera and review slip laid in. Keay Davisdson worked for Sentinel Star, Orlando, FL, science writer, 1979-81; Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, science writer on San Diego bureau staff, 1981-85; San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, CA, science writer, 1986-2000; San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, science writer, 2000-. Davidson's awards and honors include: Westinghouse Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Science in Society Award, National Association of Science Writers; Responsibility in Journalism Award, Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP); Dean's Medal, Oxford College of Emory University, 2001. Keay Davidson is the author of Carl Sagan: A Life and was a science and medical writer for the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times. Sagan, an astronomer who taught at Harvard and Cornell University, became famous for his books and television appearances as a scientist who could explain the wonders of space and other scientific pursuits in compelling ways to a lay audience. His PBS miniseries Cosmos was one of the most-watched science programs ever broadcast; he was also the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dragons of Eden and the author of the science fiction novel Contact. Sagan's passion in life was to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. According to Robert Lee Hotz in the Los Angeles Times, "helped design experiments on the Mariner, Voyager and Galileo space missions." Derived from a Kirkus review: Biography of the flamboyant astronomer and creator of Cosmos from a veteran science writer. Davidson credits Sagan's influential Intelligent Life in the Universe, a collaboration with Russian astronomer I.S. Shklovskii, with awakening his own interest in science. He recognizes Sagan as a great popularizer, one of the preeminent translators of scientific ideas into the vernacular of his day. Sagan was clearly a man who made enemies as easily as friends, and Davidson has sought out both camps. The resulting portrait is a highlighting of certain qualities that might have increased his popular appeal. The "nuclear winter" episode, in which Sagan and several colleagues argued that even a "limited" nuclear war might lead to the extermination of human life, showed Sagan as an eminent scientific expert, paradoxically arguing that the issues involved were too important to leave to the experts. Likewise, in many ways Sagan's constant advocacy of the search for life beyond Earth-his central dream-was a key to the space program's becoming hard reality. In the end, Davidson argues, Sagan's influence in such matters may count for more than any of his books. A smoothly written look at a leading scientific figure of our time.