cosmos: then and now

SCIENCE BOOKS & FILMS: YOUR ONLINE REVIEW GUIDE TO SCIENCE RESOURCES FOR ALL AGES

VOLUME 50, NO. 4APRIL 2014 SB&F

Cosmos: Then and

Now

On March 9, COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY debuted simultaneously across multiple U.S. Fox networks, including Fox

Broadcasting Company (FOX), National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, and FOX Life. This multi-network launch event for Fox Networks Group, along with the series debut on Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels International, made COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY available on 220 channels in 181 countries, with an overall footprint of more than half a billion homes.

The new series is a sequel of sorts to Carl Sagan’s COSMOS: A PERSONAL VOYAGE, the iconic 13-part 1980 television series from PBS. The new series loosely follows the same thirteen-episode format and

storytelling approach that the original Cosmos used, including elements such as the “Ship of the Imagination”, but features information updated since the 1980 series along with extensive computer-generated graphics and animation footage augmenting the narration.

More than three decades after the debut of Sagan’s stunning exploration of the universe as revealed, actor and producer Seth MacFarlane has teamed with Sagan’s original creative collaborators—writer/executive producer Ann Druyan and co-writer, astronomer Steven Soter—to conceive the 13-part series that will serve as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series.

After the cross-network premiere event, COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY continues its epic 13-episode

Cosmos: Ą Spacetime Odyssey

96 SB&F • April 2014

The Cosmic Calendar as seen in the new “A Sky Full of Ghosts” episode. [© 2014 FOX BROADCASTING. CR: FOX]

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey


run, airing Sundays (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) on FOX, and Mondays—with all-new bonus footage and behind-the-scenes content—on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT).

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY is hosted by renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. As with the legendary original series, the new COSMOS is the saga of how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time. The series brings to life never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, transporting viewers to new worlds and across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest—and the smallest—scale. The series invents new modes of scientific storytelling to reveal the grandeur of the universe and re-invent celebrated elements of the original series, including the Cosmic Calendar and the Ship of the Imagination.

The 13 new episodes are divided into 2 parts. Brief descriptions of part 1, which includes 7 episodes, are provided below. Check the National Geographic* or Fox* websites for descriptions of the final 6 episodes when they are released. The websites also feature additional materials, such as video clips, photos, and full episodes after they have aired.

EpisodE 1: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Standing Up in the Milky Way

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pilots The Ship of the Imagination as the iconic science series returns for a 21st-century audience.

EpisodE 2: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Some of the Things That Molecules Do

Neil deGrasse Tyson explores the transformation of life through natural and artificial selection, with a look at the evolution of the human eye.

EpisodE 3: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: When Knowledge Conquered Fear

For thousands of years, natural events were explained away as acts of God. Neil deGrasse Tyson reveals how scientific knowledge changed all that.

First Showing: Thursday 3 April at 6:00 p.m. —National Geographic Channel

Repeats: Sunday 6 April at 11:00 a.m. — National Geographic Channel

EpisodE 4: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Hiding in the Light

Neil deGrasse Tyson explores light and enlightenment, from William Herschel’s chance discovery of infrared to the beginning of astrophysics.

First Showing: Sunday 13 April at 7:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel

Repeats: Monday 14 April at 12:00 a.m. — National Geographic Channel and Monday 14 April at 2:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel

EpisodE 5: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: A Sky Full of Ghosts

An exploration of how light, time and gravity combine to distort our perceptions of the universe.


Repeats: Sunday 6 April at 11:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel and Monday 7 April at 2:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel

EpisodE 6: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: Deeper, Deeper, Deeper Still

Science casts its ‘cloak of visibility’ over everything, including Neil himself, who becomes viewable as a man composed of his constituent atoms.


Repeats: Monday 21 April at 1:00 a.m. — National Geographic Channel and Tuesday 22 April at 8:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel

EpisodE 7: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: The Clean Room

The tempestuous youth of the Earth effectively erased all traces of its beginnings. How did we ever learn its true age?


Repeats: Monday 28 April at 12:00 a.m. — National Geographic Channel and Monday 28 April at 2:00 p.m. — National Geographic Channel*National Geographic (http://channel.nationalgeographic .com/channel/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/)*Fox Networks (http://www.cosmosontv.com/)Source: Fox Networks and National Geographic press releases.© 2014 FOX BROADCASTING. CR Patrick Eccelsine/FOX

When something is really great it’s hard to beat the original. Sometimes, however, sequels are very good indeed. Such as the case with the new Cosmos series featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson. Not only is Tyson a worthy successor to Sagan, but the subject matter has been greatly

enhanced in the update. If, however, you’ve never seen the original Cosmos, you are missing some-thing truly special. Fortunately, it is available on DVD at Amazon.com and other media stores. So you may want to add it to your media collection.

Sagan’s Cosmos was groundbreaking in many ways. For example, it was notable for its use of special effects. Before the invention of CGI, the series’ creators devised scenes that depicted Sagan walking through spectacular environments that were actually models rather than full-sized sets. The series was also responsible for bringing the music of composer Vangelis to a worldwide audience.

The companion book to the original series is also still available (See page 99.). Perhaps the most widely read science text of the modern era, Sagan’s words are as inspirational and illuminating as they were in 1980. The book’s 13 chapters correspond to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos television series, which are featured below. Detailed synopses of the episodes can be found on the Wikepedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage.

1. “The Shores Of the Cosmos”

2. “One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue”

3. “The Harmony Of the Worlds”

4. “Heaven and Hell”

5. “Blues For A Red Planet”

6. “Travellers’ Tales”

7. “The Backbone of Night”

8. “Travels In Space and Time”

9. “The Lives Of the Stars”

10. “The Edge Of Forever”

11. “The Persistence Of Memory”

12. “Encyclopedia Galactica”

13. “Who Speaks For Earth?”

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos



Carl sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson: prolific science Communicators

In the 1980s and 1990s, Carl Sagan was undoubtedly the best known public spokesperson for science and the scien-tific enterprise. Today, most will agree that Neil deGrasse

Tyson has assumed that role. Like Sagan, deGrasse Tyson ooz-es charisma and infectious enthusiasm about science on cam-era. He is also an accomplished writer of science books that are widely read and enjoyed by the general public, as exemplified by the titles listed below.

Selected Books by

Carl saGaNPlanets. (With Jonathan Norton). Life Science Library. Editors of Life. New York: Time, INC. 1966.

UFO’s: A Scientific Debate. (With Thornton Page, ed.) Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 1972.

Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1973.

Mars and the Mind of Man.(1st ed.). (With Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. )New York: Harper & Row. 1973.

The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Produced by Jerome Agel (1st ed.). Garden City, NY: Anchor Press. 1973.

Other Worlds. (Produced by Jerome Agel.) Toronto, NY: Bantam Books. 1975.

The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Hu-man Intelligence. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1977.

Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record. (1st ed.). (Drake, F. D.; Lomberg, Jon et al.) New York: Random House. 1978.

Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1979.

Cosmos. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1980.

Comet. (1st ed.). (With Ann Druyan.) New York: Random House. 1985.

Contact: A Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1985.

A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1990.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are. (1st ed.). (With Ann Druyan) New York: Random House. 1992.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1995.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. (1st ed.). New York: Random House. 1995.

Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium. (1st ed.). (With Ann Druyan.) New York: Random House. 1997.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. (Edited from 1985 Gifford Lectures, University of Glasgow by Ann Druyan.) New York: Penguin Press. 2006.

Selected Books by NEil dEGrassE TysoNSpace Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. (Edited by Avis Lang) W. W. Norton & Company. New York. 2012.

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet. W. Norton & Company. New York. 2009.

Death By Black Hole, and Other Cosmic Quandaries. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. 2007.

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. (With Donald Goldsmith) W. W. Norton & Company. New York. 2004.

Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge. Steven Soter & Neil deGrasse Tyson, eds. The New Press.New York. 2001.

One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos. (With Charles Liu, & Robert Irion) Joseph Henry Press of the National Academy of Sciences. Washington, DC. 2000.

The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astro-physicist. Doubleday. New York. 2000. Revised and updat-ed: Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2004.

Just Visiting this Planet. Main Street Books, an imprint of Doubleday. New York. 1998

Universe Down to Earth. Columbia University Press. New York. 1994.

Merlin’s Tour of the Universe. Columbia University Press. New York 1989.

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