324 pages
English language
Published Feb. 18, 1985 by Ballantine Books.
This book is about science in its broadest human context, how science and civilization grew up together. It is the story of our long journey of discovery and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science, including Democritus, Hypatia, Kepler, Newton, Huygens, Champollion, Lowell and Humason. The book also explores spacecraft missions of discovery of the nearby planets, the research in the Library of ancient Alexandria, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the origin of life, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies and the origins of matter, suns and worlds. The author retraces the fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into life and consciousness, enabling the cosmos to wonder about itself. He considers the latest findings on life elsewhere and how we might communicate with the beings of other worlds. ~ WorldCat.org
Got it as a teenager in the early 80s. It really opened my eyes to the wonders of science. Carl Sagan really was a masterful storyteller, both on paper and screen.
A journey through the universe, science & their development, brimming with passion & wonder. 50 years old but feels timeless, except nuclear angst has been replaced by climate angst.
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp6dwtXsi8PsAwzmhJNj4khhr9-i5oAMj
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A full-all-levels journey around humanity and the cosmos. Even though it was written back in the 80s, plenty of the information we dive in when we read this wonder is still relevant nowadays. What does our solar system look (or even smell!) like? What can we expect to find 'out there'? What can we expect to find here, on Earth? Everything is explained in a way eveyone can understand what Sagan wants to transmit: the love and appreciation we, as a small part of the vast universe, as a dust grain in the middle of the cosmos history, must profess towards ourselves and our home.
Most of the book will be boring for the unprepared reader, not enough entertainment for popular science book hehe.
Дада, все знают что Cosmos Сагана это упоительно оптимистичный обзорный popsci, но знали ли вы, что аудоиверсию читает ЛеВар Бёртон.
Still as relevant today as it was when it first came out in 1980, Cosmos is a book that I'd recommend to anyone and everyone. Watching the original series after you read each chapter is an addition way to enjoy this incredible work by Carl Sagan.
This was fine
Despite being ~40 years old now, this book has held up very well, mainly because its topics are fairly general and for the most part not attempting to address cutting edge science. The optimistic chapters about how humanity is improving are possibly the most depressing, written as they were near the end of the cold war when the future looked brighter than I would say it does now. As a general introduction to scientific history, key discoveries, and key theories it's great and I would recommend. If you paid attention in high school science and especially if you've done any additional reading out of interest, there probably isn't anything new here though. So, a good and well-written (if occasionally flowery-prosed) summary of the basic facts, but probably nothing to be gained for anyone already particularly interested in science. Nice reading of the audiobook by Neil deGrasse Tyson, though.
I saw a a question here on Goodreads, where a potential reader asked, whether this book is still relevant. I would have to say it depends on where you are in your science reading "career". If you have already read Hawkings "A brief history of time", and/or Brysons "A Short History of Nearly Everyting", or other more recent popular schiece books about physics and astrophysics, there is a lot of stuff in this book you already know.
What I like about this book, is also what I think sets this book apart from the books mentioned above: It's very humanistic and empathic tone, and the way Sagan is able to relate the history of Homo Sapiens, and our foremost scientists to the Cosmos that is our place.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book as the first science history book, a budding teenage scientist should read.
Beautiful book on a beautiful subject, written in beautiful prose by a beautiful "yuman" being. Impossible to read without hearing Sagan's calm but confident voice, backed by the optimistic sounds of Vangelis. At times a bit dated, but forever a classic.
I didn't watch Cosmos when it was on since I was too young, so I got introduced to this not that super long ago. Somewhere around 2010 is when I first saw and then read the book, but now I finally listened to the audiobook - it's just as great. A lot is the same as the series, but there are some differences that do not take away from anything. Levar Burton is great as the narrator, although admittedly, not that it would have been possible since the audio version is very new, I did kept expecting to hear Carl Sagan's distinctive voice when I started it. ;)
A great book from one of the greatest science communicators the world has known.
