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Covering a wide range of scientific subjects, that went about to include the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe, Carl Sagan hosted a thirteen part TV series in 1980. It was called 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage', and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. Sagan's narration is sobering. The series was beautifully written. It was poetry of science and ideas. The series begins with a brief narration about the end of Cold War and how humanity was at stake with the arms race. Sagan then goes about explaining Eratosthenes' calculation of the Earth's circumference and the Library of Alexandria. The second episode, 'One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue', discusses about evolution by natural selection. In order to soften the viewers take on evolution, Carl Sagan narrates the story of the Heike crab which closely resembles the angry face of Japanese samurai warriors. He uses this as an example of artificial selection. The Cambrian explosion and a speculation of life in Jupiter's atmosphere are some of the topics discussed in this episode. After a brief description of Ptolemy's and Copernicus' theories, the geocentric and heliocentric debates, Sagan tells about the achievements of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. Sagan also tells about the evils and the pious fraud of astrology. The third episode of Cosmos is called 'The Harmony of the Worlds'. The fourth episode is called 'Heaven and Hell', narrating the Tunguska event and lunar impacts, Sagan discusses about asteroids and comets. He also goes on to tell about surface and the atmosphere of Venus and about the data gathered through Venera landers and the relevancy to the Earth's greenhouse gases. 'Blues for a Red Planet', the fifth episode is dedicated to Mars. He tells about the speculations of authors in their science fiction books and other scientific hypothesis. He goes about explaining the works of Mars probes and the works of the Viking program. The journey and the discoveries made among the Jovian and Saturn systems by the Viking probes are explained in the sixth episode. The probe's journey is compared to the sailors of seventeenth century Netherland. The episode is called the, 'Traveler's Tales'. In the seventh episode, 'The Backbone of Night', Sagan teaches students in a classroom about mythologies of stars and their true nature reveled by modern science. He also talks about the philosophers of ancient Greece and their ideologies. Sagan explains about Doppler effects observed in stars and galaxies in the eighth episode, 'Journey in Space and Time'. The theory of relativity and the hypothetical implications of time dilation and time travel on human history are discussed. Among the topics discussed in this episode are the origins of the Solar System, the history of life and the immensity of space. The ninth episode, 'The lives of the Stars', discusses the ideas of star birth and the eventual collapse and elements that are cooked up during that phase. The tenth episode is called, 'The Edge of Forever', starting off with the origins of the universe at the Big Bang, it moves to the formation of galaxies, their collisions and anomalies like the quasars. Ideas about the existences of other dimensions and multiverses are also discussed. In 'The persistence of Memory', the concepts of artificial intelligence, whale songs, DNA, the human brain are discussed. The episode ends with a speculation of alien intelligence. In the next episode, 'Encyclopedia Galactica', Carl Sagan tells about the data from SETI and other radio telescopes. He also uses the Drake's Equation to calculate the existence of life elsewhere in our galaxy. The last episode, 'Who speaks for the Earth?', is about the future of humanity. The most sobering lines in the last episode goes as follows, “In our tenure on this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage, propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience and a great soaring passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the Cosmos an inescapable perspective awaits.” He also talks about the destruction of the Aztecs by Spanish conquistadors, the threat of nuclear warfare, the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the murder of Hypatia. As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. Although it was aired in 1980, with On Demand features offered by most CableTV providers, it's easy to get your hands on this gem. It is a series that is worth watching. Roy Fernandez is a freelancer and an active blogger, he enjoys writing about science documentaries and popular services that offer On Demand videos like CableTV.
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