Carl Sagan; a life in the cosmos

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. vii, [1], 473, [1] pages. Frontis illustration. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the Big Secrets series and a biography of Carl Sagan. Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the now accepted hypothesis that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to and calculated using the greenhouse effect. Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. Derived from a Kirkus review: Carl Sagan was without question the most famous scientist since Einstein. Sagan attended the University of Chicago, acquiring influential mentors and writing a doctoral thesis with the unstated theme of life on other planets. He was among the leading experts on the subject, participating in the Green Bank conference where the modern Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence movement. He moved to Cornell, where he became one of the stars of the faculty. From there, he sallied forth to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to SETI conferences, and to Hollywood. He was a fixture with NASA, contributing ideas to several major space missions— including the placing of a recording on the Pioneer spacecraft featuring samples of Earth's music. He was also a key figure in the "nuclear winter" controversy, arguing that the long-term effects of nuclear war could exterminate humanity. His incredibly active career left behind 25 books and approximately 300 scientific papers.