Carl Sagan: Difference between revisions

[[File:Sagan Viking.jpg|thumb|right|Sagan with a model of the [[Viking program#Viking landers|Viking lander]] that would land on [[Mars]]. Sagan examined possible landing sites for Viking along with Mike Carr and Hal Masursky.]]

 

After ''Cosmos'' aired, he became associated with the [[catchphrase]] "billions and billions", although he never actually used the phrase in the ''Cosmos'' series.<ref name="BandB">[[#Sagan & Druyan 1997|Sagan & Druyan 1997]], pp. 3–4</ref> He rather used the term "billions ''upon'' billions."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Shapiro |editor-first=Fred R. |editor-link=Fred R. Shapiro |others=Foreword by [[Joseph Epstein (writer)|Joseph Epstein]] |title=The Yale Book of Quotations |year=2006 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, CT |isbn=978-0-300-10798-2 |oclc=66527213 |lccn=2006012317 |page=660 }}</ref> Carson, however, would sometimes use the phrase during his parodies of Sagan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbbTHQmPkE|title=Carl Sagan (Cosmos) Parody by Johnny Carson (1980)|first=|last=24fpsfan|date=December 22, 2012|publisher=|via=YouTube}}<br><youtube width="200px" height="120px">iIbbTHQmPkE</youtube></ref>{{efn|[[Richard Feynman]], a precursor to Sagan, was observed to have used the phrase "billions and billions" many times in his "[[The Feynman Lectures on Physics|red books]]". However, Sagan's frequent use of the word ''billions'', and distinctive delivery emphasizing the "b" (which he did intentionally, in place of more cumbersome alternatives such as "billions with a 'b{{'"}}, in order to distinguish the word from "millions"),<ref name="BandB" /> made him a favorite target of comic performers, including [[Johnny Carson]],<ref>{{cite journal |editor-last=Frazier |editor-first=Kendrick |editor-link=Kendrick Frazier |date=July–August 2005 |title=Carl Sagan Takes Questions: More From His 'Wonder and Skepticism' CSICOP 1994 Keynote |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=29.4 |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagan_takes_questions |location=Amherst, NY |publisher=The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |accessdate=March 25, 2010}}</ref> [[Gary Kroeger]], [[Mike Myers]], [[Bronson Pinchot]], [[Penn Jillette]], [[Harry Shearer]], and others. [[Frank Zappa]] satirized the line in the song "Be in My Video", noting as well "atomic light". Sagan took this all in good humor, and his final book was entitled ''[[Billions and Billions]]'', which opened with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of this catchphrase, observing that Carson was an amateur astronomer and that Carson's comic caricature often included real science.<ref name="BandB" />}}

 

*[[Sagan effect]]

*[[Neil deGrasse Tyson]]

 

== Further reading ==

==YouTube Videos==

{{YouTube Videos|{{PAGENAME}}|PQ4qBBWv3b4|Sagan interviewed by Ted Turner, ''CNN'', 1989, video: 44 minutes!}}

{{Carl Sagan}}

{{PulitzerPrize GeneralNon-Fiction 1976–2000}}