Key insights from
Cosmos
What you'll learn
We’ve all looked up into the night sky and pondered the vast expanse beyond, been humbled in the presence of the ocean or mountains or the stars, and wondered about our place in this universe. Carl Sagan’s classic book Cosmos looks at some of history’s seminal scientists who have changed the way we see our world. Their discoveries have fueled exploration, at first intercontinental, now interplanetary, and, perhaps, someday, interstellar. Sagan’s book stands as an enthusiastic acknowledgement of the most curious and adventuresome species on the planet, and a warning about their growing carelessness.
Key insights
- • What you'll learn
- 1 Eratosthenes made an accurate estimate of the world’s size using only sticks and shadows—and the world has never been the same.
- 2 Astronomy is a far better tool than astrology for making sense of our connection to the Cosmos.
- 3 Kepler and Newton showed us better than anyone that Nature can be understood through simple, elegant mathematical equations.
- 4 Stars are inaccessible to us at this point in our scientific understanding.
- 5 If we ever do make contact with extraterrestrial life, the way we treat terrestrial life does not bode well for those encounters.
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