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Cosmos (1980) is a popular science book by astronomer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan. Its 13 illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos TV series on which the book was based, explore the mutual development of science and civilization. Spurred in part by the popularity of the TV series, Cosmos spent 50 weeks on the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list and 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list to become the best-selling science book ever published at the time. In 1981, it received the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book. The book's unprecedented success ushered in a dramatic increase in visibility for science-themed literature. The success of the book also jumpstarted Sagan's literary career. The sequel to Cosmos is Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994).

One of Sagan's main purposes for this book (and the television series) was to have a chance to explain complex scientific ideas to anyone interested in learning. He wished to distance himself more from hard science, as he sometimes "didn't have the patience" for it. Sagan also believed the television was one of the greatest teaching tools ever invented, so he wished to capitalize on his chance to educate the world.

Summary
Cosmos has 13 heavily illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos television series. In the book, Sagan explores 15 billion years of cosmic evolution and the development of science and civilization. Cosmos traces the origins of knowledge and the scientific method, mixing science and philosophy, and speculates to the future of science. The book also discusses the underlying premises of science by providing biographical anecdotes about many prominent scientists throughout history, placing their contributions into the broader context of the development of modern science. Cornell News Service characterized the book as "an overview of how science and civilization grew up together."

The book covers a broad range of topics, comprising Sagan's reflections on anthropological, cosmological, biological, historical, and astronomical matters from antiquity to contemporary times. Sagan reiterates his position on extraterrestrial life—that the magnitude of the universe permits the existence of thousands of alien civilizations, but no credible evidence exists to demonstrate that such life has ever visited earth. The book, as well as the television series, contains a number of Cold War undertones including subtle references to self-destruction and the futility of the arms race.

Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean — Sagan introduces the book in an elegant, wonderful way. If the entire 15 - 20 billion year history of the universe were condensed into a single day, the first human beings would only have appeared mere hours ago. Yet, in this minuscule timeframe, humans have made incredible strides in understanding who we are and where we came from. Continued imagination is the only way to guarantee these scientific strides continue.

Chapter 2: One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue — The chapter deals with man's continued search for our origins. Sagan details the theory of creation of life on Earth. Sagan goes on to speculate on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, based on the manufactured recreation of nucleotides and amino acids in lab settings.

Chapter 3: The Harmony of Worlds — The chapter recounts the history the study of laws of physics governing the movements of planets and large bodies in space. The chapter outlines the rise of astrology and astronomy as two intertwined subjects.

Chapter 4: Heaven and Hell — Sagan explains the delicate balance between destructive and creative forces. Sagan also outlines how destructive forces from the cosmos (namely comets, moons, and meteors) became myths and legens of ancient civilizations.

Chapter 5: Blues for a Red Planet —This chapter focuses on our nearest planet, Mars. Sagan outlines how Mars captured the imaginations of early people, creating the "Martian" alien life we know today. It recounts The War of the Worlds radio broadcast terrifying thousands of Americans. It also goes on to explain how our view of the planet changed as we grew to know more and more of the planet, especially once scientists were able to drop landers on the surface of the planet. He also explains some scientific theory to one day terraform and colonize Mars.

Chapter 6: Travelers' Tales — In this chapter, Sagan parallels early Earth exploration undertaken by Columbus and other early explorers to our exploration of space through the use of advanced technology.

Chapter 7: The Backbone of Night —The chapter details the growth of Ionia, the "birthplace of science." Sagan explains that some time around 600 B.C., the Ionians began to believe that the universe was inherently knowable. Their views split from the dominating beliefs of mysticism and legend, and the Ionian people created the scientific method. Their thoughts laid the groundwork for physics, biology, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.

Chapter 8: Travels in Space and Time — Sagan writes about the relationship between time and the speed of light in this chapter. He explains the process of time dilation, and hypothesizes on the future of relativistic space vehicles — space ships that travel so near the speed of light that passengers inside experience nearly no time in relation to the world outside of the ship.

Chapter 9: The Lives of the Stars — This chapter details the life cycle of a star from birth to death. It explains that stars are powered through fusion, and explains that nearly every element in the universe was created by a star. Sagan explains the likely death of our own Sun as it will fade from its current state to a red giant, then collapse into a white dwarf, then cool into a black nothing.

Chapter 10: The Edge of Forever — This chapter explains how scientists are working to predict and study the future of the universe by studying how bodies are moving away from each other in space.

Chapter 11: The Persistence of Memory — Sagan parallels the similarity of a human and whale brain in this chapter, attempting to show just how similar all life on this planet is. He goes on to explain just how complex the process of communication is.

Chapter 12: Encyclopaedia Galactica — This chapter explains that the laws of physics are universal in nature. Sagan calls them the "Rosetta Stone of space." He theorizes that the only true way to make significant contact with extraterrestrial life is through the use of these universal laws. Sagan goes on to note that any contact with intelligent alien life would drastically change our civilization on Earth.

Chapter 13: Who Speaks for Earth? — This chapter broadly summarizes the book. It notes just how many incredible strides humans have made to both better understand outer space and our own existence. This chapter has heavy anti-war and anti-weapon undertones. Sagan highlights the need to take better care of the Earth from an ecological standpoint. Finally, Sagan states that we must look to the past for possible solutions in the future.

Style and Contents
Cosmos utilizes a light, conversational tone to render complex scientific topics readable for a lay audience. On many topics, the book encompasses a more concise, refined presentation of previous ideas about which Sagan had written. One critic characterized the book as containing religious rhetoric in its descriptions of science and the universe. Peter Lawler, a political science professor, believes Sagan's religious rhetoric was very intentional. He believes Sagan uses images of God to describe what contact with extraterrestrial life may bring. Sagan also uses religious images as loose metaphors to help explain large, difficult concepts.

Cosmos is not just about the mysteries of space. Sagan leads every chapter with a philosophical quote to remind readers that the universe is not simply stars and planets, but a link between all things. He reminds readers what "we are all star stuff," and, though it seems humans are currently alone in space, the universe was not created for our race to thrive, but that we are a product of something much larger. Sagan's book explicitly supports the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, as he believes the extraterrestrials will be able to spur an enormous change in life on Earth.

Popularity
Shortly after release, Cosmos became the best-selling science book ever published in the English language,   and was the first science book to sell more than half a million copies. Though spurred in part by the popularity of the television series, Cosmos became a best-seller by its own regard, reaching hundreds of thousands of readers. It was only surpassed in the late 1980s by Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. Cosmos spent 50 weeks on the Publishers Weekly best-seller's list, and 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. . Cosmos sold over 900,000 copies while on these lists, and continued popularity has allowed Cosmos to sell about five million copies internationally. Shortly after Cosmos was published, Sagan received a $2 million advance for the novel Contact. This was the largest release given for an unwritten fiction book at the time. The success of Cosmos made Sagan "wealthy as well as famous." It also ushered in a dramatic increase in visibility for science books, opening up new options and readership for the previously fledgling genre. Science historian Bruce Lewenstein of Cornell University noted that among science books "Cosmos marked the moment that something different was clearly going on."

After the success of Cosmos, Sagan turned into an early scientific celebrity. He appeared on many television programs and wrote a regular column for Parade magazine and worked to continually advance the popularity of the science genre.

Impact
Lewenstein also noted the power of the book as a recruitment tool. Along with Microbe Hunters and The Double Helix, he described Cosmos as one of the "books that people cite as 'Hey, the reason I'm a scientist is because I read that book'." Particularly in astronomy and physics, he said, the book inspired many people to become scientists. Sagan has also been called the "most successful popularizing scientist of our time," for his ability to draw such a large and varied audience.

The popularity of Sagan's Cosmos has been referenced in arguments supporting increased space exploration spending Sagan's book was also referenced in Congress by Arthur C. Clarke in a speech promoting an end to Cold War anti-ICBM spending, instead arguing that the anti-ICBM budget would be better spent on Mars exploration.

Critical reception
Reception for Sagan's work was, for the most part, very positive. In The New York Times Book Review, novelist James Michener praised Cosmos as "a cleverly written, imaginatively illustrated summary of [Sagan's]... ruminations about our universe... His style is iridescent, with lights flashing upon unexpected juxtapositions of thought." David Whitehouse of the British Broadcasting Corporation went so far as to say that "there is not a book on astronomy – in fact not one on science – that comes close to the eloquence and intellectual sweep of Cosmos... If we send just one book to grace the libraries of distant worlds..., let it be Cosmos." Kirkus Reviews described the book as "Sagan at his best." In 1981, Cosmos received the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book.