In 1980 (or thereabouts), one of the most amazing things happened. PBS aired a documentary. That’s not unusual in and of itself, but this was a documentary about science. A relatively unknown science guy talked about evolution, cosmology, the history of math, and how science works.
Carl Sagan and Cosmos became household names.
I was 8 at the time. I don’t know why my dad watched it, but he did and I watched with him. I’m reminded of the scene from The Secret of NIHM, where Nicodemus says “we saw the words and understood”.
I didn’t get it then, but I knew that this stuff was amazing. It was, literally, life-altering for me. I’d always been a dinosaur kid. I was into dinosaurs long before they were cool. My mom made me a stuffed stegosaurus because they just didn’t exist at the time.
Now… now it’s time for a new generation to be inspired by the wonder that is Cosmos.
http://youtu.be/gklrONZ51w8
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is certainly a worthy successor to Carl Sagan.
and I am really looking forward to this… and to sharing it with my son.
