The popular culture of today’s youth has focused on witches, wizards, hobbits and comic-book superheroes long enough. It’s time for science to reclaim its role as a source of inspiration.
There are signs that this is starting to happen: not just the popularity of the film Gravity, but the explosion in recent years of TV documentaries about science, and space in particular. The long-awaited return of a popular documentary series this week aims to raise the bar even further.
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is based on a 13-part series from 1980 called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (German title: Unser Kosmos). Both series have the aim of explaining — to anyone — all the major areas of science, their origins and their importance. That’s a very tall order, and one that only the best of presenters can pull off.
Carl Sagan, host of the original series, was personally involved in the major aspects of space exploration from the 1960s to the 1990s. His first book, Intelligent Life in the Universe, discussed in a scientific way how alien life could develop and how it might be contacted. Sagan played a major part in designing the spacecraft that explored other planets, and evaluating the data those spacecraft sent back. He knew what he was talking about, and he knew how to explain it. He understood that his job depended on funding from public sources. He knew how to talk to senators and other informed, educated adults.
Neil de Grasse Tyson, host of the new series, has also been involved in various fields of astronomical research, though less prominently. He is best known as the director of Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He knows how to talk to children and families — those who will later vote for the senators who decide whether to fund science.
The original Cosmos is very rare among documentaries in that it hasn’t aged. Sagan was careful to talk about what was known, not what was speculated upon, and he identified some of the areas of science that would be key for another decade or two. Almost every word that Sagan said is still true.
There is still plenty for the new series to talk about. Science has advanced considerably in the past 34 years. Sagan talked a lot about DNA, but to him, the advances in genetics that we take for granted were still a way off. The word “nanotechnology” did not exist in 1980, nor did any of the things it has made possible. Sagan’s backdrop of a world threatened by Cold War hostility has given way to one of global interdependence.
Plenty of connections and parallels to the original series remain, though. Sagan chose the name Cosmos for its double meaning. In English, it’s another word for “universe” — everything one could ever discover or discuss. The Greek word “cosmos”, however, also means “order”. Its antithesis: “chaos”.
Sagan and Tyson both view the history of science as a triumph over fear, superstition and chaos. Sagan famously railed against creationists, but from the ivory tower of American public television. Tyson is taking that battle to the fundamentalists in middle America by airing his show on the Fox network.
The original series was written by Sagan and novelist Ann Druyan, who married Sagan in 1981. The language is literary, poetic, measured, and eminently quotable: “The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.” “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” “We are made of star-stuff.”
Druyan also wrote Tyson’s script for the new show. That’s a good thing. Tyson is part Sagan, part Will Smith; he does an amazing job at explaining complex concepts in simple terms, but he can also get so breathless with excitement that he stops making sense. Being scripted slows him down.
Sagan’s show could have followed a highbrow adaptation of Shakespeare on evening television. Tyson’s show airs right after the latest episode of Family Guy. But even there, there’s a connection. The new Cosmos would not be possible without Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, who got the show produced and funded.
Cultural clashes all around, but very much up to date and all in the name of science. The new series is being shown on domestic and international versions of the Fox and National Geographic channels.
