As a big Sagan fan, I recommend one of his other books!

books:


	• Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science Carl Sagan Ballantine Books, 1986 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent

This is a great book. Some of the science is a little outdated, but Carl Sagan always provides and enjoyable and interesting read.

As a big Sagan fan, I recommend one of his other books!

PROS: Classic, elegant prose from one of the best science writers of all time. Sagan was a genius of making science interesting to the masses and his works reflect that.

CONS:
(1) This book is disjointed. It feels like a collection of independent essays or lectures that were all brought together. There is little flow from chapter to chapter and the sections of the book are somewhat arbitrary and broad. It doesn't flow as well from chapter to chapter as Sagan's other books.
(2) The book is dated. It's not Sagan's fault, but this book is out of date. Written in the 1970s, we have since learned so much about the universe. It's interesting to hear Sagan speculate about certain planets and other things we now know about. It's cool to see how accurate many of his speculations were. Nevertheless, to learn more about the universe, you should read a book written in the 21st century.

CONCLUSION: I love Sagan! I enjoyed this book. But it's disjoined and dated nature made me give it only 3 stars. He has written other better books, like "Cosmos", "Billions and Billions", and "Dragons of Eden". I also enjoyed "Contact", which is fiction. Although all those books are also dated, they have a more timeless message.

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The antidote to science class

Most of us who have been educated in the American public school system quickly learned to dread science classes as one of the more boring times of the day. The study of science class in elementary school was usually a teacher reading the text and often being reluctant to address any questions that were not covered in the teacher's edition. In high school the teacher (often hired more for their coaching expertise than academic considerations) would assign reading from the text and not welcome questions not covered in the teacher's edition. Learning was considered accomplished when the students could relate facts memorized from the text. Along the way most of us lost the desire to ask 'why' and simply calculated the time until we could escape as we memorized what was necessary to pass the next test.

Dr Sagan has managed to make science interesting again, to awaken the spark of curiosity that has sadly been extinguished in so many. His writing is clear and eloquent as he invites his readers to share his love of asking 'why?' He explains how scientists look at problems, how to question authorities and determine their worth. In short he manages to undo some of the damage inflicted by years of boring science classes.

This is a compilation of articles Sagan wrote for various magazines (including PLAYBOY - maybe sometimes it was purchased for the articles) during the mid to late 70's. The overlying theme is the general allure of science but also it provides a description of how scientists think about the world around them. The topics covered range from popular science fiction, mythology, frauds and pseudoscience and the 'current state' of scientific research. The age of the various articles has in some cases obscured the work - few readers today have heard of Velikovsky, a charletan who had a wide following in the 1940's and 50's, for example. In other instances the passage of time has added a new dimension to the article - we can see how well the then planned scientific research was carried out and what the results have been so far.

The format of short articles that can be read in any order lends itself to reading in short bursts (as opposed to settling in for a few uninterrupted hours) making this a perfect book to take along to fill in those odd minutes on the morning commute, or waiting to pick up the kids. Each article takes just a few minutes to read but will provide plenty to think about long after.

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For the Love of Knowledge Sagan is simply the best!

Carl Segan's love of science and enthusiasm for sharing it with others is evident in all of his work. Sagan writes in a way that teaches fascinating information. His writing style is engaging, non-intimidating and fun. He ignites and sometimes re-ignites people's fascination with science and the universe.

I read Broca's brain years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. Subjects such as solar sailing using ion pressure, why earth has an atmosphere, can we know the universe and more were great to read.

One telling explanation about the motivation of people helps sum up Sagan's attitude about science: He writes:

"As the great captain of industry is moved by the love of wealth and the politician by the love of power, so the astronomer is moved by the love of knowledge for its own sake and not for the sake of its application. Yet he is proud to know that his science has been worth more to mankind that it has cost."

Overall a great book that teaches and inspires!

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

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An Endorsement of the Rational

John W. Campbell, Jr. had many virtues as a science writer. He was well-trained in science (mostly at M.I.T.), and he had a wide range of interests. He was curious, creative, and intelligent. He was a skillful writer. But he had a weakness. He wanted to see "scientific orthodoxy" overturned, and so he was a sucker for a multitude of pseudoscientific fads-- dianetics, the Hieronymous machine, dowsing rods, the Dean drive, and psionics. In recent years, the science writer Jeffery Kooistra has expressed a Campbellian sympathy for fringe areas of science. (Lest you think that this is intended as a slam against Kooistra, let me say at once that I find his science essays to be consistently well-written and stimulating.)

Most of the top science writers associated with science fiction-- Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Hal Clement, Tony Rothman, Willy Ley, Ben Bova, Robert S. Richardson, Poul Anderson, and Carl Sagan-- are much more resistant to pseudoscience. They may write about Charles Fort, Immanuel Velikovsky, dianetics, the Dean drive, Atlantis, pyramidology, ancient astronauts or the face on Mars. But they write as critics, not as converts. Most of the best science writers are adept in what Carl Sagan labels "the fine art of balony detection".

Part two of _Broca's Brain_ (1980), "The Paradoxers," deals with pseudoscientific topics. "Night Walkers and Mystery Mongers: Sense and Nonsense at the Edge of Science" is a critique of past hoaxes or bandwagons-- astral projection, spirit rapping, the Cardiff giant, precognitive dreams-- with rational interpretations. Sagan closes with a list of some real-life scientific wonders. "White Dwarfs and Little Green Men" discusses some mysteries of the primitive Dogon tribe and concludes that the solution _does_ involve aliens... but not from outer space. "Norman Bloom, Messenger of God" is a portrait of a man intent on proving mathematically that he is the secvond coming of Christ. Sagan seems to harbor a certain affection for him. "Science Fiction-- A personal View" praises the field for its capacity to inspire wonder in science but criticises most of the science as badly done.

Perhaps the single most controversial essay in this section is the lengthly "Venus and Dr. Velikovsky," which was originally written for a Velikovsky symposium in 1974. I have read several accounts that Sagan did not treat Velikovsky well during this conference. I reserve judgement on this issue. But the article is a reasoned and thorough rebuttal to Velikovsky's ideas presented in _Worlds in Collision_ (1950). The article criticises Velikovsky's use of myths and legends and critiques ten scientific problems (ejection of Venus by Jupiter, repeated collisions among different heavenly bodies, the Earth's rotation, manna from heaven, etc.). I have read responses to this article that argue that some of the science is "bad" or "irrelevant". I am not persuaded. Sagan seems to be on target on all counts.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Carl Sagan, writer and scientist, returns from the frontier to tell us about how the world works. In his delightfully down-to-earth style, he explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consquences, and other provocative, fascinating quandries of the future that we want to see today.

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