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Review by Michael Sims
When he died in December 1996 at the tragically young age of 62, Carl Sagan left behind a formidable legacy. As President of the Planetary Society, Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell, and a prominent influence on NASA, Sagan was involved in many of the most important scientific issues of our time, from the search for extraterrestrial life to the battle against nuclear weapons.
The tone of some of the essays in "Billions and Billions" can be found in the titles of the three parts. "The Power and Beauty of Quantification" describes in six essays the delight in learning about the ways of the universe. Part II, "What Are Conservatives Conserving?", addresses everything from the depletion of the ozone layer to ways in which science and religion can work together for the common good. "Where Hearts and Minds Collide" is the title of Part III. Topics include abortion, the responsibilities of citizenship, and the evolution of moral precepts such as the Golden Rule.
The most poignant of all these essays is the last, "In the Valley of the Shadow," Sagan's account of his struggle with myelodysplasia. Late in 1994, doctors suddenly informed Sagan that he had six months to live unless he acted immediately. Chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants were his only hope. Sagan tells the story with his usual wit and lucidity, and ends on a hopeful note in October 1996. Two months later he died.
Sagan's longtime personal and professional collaborator, his wife Ann Druyan, adds a moving epilogue in which she describes Sagan's last days. There were no deathbed recantations of his lack of religious faith. Sagan ends the book with a quotation from Albert Einstein:
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"I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature." |
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