“Cosmos: Possible Worlds” by Ann Druyan

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fascinating and at times, personal, journey through time, space, and history by the author as she explores not the just the universe as we know it, but also the various stories of people throughout history who have placed the importance of science and other people above their own. The book is not only about ‘Possible Worlds’ but also, like the first Cosmos series by Carl Sagan, a ‘Personal Journey’ by the author who not only wants the readers to see the wonders the universe has to offer, but also some of the trials she has to go through to keep the ideas and ideals of Carl Sagan alive.

“Ladder to the stars” gives an overview of the journey with the Cosmic Calendar (that compresses all of time from the Big Bang to the present into one calendar year). Highlights from the calendar are presented, from the creation of Earth, the rise of life on Earth, the rise of humanity until human civilisation is established.

“Oh, Mighty King” shows humanity’s struggle to understand the universe and the supernatural nature of good and evil in an unfeeling universe. The chapter begins with Zoroastrianism and ends with the story of the Indian Emperor Ashoka who started out being an embodiment of evil, yet was changed by Buddhism to become a paragon of good in India.

“Lost city of life” looks at how life might have developed on Earth, deep under the sea, in vast towers of minerals that sheltered and nurtured the first life forms. It then gives a brief look at the lives of some of the scientists who looked at chemistry and biochemistry and ends with a consideration of other worlds and moons in the Solar System that may well harbour life as we know it.

“Vavilov” tells the story of agriculture and the struggle to prevent hunger by growing better types of grains and other plants. It also tells the story of Nikolai Vavilov, a Russian scientist whose botanical skills would lead to the identification of the centre of origins for various agricultural plants. But his is not a happy story, for it takes place prior and during the Second World War and would involve Stalin and Trofim Lysenko.

“The cosmic connectome” looks at the brain and the mystery of its numerous connections that give us the ability to think and of awareness. Starting from how animals evolved the brain, the chapter also covers the history of brain research from recognising that the brain is the seat of thinking to the discovery of what different parts of the brain do, to detecting signals from the brain to current brain research that is revealing the large number of connections between neurons in the brain.

“The man of a trillion worlds” looks at the lives of two scientists during the period in the 20th century when the search for the beginnings of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets was being researched: Gerald Kuiper and Harold Urey. The chapter also looks at the graduate student who would be a bridge between them: Carl Sagan, who would also organise the first group to study how life might exist on other planets.

“The search for intelligent life on earth” considers the search for intelligent life in the universe by looking at what may be intelligent life on earth (besides us). From the web of fungi and plants to the ‘dance’ of bees, the examples chosen show what intelligent life might look like if we were consider the ways it expresses itself in the way communities of plants and animals live.

“The sacrifice of Cassini” gives an overview of what made the Cassini mission to Saturn possible. Starting with a history of the astronomical observations of Saturn, the chapter moves on to the story of the Russian who dreamed up the idea of gravitational assist, an idea that would make most interplanetary missions possible. The chapter ends with some of the discoveries made by the Cassini probe before it was commanded to end its mission by crashing into Saturn, to protect the moons of Saturn from possible contamination from Cassini.

“Magic without lies” looks at the strange nature of light. From the early arguments between Newton and Huygens over whether light is a wave or made up of particles, to the mysterious interference experiments of Thomas Young and the mysterious inner quantum nature of light shown by Bell’s Theorem, the chapter offers a glimpse that we still don’t really understand light, much like Flatlanders don’t really grasp the nature of the third dimension.

“A tale of two atoms” tells the tale of two kinds of atoms. One is carbon, which is the basis for life as we know it, the other is uranium, from which some of the most destructive weapons would be created. The two kinds of atoms would meet when humanity would harness uranium for its destructive power.

“The fleeting grace of the habitable zone” looks at what will happen as the sun ages. At first, it will give off more light (and heat), forcing humanity (if it still exists far in the future) to abandon Earth to live on worlds further from the sun. But as the sun becomes a white dwarf and cools, humanity will have no choice but to move to another star system. Is this possible? The author imagines the journey our ancestors did to navigate the great unknown oceans of Earth and believes such an incredible journey to other stars may one day be possible.

“Coming of age in the Anthropocene” this chapters looks at what humanity has done to change the earth enough that we are now living in a human-caused age. The rise of hunting, agriculture and, ultimately, technology, has enabled humanity to change and modify the Earth. More than that, humanity has the ability to predict what will happen in the future (via examples like the ozone hole caused by Chlorofluorocarbon, or climate change caused by increasing amounts of Carbon dioxide). But the question is whether humanity is willing to act on it.

“A possible world” end the book the way it started: with a look at the World’s Fair. While the introduction showed the 1939 World’s Fair seen by Carl Sagan, the one featured here shows a World’s Fair in the near future on a world recovering from the damage done by humanity. It is possible? Perhaps.

Book read from 2020/04/08 to 2020/04/19