Cosmos
Journey through 15 billion years of cosmic evolution in this extraordinary exploration of the universe and our place within it. Carl Sagan's masterpiece takes you from the birth of galaxies to the inner workings of DNA, revealing how science and civilization grew up together. With over 250 stunning full-color illustrations, this visually spectacular book transforms complex scientific ideas into captivating stories anyone can understand.
Discover the revolutionary thinkers who dared to challenge dogma, from ancient Alexandria to the Space Age. Explore the planets of our solar system, witness the death of stars, and contemplate the possibility of intelligent life among billions of distant worlds. Sagan traces humanity's quest for knowledge through 13 richly illustrated chapters, each revealing new wonders about the cosmos and ourselves.
More than just astronomy, Cosmos examines the future of humanity and the choices that will determine our survival. It's a celebration of human curiosity, a warning about self-destruction, and an invitation to see ourselves as part of something infinitely larger. Winner of the Hugo Award and the best-selling science book of its time, this is the book that transformed how millions of people understand the universe.
Interesting Facts
Companion to TV Series: Cosmos was published in 1980 as a companion to the PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, with the book's 13 illustrated chapters corresponding exactly to the 13 episodes of the show, which was co-developed alongside the book to create a unified educational experience.
Record-Breaking Bestseller Phenomenon: Shortly after release, Cosmos became the best-selling science book ever published in the English language and was the first science book to sell more than half a million copies, spending an astonishing 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and 50 weeks on Publishers Weekly's list.
Won Science Fiction's Highest Honor: In 1981, Cosmos received the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, a remarkable achievement that recognized its literary excellence and placed it among the most celebrated works in science communication.
Sold Five Million Copies Worldwide: While Cosmos sold over 900,000 copies during its initial bestseller run, continued popularity has allowed it to sell approximately five million copies internationally, making it one of the most successful popular science books of all time.
Launched Sagan's Massive Book Deal: The success of Cosmos was so extraordinary that shortly after publication, Sagan received a $2 million advance for his novel Contact, which was the largest advance ever given for an unwritten fiction book at that time.
Transformed Science Publishing Forever: The unprecedented success of Cosmos ushered in a dramatic increase in visibility for science books, opening up new options and readership for what had previously been a fledgling genre, fundamentally changing the publishing landscape for popular science.
Inspired Generations of Scientists: Science historians describe Cosmos as one of the key books that people cite as their reason for becoming scientists, particularly in astronomy and physics, placing it alongside classics like Microbe Hunters and The Double Helix as a powerful recruitment tool for science.
Heavily Illustrated Visual Masterpiece: In the original edition, each chapter was heavily illustrated with over 250 full-color illustrations, many never before published, making it a visually stunning book that brought cosmic concepts to life on the page.
Only Surpassed by Hawking: Cosmos held its position as the bestselling science book ever published in English until the late 1980s, when it was finally surpassed by Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time in 1988.
Explores 15 Billion Years: The book explores 15 billion years of cosmic evolution and the development of science and civilization, tracing the origins of knowledge and the scientific method while mixing science and philosophy to speculate about the future.
Quotes
"Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another." - Carl Sagan
"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." - Carl Sagan
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan
"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you." - Carl Sagan
"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever." - Carl Sagan
"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors." - Carl Sagan
"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan
"The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together." - Carl Sagan
"The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." - Carl Sagan
"Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars." - Carl Sagan
"There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe." - Carl Sagan
"The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us - there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries." - Carl Sagan
"The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting." - Carl Sagan
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