Tomorrow marks the first annual Carl Sagan Day. It will be held at Broward College in the Miami area of Florida. It will be celebrated by people around the world however, by simply pausing to reflect on the life of a man who brought the wonders of Science to millions.

Sagan worried a lot about scientific literacy.  To have a functioning society, where the public makes thoughtful decisions on everything from environmental policy, to the funding of research and exploration, it’s a necessity.

Science education is not just for those who plan on studying science in college, or going into a field of research!

It’s needed for everyone.

Carl Sagan would be unhappy with the state of science literacy today. Particularly here in America, where large numbers of people believe that solid scientific foundations underpinning evolutionary biology and climate change are wrong.

Where books are published with almost laughable explanations of why these basic theories are supposedly wrong.

A public that has little or no scientific understanding, will not have the ability to recognize when they are being fed a load of political propaganda dressed up to resemble science.

I have written several times about Carl Sagan on these pages. His books and the famous TV series COSMOS are still watched and read by millions. The Pale Blue Dot is simply fabulous.

If you read just one book of his, then buy The Demon Haunted World.

After I published this post today, a viewer sent me a link to this. Feynman playing the Bongos!, Neil De Grasse Tyson, and of course Sagan.

Pause and remember Carl Sagan on Monday. He would have been 75. The world still needs him.

Later,

Dan