Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
no more than spark the sense of wonder. To do that, it is sufficient
to provide a glimpse of the findings of science without thoroughly
explaining how those findings were achieved. It is easier to
portray the destination than the journey. But, where possible,
popularizers should try to chronicle some of the mistakes, false
starts, dead ends and apparently hopeless confusion along the
way. At least every now and then, we should provide the evidence
and let the reader draw his or her own conclusion. This converts
obedient assimilation of new knowledge into personal discovery.
When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last
person on Earth to see the light - you never forget it.
As a youngster, I was inspired by the popular science books
and articles of George Gamow, James Jeans, Arthur Eddington,
J.B.S. Haldane, Julian Huxley, Rachel Carson and Arthur
C. Clarke - all of them trained in, and most of them leading
practitioners of science. The popularity of well-written, wellexplained,
deeply imaginative books on science that touch our
hearts as well as our minds seems greater in the last twenty
years than ever before, and the number and disciplinary
diversity of scientists writing these books is likewise unprecedented.
Among the best contemporary scientist-popularizers,
I think of Stephen Jay Gould, E.O. Wilson, Lewis Thomas and
Richard Dawkins in biology; Steven Weinberg, Alan Lightman
and Kip Thorne in physics; Roald Hoffmann in chemistry; and
the early works of Fred Hoyle in astronomy. Isaac Asimov
wrote capably on everything. (And while requiring calculus, the
most consistently exciting, provocative and inspiring science
popularization of the last few decades seems to me to be
Volume I of Richard Feynman's Introductory Lectures on
Physics.) Nevertheless, current efforts are clearly nowhere near
commensurate with the public good. And, of course, if we can't
read, we can't benefit from such works, no matter how inspiring
they are.
I want us to rescue Mr 'Buckley' and the millions like him. I also
want us to stop turning out leaden, incurious, uncritical and
unimaginative high school seniors. Our species needs, and
deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding
of how the world works.
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