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Nerd of the Week Thread #1: Carl Sagan

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Amaris

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NERD OF THE WEEK (#1): CARL SAGAN


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Wiki Bio said:
Carl Edward Sagan (/ˈseɪɡən/; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. His contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of Venus, he also perceived global warming as a growing, man-made danger. However, he is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages that were sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.

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He published more than 600 scientific papers[2] and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. Sagan is known for many of his popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain and Pale Blue Dot, and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. The most widely watched series in the history of American public television, Cosmos has been seen by at least 400 million people across 60 different countries.[3] The book Cosmos was published to accompany the series. He also wrote the science fiction novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.

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Sagan always advocated scientific skeptical inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National Academy of SciencesPublic Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Dragons of Eden, and, regarding Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and the Hugo Award.​
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Okay, fellow nerds! It's time to vote for the nerdiest public figure around (alive or dead).

Who fires up your bunsen burner? What makes your floating point null? Each week, we will choose from the nerdiest nerds who ever nerded, and you vote on them! At the end of some time or another, we'll do something about a march madness something, or perhaps not. That's quantum mechanics for you.

Here's how it works:

You vote on a scale of 1 to 5 pocket protectors. If you need to use a half, you can use a half (e.g., 3.5 Pocket Protectors). It can be through numbers, or pictograms, which I have generously provided below.

Pocket Protector Images:
(half)
(whole)

Scale:
1 = Lowest
2
3
4
5 = Highest

So, my fellow nerds? Who is your leader? Let's vote and find out!


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Five pocket protectors from me. Damn ... what I wouldn't have given to get my hands on his brain. He has inspired me. Billions and billions of times...
 
Five pocket protectors and four Buckminsterfullerenes.

That man took it up a notch.
 
Down for me. No disrespect to a 5-pocket-protector-legend, but I like females. :razz:
 
The man's teeth and groovy brown '70s turtlenecks were an integral part of my childhood watching PBS. Say what you want about his nose, but don't dis the choppers and fashions.

They were tight and outta sight.
 
Five pocket protectors and an honorary swirly, he's definitely one of my heroes. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the rug watching Cosmos. I've just listed Contact in my top ten books in the thread over in Misc, and I will forever be attracted to men in turtleneck/jacket combos. He was a great popularizer of science, and for that reason alone counts among the greatest people.

I would encourage everyone to watch all of the Sagan Series on youtube:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCfemmxqaRg[/yt]

After he died someone spray painted "CARL SAGAN CARED!" in massive letters across a sidewalk in Brooklyn, and I loved walking home over the Williamsburg bridge and looking down on it. I did a Sharpie picture of Sagan several years back in honor of both Sagan and that graffiti:
 
He and Ann Druyan wrote perhaps the greatest book ever published on comets and other deep space debris (Comet; 1986). That was one of my all-time favorite science tomes when I was growing up and at my side during the Halley's Comet visitation of '85-'86. I can still remember the little diagrams of the positions and locations of Halley's Comet that were printed in the upper corner of each page, depicting where it would be located in our solar system between the 19th century and 1986 and finally its next swing past Earth in the year 2061.
 
Honestly, I can listen to his narration of Pale Blue Dot any time, any day. Brilliantly written. And his narration is ... to die for.
 
Are we voting for do'ability? Because I vote no. But if we're just voting for all round general coolness, sure he can have some pocket protectors.
 
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