His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. Sagan has produced a valuable document on the side of scientific civilization and enlightened progress.Ī Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
He concludes with a passionate argument for the value of literacy and genuine education, noting that the inquiring mind needs a balance of wonder and skepticism to arrive at an informed understanding of the modern world. As partial remedy to the wave of pseudoscience, Sagan presents a brief course in ``baloney detection'' and a catalogue of logical fallacies. In particular, Sagan claims, many of the worst symptoms of irrational belief have been encouraged, or at least ignored, by entrenched power structures because they deflect attention from real problems in society. He points out parallels between medieval witch mania and our own UFO abduction mania, as well as similarities between posthypnotic memories of physically invasive examination during abduction and similar ``memories'' of abuse by satanic cults. As an astronomer, Sagan is especially plagued by reports of UFO visitations and abductions, so that is what he focuses on, analyzing these reports in detail, starting with the origins of the ``flying saucer'' craze in the pulp science fiction of the '30s and '40s. Despite the proven power of science to change the world, pseudoscience thrives-claiming as its adherents bright, inquisitive people who, according to Sagan, have not learned the basic techniques of careful inquiry. He starts with an anecdote of a cab driver who, upon learning that his passenger was ``that scientist guy,'' insisted on quizzing him on UFOs, Atlantis, the shroud of Turin, and similar topics from the fringes of rational discourse.
Sagan (Pale Blue Dot, 1994, etc.) takes it as his mission to defend the worth and importance of science against the irrational crossfire of New Age philosophies and religious fundamentalism.
Alarmed by the rise of superstition and pseudoscience, a leading science writer rallies the forces of reason and scientific literacy.
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