Chapter 2 In memory of Sagan

It has been almost two years since the world-renowned scientist and science popularizer Carl Sagan (Car Sagan, November 9, 1934-December 20, 1996) has left us. Now my country has officially published the Chinese translation of his popular science masterpiece. It should be said that It is the best memorial to him. On December 26, 1997, "Science and Technology Daily" published a full-page article in the "Solar Wind" supplement to commemorate the first anniversary of his death, including Wang Huazhi's "Remembrance of the Brain", Bian Yulin's "The Most Successful Science Popularizer", "A Tribute to Carl Sagan" by Yin Chuanhong, "The Spirit of Science Lives Long" by Li Daguang, and "We Want to Meet Sagan" by Li Yuan.There is also a commemorative long article by Pan Tao, which will be published in another issue.They all praised and remembered a dead scientist and writer from different angles and in different styles.This is because Carl Sagan has made significant contributions to mankind both in science and popularization.No wonder that shortly after the Mars Pathfinder landed safely on Mars on July 4, 1997, the Mars rover was renamed the "Carl Sagan Memorial Station."

A biography of Carl Sagan is included in this commemorative issue: From the above introduction, we can already have a general understanding of Carl Sagan's extraordinary achievements. After reading it, we can understand his profound knowledge.Lively thinking, ingenious writing and extraordinary ability and talent to control complex and huge subjects.The American "Time" magazine praised him as a narrator of the universe and a scientific actor.His scientific research achievements have promoted the development of astronomy and space science; the scientific knowledge and scientific spirit disseminated by his popular science creation have played a subtle role in the minds of hundreds of millions of people around the world.The world-renowned science popularizer Asimov once called Sagan "the most successful science popularizer in history".

Li Daguang said in the commemorative article: "Carl Sagan is a great science popularization writer, science popularization activist, and educator." In 1980, he wrote and directed a large-scale scientific TV series, which was translated into more than 10 languages , screened in more than 60 countries and regions, with an audience of 500 million!The popular science book accompanying the TV series was a New York Times bestseller for 70 consecutive weeks and has the largest circulation of any English-language popular science book in history—more than five million copies in more than 80 countries .Dr. Sagan's last book, A World In A Haunted World: Science, A Candle To Shine The Darkness, was completed six months before his death.This is a rare work in recent years that explores the struggle between science and pseudoscience.Immediately after the book was published, it aroused great repercussions in the United States.In 1996, it topped the list of the best bestsellers.

In the 1980s, I suggested to China Central Television to introduce a TV film. Later, Bian Yulin and Wu Boze all translated the film.We hope that through the publication of this book, we will once again appeal to the TV series and hope that it will be officially broadcast as soon as possible. During my visit to the United States in 1995, I paid special attention to the popularity of Carl Sagan's book.It is found that his various popular science works are circulating everywhere, and his video tapes are still on sale and promoted, and are still the most popular popular science TV films. The two articles "From "Popular Astronomy" to" written by my mentor and the famous astronomer Li Heng (1898～1989) more than ten years ago and "Sagan sum" written by me still have reference value, so they are still included in the In this version (see appendix 3, appendix 4), by the way, explain here.

Li Yuan June 1998 in Beijing