Posted by Amanda on December 31, 1996 at 01:13:01:
In Reply to: Re: Carl Sagan posted by Frederick Brenion on December 30, 1996 at 20:29:43:
: : When I subscribed to "Skeptic" magazine over the holidays - the woman who took the call mentioned that they were working on a tribute issue on Carl Sagan much like their first issue on Asimov. It will no doubt be a beauty so I thought I'd share the info. He was a great man and I was looking at other great minds that have died such as Asimov and Russell and a host of others and I'm wondering if anyone has any examples of ones that are alive today - fighting to get science out to the people and perhaps minimizing the effects of religion and mysticism in the process? One I can think of is Stephen J. Gould.
: You might want to have a look at Richard Dawkins. His books are very
: well written and accessible. He is the English equivalent to Gould.
: Some of his titles are The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, The
: Selfish Gene, and Climbing Mount Improbable.
: There's a great web page on him at http://www.spacelab.net/~catalj/
: The funny squiggle before catalj is a spanish tilda.
: I'm going to miss Sagan, like Asimov he could explain everything
: so well, with wonder and humor.
Yes, I read the Selfish Gene in University and have always meant to pick up the Blind Watchmaker. For a moment while I was reading your comments I thought of Stephen Hawkings but I don't much care for his writing - it's a bit dry and choppy.