Are Carl Sagan's books still accurate?

[Ourrah]

@Wendell_Wagner

Yes, but Sagan said “billions” so many times that I figured that I had to make up for it by saying it less often.

Well played sir.

[BrotherCadfael]

@digs

But what do I do when the party bogs down, and I know I can save it with my vast storehouse of Fitzgerald Contraction jokes?

There was a young fellow named Fiske
Whose fencing was exceedingly brisk
So fast was his action
That the Fitzgerald Contraction
Reduced his rapier to a disk

[The_Hamster_King]

@Free_Range_Otter

The title pretty much says it all. If I sat down and read Cosmos, and then spoke about it at the next cocktail party* to show how smart I am, would the astrophysicists there** laugh me out of the room?

I have been to cocktail parties with astrophysicists.

You’re not going to impress them with ANY knowledge you’ve culled from popular science books, whether it’s correct or not. What will impress them is intelligent questions about their work. Most academics never get an opportunity to talk about what they do with anyone outside their field. So if you make a little effort and ask them to explain their work in language a layman can understand, most of them are thrilled to have the opportunity to share.

[BrainGlutton]

I’m sure The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is as current now as in 1995.

[BrainGlutton]

@Wendell_Wagner

Yes, but Sagan said “billions” so many times that I figured that I had to make up for it by saying it less often.

“I never said it.”

– Preface to Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium