Broca's Brain

Zusatztext Magnificent . . . Delightful . . . A masterpiece. A message of tremendous hope for humanity . . . While ever conscious that human folly can terminate man's march into the future! Sagan nonetheless paints for us a mind-boggling future: intelligent robots! the discovery of extraterrestrial life and its consequences! and above all the challenge and pursuit of the mystery of the universe. Chicago Tribune Go out and buy this book! because Carl Sagan is not only one of the world's most respected scientists! he's a great writer. . . . I can give a book no greater accolade than to say I'm planning on reading it again. And again. And again. The Miami Herald The brilliant astronomer . . . is persuasive! provocative and readable. United Press International Closely reasoned! impeccably researched! gently humorous! utterly devastating. The Washington Post Informationen zum Autor Carl Sagan served as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service. His Emmy- and Peabodywinning television series, Cosmos, became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. The accompanying book, also called Cosmos, is one of the bestselling science books ever published in the English language. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal, and many other awardsincluding twenty honorary degrees from American colleges and universitiesfor his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment. In their posthumous award to Dr. Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his research transformed planetary science . . . his gifts to mankind were infinite." Dr. Sagan died on December 20, 1996. Klappentext A fascinating book on the joys of discovering how the world works, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cosmos and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. "Magnificent . . . Delightful . . . A masterpiece. A message of tremendous hope for humanity . . . While ever conscious that human folly can terminate man's march into the future, Sagan nonetheless paints for us a mind-boggling future: intelligent robots, the discovery of extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and above all the challenge and pursuit of the mystery of the universe."-Chicago Tribune "Go out and buy this book, because Carl Sagan is not only one of the world's most respected scientists, he's a great writer. . . . I can give a book no greater accolade than to say I'm planning on reading it again. And again. And again."-The Miami Herald "The brilliant astronomer . . . is persuasive, provocative and readable."-United Press International "Closely reasoned, impeccably researched, gently humorous, utterly devastating."-The Washington PostCHAPTER 1 BROCA'S BRAIN They were apes only yesterday. Give them time. Once an apealways an ape. No, it will be different. Come back here in an age or so and you shall see. The gods, discussing the Earth, in the motion picture version of H. G. Wells' The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) IT WAS A MUSEUM, in a way like any other, this Musée de l'Homme, Museum of Man, situated on a pleasant eminence with, from the restaurant plaza in back, a splendid view of the Eiffel Tower. We were there to talk with Yves Coppens, the able associate director of the museum and a distinguished paleoanthropologist. Coppens had studied the ancestors of mankind, their fossils being found in Olduvai G...

Autorentext

Carl Sagan served as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service.

His Emmy- and Peabody–winning television series, Cosmos, became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. The accompanying book, also called Cosmos, is one of the bestselling science books ever published in the English language. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal, and many other awards—including twenty honorary degrees from American colleges and universities—for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment. In their posthumous award to Dr. Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his “research transformed planetary science . . . his gifts to mankind were infinite." Dr. Sagan died on December 20, 1996.

Klappentext

A fascinating book on the joys of discovering how the world works, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cosmos and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

"Magnificent . . . Delightful . . . A masterpiece. A message of tremendous hope for humanity . . . While ever conscious that human folly can terminate man's march into the future, Sagan nonetheless paints for us a mind-boggling future: intelligent robots, the discovery of extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and above all the challenge and pursuit of the mystery of the universe."-Chicago Tribune

"Go out and buy this book, because Carl Sagan is not only one of the world's most respected scientists, he's a great writer. . . . I can give a book no greater accolade than to say I'm planning on reading it again. And again. And again."-The Miami Herald

"The brilliant astronomer . . . is persuasive, provocative and readable."-United Press International

"Closely reasoned, impeccably researched, gently humorous, utterly devastating."-The Washington Post

Leseprobe
CHAPTER 1
 
BROCA’S BRAIN
 
 
 
“They were apes only yesterday.
Give them time.”
“Once an ape—always an ape.”…
“No, it will be different.… Come back here in
an age or so and you shall see.…”
 
The gods, discussing the Earth, in the motion
picture version of H. G. Wells’ The Man Who
Could Work Miracles (1936)
 
IT WAS A MUSEUM, in a way like any other, this Musée de l’Homme, Museum of Man, situated on a pleasant eminence with, from the restaurant plaza in back, a splendid view of the Eiffel Tower. We were there to talk with Yves Coppens, the able associate director of the museum and a distinguished paleoanthropologist. Coppens had studied the ancestors of mankind, their fossils being found in Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana, in Kenya and Tanzania and Ethiopia. Two million years ago there were four-foot-high creatures, whom we call Homo habilis, living in East Africa, shearing and chipping and flaking stone tools, perhaps building simple dwellings, their brains in the course of a spectacular enlargement that would lead one day—to us.
 
Institutions of this sort have a public and a private side. The public side includes the exhibits in ethnography, say, or cultural anthropology: the costumes of the Mongols, or bark cloths painted by Native Americans, some perhaps prepared especially for sale to voyageurs and enterprising French anthropologists. But in the innards of the place there are other things: people engaged in the construction of exhibits; vast storerooms of items inappropriate, because of subject matter or space, for general exhibition; and areas for research. We were led through a warren of dark, musty rooms, ranging from cubicles to rotundas. Research materials overflowed into the corridors: a reconstruction of a Paleolithic cave floor, showing where the antelope bones had been thrown after…