Return of “Cosmos”

Remaking a scientific epic

Books & artsMar 17th 2014 edition

CARL SAGAN, an American astronomer and one of the 20th century’s great popularisers of science, had no time for TV snobs. He believed that television was a great educational tool. And he proved his theory in 1980 when he presented “Cosmos”, a sweeping and lyrical account of the beauty of the universe, the history of civilisation, and the unparalleled power of science to illuminate reality.

The series was one of the most popular programmes ever made by America's Public Broadcasting Service and was watched by more than half a billion people. The book that accompanied it has been classed by the Library of Congress as one of 88 books that shaped America’s culture. Speak to scientists under 50—especially astronomers—and there is a good chance that they will admit that “Cosmos” was one reason they chose the career they did.

Perhaps the same will be true in another 30 years; the mode for reboots has caught up with “Cosmos”. Fox, a big commercial network, has commissioned a remake that begins on March 9th. Sagan died in 1996. The new presenter is Neil deGrasse Tyson (pictured) an astronomer who runs New York’s Hayden Planetarium.

Fans of the original will be happy that the new version takes a reverential approach. It begins with exactly the same shot: the presenter on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The two big set pieces of the first episode—a journey through the universe in a computer-generated spaceship and a compression of the history of the universe into a single Earth year (all of recorded human history takes place in the final few seconds before midnight on December 31st)—were also in the original.

But there are changes, too. The original gave a potted history of astronomy back to the time of Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician who correctly inferred the circumference of the Earth in 200BC by measuring the shadows cast by sticks on the summer solstice in Alexandria and Syene (now Aswan). The remake focuses on Giordano Bruno, a 16th-century Italian heretic who held (with no proof) that the sun was simply another star and that the universe was infinite and filled with other worlds.

And of course the science has moved on, too. In Sagan’s time Pluto was still a planet; Dr Tyson gives a concise defence of the decision, in 2006, to downgrade it. Sagan could only speculate that other stars possessed planets of their own. Modern scientists have discovered thousands of them, implying that there are uncountable billions of other worlds scattered across our own galaxy alone.

Sagan was right. Used properly, television can educate and inspire awe as well as any book, painting or film.

Correction: “Cosmos” was made by America’s Public Broadcasting Service, not its Public Broadcasting System as we originallyl suggested. This was corrected on March 17th 2014.

This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "Starry-eyed"

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