"If you think a Googol is large, consider a Googolplex..."

"If you think a Googol is large, consider a Googolplex..."

Every now and then we'll cover a series or a person who means a great deal to us, and I was determined to do justice to Carl Sagan and his stunning series 'Cosmos'.

Growing up in rural Dorset, I was blessed with amazingly clear skies in the winter and it was almost inevitable that I would develop an interest in astronomy and an appreciation of the vastness of the universe. But it takes people such as Carl Sagan to communicate the wonders of cosmology to a general audience and 'Cosmos' is one of the definitive documentary series, ranking alongside David Attenborough's 'Life On Earth' and Jacob Bronowski's 'The Ascent Of Man'.

I first came across Carl's genius for holding the attention of an audience with his six Christmas Lectures in 1977, which were themed around the planets. Thankfully, these are available from the Royal Institution website and it was a pleasure to see these again after some 40 years. Blimey, I'm starting to feel old!

The DVD release of 'Cosmos' did not disappoint. Over 13 episodes, Sagan takes us on a journey through the history of astronomy and cosmology. We encounter black holes, two-dimensional universes and chart the lives and deaths of stars. We meet important historical figures such as Tycho Brahe, Hypatia and Aristarchus of Samos. The harsh conditions on Venus and Mars are considered and used to illustrate just how precious life on Earth is.

Carl is passionate about his subject matter and he has an enviable ability to pass on his enthusiasm in an inclusive way. He's fabulous at teaching science with a dash of poetry.  As he says, we are all made of star-stuff and are deeply connected to the cosmos.

As a bonus, he's also rather talented at making whale noises ("Whoop! Uhng! Uhng! Unhg!" - that's part of a whale song in March, apparently!)...

Our article on 'Cosmos' can be heard on Episode Six.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)