Sagan, Carl (non-fiction)

• The Dragons of Eden

  • This book is pretty dated by now, having been written back in 1978 (when it won the Pulitzer Prize). It is a non-fictional speculation about the evolution of human and animal intelligence. Sagan carefully lays out the basics of the research to date and discusses some of the (to me) surprising results and puzzling things coming from the study of chimps and dolphins. This is not really a book about "IQ" or any such thing. It is simply Sagan trying to piece together why we're so smart compared to everything else (or, at least, why we appear so smart). Surely there must be a more up-to-date book for the layman on this topic, because this book suffers too much from age. Since reading it, I have learned that this was one of the first "popular science" books of its kind that was very popular. In the sense that Sagan helped found the genre, I think this book can be appreciated more deeply.

• The Demon-Haunted World

  • This is the last popular science book Carl Sagan wrote before his untimely death at the age of 62 in late 1996. In it, Sagan revisits some ground he has covered in recent popular articles. About half the book is a greatly expanded discussion of pseudoscience and the UFO craze, and to be honest, he doesn't add much to the discussion. I actually preferred the much less dragged out articles he wrote on these subjects, but I gather they are hard to find since they only appeared in "Parade" magazine a few years back. Still, the rest of the book discusses the dangers of scientific illiteracy in the United States, and though I am very familiar with the subject, Sagan's views read fresh and very incisive. This is a good book for any science teacher who is frequently assailed by "Do you believe in UFO's?" types and their ilk.

• UFO's: A Scientific Debate (edited, with Thornton Page)

  • Speaking of UFO's, I found this book for about $2 on a bargain shelf at Barnes and Noble. A good buy! This is an edited summary of a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) back in the early 70's, one of the few places where the scientific community openly debated the existence of UFO's. The basic consensus seems to be that, while many of the supposed sightings haven't been examined as closely as they probably should be, there is as yet no conclusive evidence for the existence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. One of the biggest beefs of most UFO enthusiasts is the lack of "dignified" attention paid to their beliefs, but to be honest, it is clear that the reason for this lack of attention is that most UFO enthusiasts just aren't working with falsifiable theories (in other words, no matter what you say to them or how much evidence you provide, their beliefs won't change). It seems that this is the primary reason that scientists don't see the pursuit of UFO's as being beneficial to their careers.

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