Popular Science Shows Up Big with Cosmos 2014--A Much Anticipated and Needed Story of Our Existence!

I watched Cosmos when I was very young and loved it to the point that I used a tape recorder to capture the audio so I could listen to the fascinating information again and again. There was so much information that I needed more time to comprehend. This was some 30 years ago, beyond the lifespan of my cheap tapes, which I've long lost. It's amazing how much more we have learned since then or in the last 50 years.

Carl Sagan popularized science, because he knew how to explain it. The current host of the 2014 series, Neil deGrasse Tyson, was inspired by Cosmos and Sagan to become an astronomer, and he's great at explaining and inspiring. Of course, it's by purpose they chose to host this new Cosmos series on the Fox network, because they're trying to reach the scientifically illiterate or those on the fence. I can see that happening with a few people who aren't willfully ignorant, because the latter have already made an emotional choice to be blind to science and evidence-based world.

Dr. Tyson, who's an agnostic, tries hard to reach the Bible readers without dismissing their unscientific views. Listen to this interview on WNYC; 
this interview  aired after the premier of Cosmos. He says it's OK to have faith and read the Bible but not as textbook. Well, good luck with that. I won't ask, if the Bible is full of contradictions, ignorance, and dead wrong about the cosmos, then how could it be God's word? Never mind...

I think it's good to introduce some scale of the cosmos, time & space, because, perhaps, people could wonder whether the creator of the universe cares about what clothes we wear, whether we perform circumcisions, what we eat on what days, etc. The universe was not made for us nor are in the center of it all. 

Amazing facts

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Let's compress this time into 1 year.

• Jan 1:big bang. It takes about 200 million years to "cool down" so stars and galaxies can form.
• Jan 10. New stars; Jan 13 small galaxies; March 15-our own Milky way. Star stuff recycled. 

• Plus, 6 "months later" (6 billion yrs) on Aug 31-our own sun is born. Same month the Earth is formed

•  Sept 21^st, life (not human) appears in earth.  
•   Nov 9^th life was breathing, moving, eating, responding to environment. Microbes. Sex.  Tiktaalic [see link] moves from see to land (transitional fossil). 
• Dec 28th:  Flowers 
•  Dec 30^th Dinos extinction, rise of mammals. 
• Dec 31st, 9:45 new year’s eve…. Africa. Bipedalism. 
  
  
      Last hour, last day: humans appear at 11.59, 46’’  
  
  
  • 11:59 30,000 years, first cave paintings!  Read the stars, seasons.
  • 10,000 years ago. Agriculture. Middle East. First stable societies.
  • 14 seconds to midnight: humans;  
    

    6,000years ago: writing! Save our thoughts. 5’’ ago Jesus, 3’’ Mohammed, 1’’ ago science!!!
   
• In the last 14’’ seconds –all we know about humanity.
• Last second= recorded history! All the civilizations, all the ideas, art, science, wars, tribes, leaders, religions, technology, you and I, etc…