Broca's Brain

Merry Christmas!  I felt some level of déjà vu in reading this book as it seems very similar, at least themes and ideas as Physics book I read just a few short days ago.  In this book, Broca’s Brain by Carl Sagan, faculty member at Cornell University, he reflects on the past, current, and future in the field of science.  There is a much stronger look into the solar system, astronomy, black holes, and space: the final frontier.  Like Michio Kaku, Sagan shares thoughts on how the media, especially the medium of the moving picture (movies) plays a large role in our view on what the future holds.  He draws upon 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, and Star Wars to name a few.  He draws the title of the book from noted French doctor and scientist Paul Broca, who studied the brain, and was inspired by his work when he was holding the remains of his brain at the Musée de l'Homme.  Sagan wondered how much of his brain remains in there today?  Sagan challenges religion through the concepts of science and shares thoughts and paradoxes on technology, the solar system, whom are our neighbors from other planets, what will the future hold and yes, the “ultimate questions” facing our civilization (from a scientific perspective).  Could there be life on Venus?  Is there really a God? Are there Martians on Mars? And so much more.  Sagan does an outstanding job of sharing the current (well as of the book’s publishing date – 1979) thoughts on where these questions stand using the best literature of science and other fields of studies to examine these age-old questions.  My favorite part of the book focuses on the past and future of astronomy.  Since I was a small child I always looked up to the sky and wondered what is out there in that “sea of stars."  For anyone with curiosity and a desire to explore such questions of “space and whether it is a final frontier,” this is for you.  Trekies, you will love it if you haven’t read it already.  Sagan is a brilliant thought-provoker.  Some of the math sections were a bit much for me, but the inquiry into the future was well worth the read.