8.6 /10 1 Votes8.6
Country United States Originally published 1997 Genre Non-fiction OCLC 39234941 | 4.3/5 Goodreads Language English Publication date 1997 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher Ballantine Publishing Group Media type Print (hardcover and paperback) Similar Carl Sagan books, Non-fiction books, Science books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, published by Random House in 1997, is the last book written by the renowned American astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan before his death in 1996.
Contents
Overview
The book is a collection of essays Sagan wrote covering diverse topics like global warming, the population explosion, extraterrestrial life, morality, and the abortion debate. The last chapter is an account of his struggle with myelodysplasia, the disease which finally took his life in December 1996. Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, wrote the epilogue of the book after his death.
"Billions and billions"
To help viewers of Cosmos distinguish between "millions" and "billions", Sagan stressed the "b". Sagan never did, however, say "billions and billions". The public's association of the phrase and Sagan came from a Tonight Show skit. Parodying Sagan's affect, Johnny Carson quipped "billions and billions". The phrase has however, now become a humorous fictitious number—the Sagan.