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Significant change might require those who are now high in the hierarchy to move downward many steps. This seems to them undesirable and is resisted.

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I find these comparisons particularly poignant: life versus death, hope versus fear. Space exploration and the highly mechanized destruction of people...more

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Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for an...more

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n every culture, the sky and the religious impulse are intertwined. I lie back in an open field and the sky surrounds me. I’m overpowered by its scale...more

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We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always been that way. Even those hi...more

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A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a b...more

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It is now almost possible to assign color combinations, based on the colors of clouds and sky, to every planet in the Solar System—from the sulfur-sta...more

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Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.

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The Cosmos extends, for all practical purposes, forever. After a brief sedentary hiatus, we are resuming our ancient nomadic way of life. Our remote d...more

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How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our pr...more

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Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there's no turning back from science.

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Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe which dwarfs -- in time, in space, and in poten...more

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These days there seems to be nowhere left to explore, at least on the land area of the Earth. Victims of their very success, the explorers now pretty ...more

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There is something stunningly narrow about how the Anthropic Principle is phrased. Yes, only certain laws and constants of nature are consistent with ...more

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On Titan the molecules that have been raining down like manna from heaven for the last 4 billion years might still be there largely unaltered deep-fro...more