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Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is a 2014 American science documentary television series. The show is a follow-up to the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan on the Public Broadcasting Service and is considered a milestone for scientific documentaries. This series was developed to bring back the foundation of science to network television at the height of other scientific-based television series and films. The show is presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who, as a young college student, was inspired by Sagan. Among the executive producers are Seth MacFarlane, whose financial investment was instrumental in bringing the show to broadcast television, and Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow, a co-author and co-creator of the original television series. The show is produced by Brannon Braga, and Alan Silvestri provides the backing score. The series loosely follows the same thirteen-episode format and storytelling approach that the original Cosmos used, including elements such as the "Ship of the Imagination" and the "Cosmic Calendar", but features information updated since the 1980 series along with extensive computer-generated graphics and animation footage augmenting the narration. (from wikipedia.org)

Image: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey


Episode 01 - Standing Up in the Milky Way
Neil deGrasse Tyson sets off on the Ship of the Imagination to discover Earth's Cosmic Address and its coordinates in space and time. The story of Giordano Bruno is told to explain how humanity has come to view the universe as we do today.

Episode 02 - Some of the Things that Molecules Do
The episode covers several facets of the origin of life and evolution. It describes both artificial selection via selective breeding, using the example of humankind's domestication of wolves into dogs, and natural selection that created species like polar bears.

Episode 03 - When Knowledge Conquered Fear
This episode features the collaboration between Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton in the last part of the 17th century in Cambridge. The collaboration would result in the publication of PhilosophiƦ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which launched a scientific revolution.

Episode 04 - A Sky Full of Ghosts
Featuring astronomer William Herschel's observations on the effects of light on time and gravity, this episode explores the nature of the speed of light, electromagnetic waves, gravitational force, and block holes.

Episode 05 - Hiding in the Light
This episode explores the wave theory of light as studied by humankind, noting that light has played an important role in scientific progress, with such early experiments from over 2000 years ago involving the camera obscura by the Chinese philosopher Mozi.

Episode 06 - Deeper, Deeper, Deeper Still
The Ship of the Imagination ventures on an epic voyage to the bottom of a dewdrop to explore the universe on the smallest scale and observe exotic life forms invisible to the naked eye.

Episode 07 - The Clean Room
This episode is centered around how science, in particular the work of Clair Patterson in the middle of the 20th century, was able to determine the age of the Earth. Clair Patterson developed the uranium-lead dating method to make an unprecedented discovery - calculating Earth's age of 4.5 billion years.

Episode 08 - Sisters of the Sun
This episode provides an overview of the composition of stars, and their fate in billions of years. It explains the lifecycle of stars, being borne out from interstellar clouds, and describes how all matter on Earth is the same stuff that stars are made of.

Episode 09 - The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth
This episode explores the palaeogeography of Earth over millions of years, and its impact on the development of life on the planet. And it notes how Earth's landmasses are expected to change in the future and postulates what may be the next great extinction event.

Episode 10 - The Electric Boy
This episode provides an overview of the nature of electromagnetism, as discovered through the work of Michael Faraday. Tyson explains how the idea of another force of nature, similar to gravitational forces, had been postulated by Isaac Newton before.

Episode 11- The Immortals
This episode covers how life may have developed on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets. It describes how elliptical galaxies, in which some of the oldest red dwarf stars exist, would offer the best chance of finding established civilizations.

Episode 12 - The World Set Free
This episode explores the nature of the greenhouse effect, looking at Venus and what may have happened to it as a result of the greenhouse effect. And it discusses Earth's climate change, exploring the evidence demonstrating the existence of global warming from humanity's influence.

Episode 13 - Unafraid of the Dark
Neil deGrasse Tyson describes the interstellar travel, using the two Voyager probes. He concludes the series by emphasizing Sagan's message on the human condition in the vastness of the cosmos, and to encourage viewers to continue to explore and discover what else the universe has to offer.


Related Links
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey - wikipedia
The show is a follow-up to the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan on the Public Broadcasting Service and is considered a milestone for scientific documentaries.
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