Cosmos, with Neil deGrasse Tyson

I watched part of the first part of Cosmos, a series about (what else) the cosmos, on Fox TV and also on the National Graphic Channel, on Sunday evenings, with Neil deGrasse Tyson as narrator. This is an upgrade of a previous series, with the same name, with Carl Sagan as narrator, which may have been the most widely watched TV series of all time. It looks like the new one is going to be a great series, with great graphics, and magnificent subject matter, but Tyson unfortunately started it off by quoting Sagan, who said that "The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." (Cosmos, p. 4. New York, Random House, 1980.) That's an interesting statement. It may even be true, although I personally don't believe it, because the Bible contradicts it -- the Bible says that there is a God who is superior to the cosmos. And it's not a scientific statement at all. It's a philosophical statement, one that can't be proved or disproved by science. Sagan didn't do any experiments that showed it to be true. Neither did Tyson, or anyone else.

Here's the Wikipedia page on the new series. The Sagan series also has a Wikipedia article -- see the "previous series" link above.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 421

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: A writer for Wired reflects on the reasons for, and effects of, "binge watching." (That means using Netflix or its competitors, or DVDs, to watch several episodes of a TV show at once.)

Christianity: This is not a recommendation -- I don't know enough about the organization, and haven't read enough of their web site -- but the motto of Day Star Research is promising: "Ending the Christian Holy War on Science."

Todd Wood reacts to an article by Vern Poythress on the "Adam debate." There are a lot of interesting ideas in the reaction. One idea that I should have had long ago -- Jesus presumably had a Y chromosome, but didn't get it from his parents. It must have been created for him at some point in His early development.

Science: According to the New York Times, cockroach populations given poison in sugar solutions evolved so that sugar sends a signal to a portion of their brain that interprets the taste as if it were bitter, not sweet.

National Public Radio reports on how cherries from Hungary have been used in cherry-breeding work in the US. Apparently Hungarians take cherries very seriously.

NPR also reports on the use of live human lung cells (cultured) to detect air pollution.



Image source (public domain)