World renowned scientist operating within the fields of astrology, astrophysics and cosmology.
-Born November 9, 1934 to a Jewish family.
-Described as being highly optimistic, intelligent and inquisitive from an early age.
-Much of the true horrors that occurred to his European relatives were reportedly kept from him so as not to dampen this life outlook.
-Showed a keen interest in science, particularly the natural world when he was as young as five during which time he would frequent libraries on his own to find out more about the cosmos.
-Straight A student that was far ahead of his age; became dissatisfied with high school due to a unchallenging curriculum and uninspiring teachers.
-During this period he discovered that his hobby of astronomy could be made into a full time career and subsequently set his aims of the future towards this.
-Gained a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Physics as well as a P.H.D with a dissertation titled: Physical Studies of the Planets.
-Researched and Lectured at Harvard but was denied tenure supposedly due to his scientific advocacy which others within the scientific community regarded as self promotion.
-Self described agnostic: argued that, despite not associating himself with any religion, there was no solid way to disprove the existence of God.
-However he did openly denounce the traditional view of a emotional 'human' God.
Major Achievements:
-One of the main advocates for the search for extraterrestrial life and helped make credible what was regarded as a highly controversial field.
-This included his work in helping create the three major universal messages sent out from earth in the hopes of gaining a extraterrestrial response. These were known as the Voyager Gold Record, Arecibo Message and most famously the Pioneer Plaque pictured below.
-Also pioneered theories into how said life could have occurred by demonstrating through experiments how amino acids could be produced from basic chemicals through radiation.
-First to hypothesise Saturn's moon Titan might oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter's moon Europa might have subsurface oceans of water.
-Also contributed greatly to the discovery that Venus had incredibly high surface temperatures which conflicted with the earlier scientific consensus of a milder 'paradise' like environment.
-He further suggested that these atmospheric conditions might have been caused by a run away green house effect.
-Subsequently he was one of the first to openly back/try to prove the theory of a man made green house effect on Earth.
-Contributed greatly to the increased access to and distribution of scientific knowledge through his work on/for the TV show Cosmos as well as various books and publications.
-Also helped theorise and popularise the idea of a nuclear winter as the result of atomic fall out. Subsequently he was a strong and vocal supporter of nuclear disarmament.
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