Cosmos has arrived!

I first wrote about the re-make of Cosmos in this blog post. The first episode aired last Sunday evening. You can watch the first two episodes online, and I've also included the links below. 

Episode #1: Standing up in the Milky Way

In this first episode, Tyson introduces a few famous scientists from history and highlights how their ideas shaped the current model of the universe. What follows next is a whirlwind tour of the history of the universe--from the Big Bang all the way through to the evolution of man. 

Episode #2: Some of the Things That Molecules Do

In this episode, we leave the world of the stars and go to the molecular level--the genetic code. Tyson explains the difference between artificial and natural selection. Yet he cautions that even when evolution comes up with a specialized adaptation, there is no accounting for catastrophic events and the extinction of a species. The program concludes with speculation about life on other planets. 

This show is not meant to be a hard science program. The biology presented in the second episode is something that every high school student should know. Instead, I'm hoping this program will begin a dialogue. 

In this reboot of the Cosmos series, the producers' goals are to encourage science literacy. Executive producer Seth MacFarlane had this to say about the show:

"I think that there is a hunger for science and known about science 

and understanding of science that hasn't really been fed in the past 

two decades [...] There's been a real vacuum when it comes to science 

education. The nice thing about this show is that I think that it does what the 

original 'Cosmos' did and presents it in such a flashy, entertaining way that, as 

Carl Sagan put it in 1980, even people who have no interest in science 

will watch just because it's a spectacle."

I agree with MacFarlane's analysis--there has been a real lack of popular shows about the natural world. I'm not sure that the science presented on Cosmos needs to be flashy and entertaining. Yet I can appreciate the stories and animations as a way to introduce fundamental scientific discoveries and help foster an interest in those who wish to learn more. I hope that people who are interested in science will now have a starting point for further reading and researching topics of interest and that the show will inspire the public to support scientific research and discovery.