I re-watched all of Carl Sagan’s epochally brilliant series Cosmos last fall and winter, and for a science series that is going on 32 years of age, it’s still moving and poetic and inspiring and, well, all the things that it’s always been thought to be. In honor of the Mars-fall earlier this week of the Curiosity rover, here is the entirety of the fifth episode of Cosmos, “Blues for a Red Planet”.
“The Martians will be us.” What an astonishing sentiment.
Cosmos was a great series. And "The Martians will be us…" That's the same point that Ray Bradbury makes at the end of the Martian Chronicles.
Actually show a section of Cosmos to my fall class: the part on Eratosthenes.
The students then have to re-create the calculation (with the math.) I also base several of the projects on Cosmos, like Rømer's calculation of the speed of light using Io's orbit in 1676.
The book is far better than even the documentary series and goes into further detail. I'd recommend the original edition with the illustrations if you can find it.