"We've arranged a global civilization in which most
crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also
arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.
This is a prescription for disaster. "

-Carl Sagan

A Russian immigrant introduces the concept of infinity to his young son,
who is enthralled by the realization that "you can always add one more. "
The small apartment in Brooklyn is barely a step above poverty, but it's
sufficient for a cutter in the garment industry and his wife. Fascinated
by the possibility of infinite magnitude, a young Carl Sagan begs his father
to postpone bedtime long enough for the five-year-old to write, in sequence,
all the integers from 1 to 1000; an unusual request for a child. Sagan,
however, was not an ordinary child and he would grow into an extraordinary
man.

Sagan's parents, though thoroughly uneducated in science themselves,
provided their young son with the foundation for what would make him a world-renown
scientist and educator when they taught him what it was to marvel at the
world. This wide-eyed wonder and contagious enthusiasm was what marked Sagan
as endearingly human when so many of his professional colleagues seemed
arrogant and condescending. Sagan's appeal to the general public reflected
the passion that constituted one of his greatest achievements: making the
world of science accessible to everyone.

"In good speaking, should not the mind of the speaker
know the truth of the matter about which he is to speak?"

-Plato, Phaedrus

It's easy to conjecture that someone like Carl Sagan came from and educationally-rich
childhood of private schooling, inspirational teachers and exposure to the
hard sciences. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. Sagan himself
recalls his early schooling as rote memorizat