Seeking the others

Astronomer, cosmologist, and author Carl Sagan famuously calculated how many other intelligent life forms ought to exist in our universe and when the number turned out to be reasonably large, wondered where they all were. Now NASA has announced the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Cosmos as part of the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field right here in Mountain View. The Sagan Center will initially consist of three labs: genomics and microbiology, biosensors, and nanotechnology. “No honor would have meant more to Carl than this,” said Ann Druyan, his wife and collaborator for 20 years. Sagan dreamed “that we, as a civilization, would turn our genius to the deep questions of life in the cosmos.” This is cool!