Ed
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Edward B. Allen, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA
Office: (407)367-3916 Home: (407)487-2445
Fax: (407)367-2800 Fax: (407)477-8300
Internet: allene@cse.fau.edu
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By GEORGE TIBBITS
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) -- Astronomer Carl Sagan, a gifted storyteller who extolled and
explored the grandeur and mystery of the universe in lectures, books and an
acclaimed TV series, died Friday at age 62 after a two-year battle with bone
marrow disease.
Sagan died of pneumonia at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in
Seattle, where he had a bone-marrow transplant in April 1995, said center
spokeswoman Susan Edmonds. The center had identified his disease as
myelodysplasia, a form of anemia also known as preleukemia syndrome.
Sagan helped transport an ivory tower realm into the living rooms of
ordinary people, enthralling millions with his vivid writing and flamboyant
television soliloquies.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1978 for ``The Dragons of Eden:
Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.''
In 1980, his 13-part Public Broadcasting Service series ``Cosmos'' became
the most-watched limited series in the history of American public
television, a record since surpassed by ``The Civil War.''
The series turned him into a national celebrity. Comics parodied his
references to ``billions and billions'' of stars. While purists complained
that he sometimes oversimplified and made significant interpretive errors,
Sagan never shied away from the label of science popularizer.
``I wear the badge proudly,'' he said in a 1994 interview with The
Associated Press.
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