Sagan's historical description of Hypatia of Alexandria and the burning of the Library of Alexandria has been criticized by historians who interpret the sources on Hypatia's life and the end of the library differently and who believe that Sagan should have made clear that there is a scholarly controversy on this issue. Other parts of Cosmos were controversial among the general public, though hardly among scientists, such as Sagan's straight-forward treatment of astrology as a pseudoscience and his equally straight-forward description of biological evolution.
Cosmos has long been unavailable after its initial release because of copyright issues with the included music, but has recently been re-released on DVD.
The thirteen parts are:
I: The Shores Of the Cosmos
II: One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue
III: The Harmony Of the Worlds
IV: Heaven and Hell
V: Blues For A Red Planet
VI: Travellers' Tales
VII: The Backbone of Night
VIII: Travels In Space and Time
IX: The Lives Of the Stars
X: The Edge Of Forever
XI: The Persistence Of Memory
XII: Encyclopedia Galactica
XIII: Who Speaks For Earth?
Carl Sagan also wrote a book called Cosmos (1980), which is similarly structured and contains most of the information from the series, and some information not found in it. This book is still in print as of 2002.
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