View source for Billions and Billions

{{Short description|1997 book by Carl Sagan}}
{{Infobox book 
| name          = Billions and Billions
| image         = Billions and Billions.jpg
| caption       = Cover of the first edition
| author        = [[Carl Sagan]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = 
| subject       = [[Science]]
| publisher     = [[Random House]]
| release_date  = 1997
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]] and [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 322 pp.
| isbn          = 0-679-41160-7
| oclc          = 39234941
| preceded_by   = [[The Demon-Haunted World]]
| followed_by   = [[The Varieties of Scientific Experience]]
}}

'''''Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium''''' is a 1997 book by the American astronomer and science popularizer [[Carl Sagan]]. The last book written by Sagan before his death in 1996,<ref>{{cite book |author=Sagan, Carl |title=Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=1997 |isbn=0-679-41160-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/billionsbillions00saga }}</ref> it was published by [[Random House]].

==Overview==
The book is a collection of essays Sagan wrote covering diverse topics such as [[global warming]], the [[population explosion]], [[extraterrestrial life]], [[morality]], and the [[abortion debate]]. The last chapter is an account of his struggle with [[myelodysplasia]], the disease which finally took his life in December 1996. Sagan's wife, [[Ann Druyan]], wrote the epilogue of the book after his death.

=="Billions and billions"==
To help viewers of ''[[Cosmos: A Personal Voyage|Cosmos]]'' distinguish between "millions" and "billions", Sagan stressed the "b". The public's association of Sagan with the phrase "[[q:Carl Sagan|billions and billions]]" came from a ''[[The Tonight Show|Tonight Show]]'' skit. Parodying Sagan's affect, [[Johnny Carson]] quipped "billions and billions".<ref>[http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagan_takes_questions Carl Sagan takes questions more from his 'Wonder and Skepticism' CSICOP 1994 keynote, Skeptical Inquirer] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221054208/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagan_takes_questions |date=December 21, 2016 }}</ref> The phrase has, however, now become a humorous fictitious unit—the [[sagan unit|sagan]]. Aside from using the catchphrase as the title of the book, Sagan's introduction also discusses it.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060621152711/http://humanistsofutah.org/2001/artmar2001.html A review] of the book
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbbTHQmPkE Video of skit] from ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' mentioning "billions and billions"

{{Carl Sagan}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1997 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:American non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books published posthumously]]
[[Category:English-language non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Random House books]]
[[Category:Popular physics books]]
[[Category:Works by Carl Sagan]]