Dr. Carl Sagan, American Astronomer, Planetary Scientist, Science Communicator, Professor & Musician: Madeline’s Monthly Musical Tips Blog & Radio Show for November 2026
Our blog and Radio Show celebrates’ the work and life of Dr. Carl Sagan, American Astronomer, planetary scientist, science communicator, professor and musician:
Many of the world’s astronomers, authors, inventors, mathematicians, scientists, engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, rocket scientists, medical doctors, researchers, accountants, CPAs, teachers, actors, directors, and others have studied and played musical instruments since they were children. These eminent individuals have integrated music into their thinking process. Studying a musical instrument develops millions of new connections, synapses, between nerve cells in the brain.
Our article of the month is “Living Thankfully: How Gratitude Shapes Our Lives and Legacy” by Madeline Frank, Ph.D.
Feature Question for November 2026: How did Classical music play a part of Dr. Carl Sagan’s life as an Americanastronomer, planetary scientist, science communicator, professor and musician and what musical instrument did he play?
https://madelinefrankviola.com/one-minute-musical-radio-show/
Early Years:
Carl Edward Sagan was born on November 9, 1934 to Rachel Molly Gruber Sagan and Samuel Sagan in the Bensonhurst neighborhood in New York City’s Brooklyn borough. His father, Samuel was “a Ukrainian born garment worker who emigrated from the Russian Empire.” His mother, Rachel was from New York City. Carl also had a younger sister, Carol “Cari” Sagan .
Carl “was named in honor of his maternal grandmother, Chaiya Clara, who had died while giving birth to her second child; she was, in Sagan’s words, “the mother she [Rachel] never knew.” (Wickipedia Carl Sagan, Notes12)
He “traced his analytical inclinations to his mother, who had been extremely poor as a child in New York City during WW I and the 1920s, and whose later intellectual ambitions were sabotaged by her poverty, status as a woman and wife, and Jewish ethnicity ” He said, he “traced his sense of wonder to his father, who spent his free time giving apples to the poor or helping soothe tensions between workers and management within New York City’s garment industry.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Note 14)
Sagan said: “My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Note 15)
Sagan recalled, “a lively intellectual life…Both my father and mother parents read, and there were wonderful arguments about politics and other matters with friends and visitors that I got to listen to (while) sitting in the corner. We had Shakespeare in the house.” His parents loved each other. The Sagan’s had recordings of classical music in their home. Sam and Rachel Sagan, “managed to cultivate an upscale, intellectual household despite having very little money.” (Carl Sagan A Life by Keay Davidson)
His parents bought a small piano. Carl began to play the piano at an early age. He admired the composer, J.S. Bach and included Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” book 2, Prelude and Fugue, No.1 on Voyager Golden Record. He had a lifelong appreciation of classical music.
At the age of five, his mother gave him a library card “which opened up the universe for him.” He said later, “The Sun was a star, but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light. The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience…a grandeur, a scale which never left me.” He began visiting the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium. He later said, “I was transfixed by the dioramas. There was a magnificence to it all…a sense of immersion into deep time.” (Childhood Curiosity; The Early Life of Carl Sagan by Rudra Nath, May 7, 2025)
Carl attended David A. Boody Junior High in Bensonhurst. He became a Bar Mitzvah at 13 years of age. (A Bar Mitzvah is a Jewish religious ceremony for a boy or girl to reach his or her “religious adulthood to be responsible for their ethical behavior, accept responsibility, and laws in the Torah.”) Carl’s family was involved in the synagogue and cooked kosher meals. “During WWII . Sagan’s parents worried about the fate of their European relatives.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Note 17)
In his spare time, he studies astronomy. “In his junior year of high school, he discovered that professional astronomers were paid for doing something he always enjoyed. “That was a splendid day—when I began to suspect that if I tried hard I could do astronomy full-time.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Note 24)
His family moved to Rahway, New Jersey in 1948, when Carl was 14 for his father’s job.
At Rahway High School he was a straight A student. He said, “he was bored because his classes did not challenge him and his teachers did not inspire him.”
“His teachers realized this and tried to convince his parents to send him to a private school, with an administrator telling them, “This kid ought to go to a school for gifted children, he has something really remarkable.” His parents were not able to afford this private school.
“Sagan’s parents nurtured his growing interest in science, buying him chemistry sets and reading matter. Per biographer Ray Spangenburg, “Sagan’s desire to understand the Cosmos became a “driving force in his life, a continual spark to his intellect, and a quest that would never be forgotten. His fascination with outer space deepened after reading E. R. Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars books. In 1947, he discovered Astounding Science Fiction , which introduced him to more hard science fiction peculations: Carl, “Each month I eagerly awaited the arrival of Astounding. I read Verne and Wells , read, cover‐to‐cover, the first two science‐fiction anthologies that I was able to find, devised scorecards, similar to those I was fond of making for baseball , on the quality of the stories I read. Many ranked high in asking interesting questions but low in answering them.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Notes 15, 20, 21)
At Rahway High School he was president of the chemistry club, president of the science club, “led the French club, served as an editor on his schools’ newspaper, debated, took part in theater productions, and was a member of the photography club.” (New Carl Sagan Archive Features His Digitized Home Movies, Student Journalism, Draft of His Pale Blue Dot & More, Feb. 3, 2014)
In High School, “Carl entered an essay writing contest in which he explored the idea that human contact with advanced extraterrestrials might be as disastrous for people on Earth as Native Americans’ first contact with Europeans had been for Native Americans. Even though his subject was controversial, he won over the judges by his rhetorical skills and was awarded first prize.” For his school newspaper in 1950, he wrote his essay, “Space, Time, and the Poet”. “He was thinking about “man’s place in the universe as expressed by poets T.S. Eliot, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the Bible.” Before graduating high school, “his classmates voted him “most likely to succeed” and put him in line to be valedictorian.” In 1951, he graduated from Rahway High School. (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Note 22, 23,24, 25,26)
University Years, Fellow in Astronomy, and Work:
*Carl Sagan began at 16 years of age studying at the University of Chicago. He earned his Bachelor’s in Art (BA) and his Bachelor of Science (BS) in Physics in 1955. He earned his Master’s in Science in 1956 from the University of Chicago and in 1960 his Doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics.
Carl Sagan “joined the Ryerson Astronomical Society. He wrote “College was the fulfillment of my dreams. I found teachers who not only understood science, but were actually able to explain it. … I was a physics student in a department orbiting around Enrico Fermi; I discovered what true mathematical elegance is from Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. I was given the chance to talk chemistry with Harold Urey; over summers I was apprenticed in biology to H. J. Muller at Indiana University; and I learned planetary astronomy from its only practitioner at the time, G.P. Kuiper.”
Carl Sagan’s doctoral thesis, “Physical Studies of the Planets” was under the direction of Kuiper. He spent his summers, during his graduate studies, “working with Kuiper, chemist Melvin Calvin, and physicist George Gamow.” He said, “he credited Kuiper with teaching him back- of- the envelope calculations: “A possible explanation to a problem occurs to you, you pull out an old envelope, appeal to your knowledge of fundamental physics, scribble a few approximate equations on the envelope, and see if your answer comes anywhere near explaining your problem. If not, you look for a different explanation. It cut through nonsense like a knife through butter.” (Wikipedia Carl Sager, Notes 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36)
*Dr. Sagan continued his studies at Berkeley’s University of California as “a Miller Fellow in astronomy” from 1960 to 1962.
* Dr. Sagan worked from 1962 to 1968 at Harvard University as an assistant professor in astronomy and at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory focusing “on the physical conditions of the planets, especially the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter.” It was at this time that “he became interested in the possibility of life beyond Earth and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.” He also built “on earlier work by American Chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey. He demonstrated that amino acids and nucleic acids- the building blocks of life- could be produced by exposing a mixture of simple chemicals to ultraviolet radiation.” (He was denied tenure at Harvard.) (Britannica bio Carl Sagan)
*Leaving Harvard in 1968, Dr. Sagan joined Cornell University as an associate professor and Director for Planetary Studies. In 1970 he became a full professor.
* Dr. Sagan from 1972 to 1981, “was associate director of the Center for Radio Physics and Space Research (CRSR) at Cornell. In 1976, he became the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, a position he held for the remainder of his life.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Notes 45,46)
Dr. Sagan was an advisor to United States Space Program, NASA from its inception:
His work included “briefing the Apollo astronauts before their flight to the Moon and worked on the Pioneer, Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo projects. Sagan contributed to many of the robotic spacecraft missions that explored the Solar System, arranging experiments on many of the expeditions. He often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station at the expense of further robotic missions. Sagan assembled the first physical message that was sent to space: a gold -plated plaque, attached to the probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972. Pioneer 11, also carrying another copy of the plaque, was launched the following year. He contributed to the Voyager Golden Record, a sample of the sights and sounds of Earth sent with Voyager space probes in 1977.” Included was music by “Bach, Beethoven and Chuck Berry.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Notes 45, 47,48) (New Mexico Museum of Space History Carl Sagan inducted in 2004)
“He was the first to hypothesize that Saturn’s moon Titan and Jupiter’s moon Europa have oceans or lakes, suppositions later proved correct.” (New Mexico Museum of Space History Carl Sagan inducted in 2004)
“Carl Sagan was also the first to correctly theorize that the atmosphere of Venus is extremely hot and dense and the seasonal changes on Mars are due to dust storms, not vegetation growth.” (New Mexico Museum of Space History Carl Sagan inducted in 2004)
“Dr. Sagan received many awards. Below are some of his awards:
- NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the Distinguished Public Service Award (twice).
- NASA Apollo Achievement Award.
- The John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society.
- The Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award.
- The Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonautics Federation.
- The Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society.”
- 1994 Carl Sagan was honored with the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences.
- “He was a co-founder and President of The Planetary Society.”
- “A member and strong supporter of SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.”
- Sagan for decades “was a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.” (New Mexico Museum of Space History Carl Sagan inducted in 2004)
Published scientific papers, articles, popular science books and won the Pulitzer Prize:
Dr. Sagan “ published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and several popular science books, starting with “The Cosmic Connection”. He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan)
Sagan “co-wrote and narrated the 1980 documentary series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, which has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries and won two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. Cosmos, he companion volume, spent 70 weeks on the bestseller list and remains the best-selling science book ever printed in the English language.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan)
As “a lifelong science fiction fan, Sagan entered the genre with Contact, which was adapted as the film of the same name.He proposed the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth taken by Voyager 1.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan, Notes 5, 6, 7, 8))
Dr. Sagan’s “lifelong interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life and …. credited with contributions to the Arecibo message with a much more significant role developing the Pioneer plaques and the Voyager Golden Record , universal messages that could potentially be understood by any intelligence that might find them. He promoted skepticism and the scientific method.His penultimate book was “The Demon Haunted World” . He popularized a toolkit for critical thinking.” (Wikipedia Carl Sagan) (“Sagon’s Baloney Detection Kit”)
“Carl Sagan’s made famous the maxim “Extraordinary Claims require extraordinary evidence.” His final book, “Billions and Billions: Thoughts of Life and Death at the Brink of Millennium” was published posthumously in 1997. (Wikipedia Carl Sagan)
Dr. Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, science communicator, professor, husband, father and musician. On December 20, 1996, Dr. Sagan died in Seattle, Washington at the age of 62.
Living Thankfully: How Gratitude Shapes Our Lives and Legacy by Madeline Frank, Ph.D.
As Thanksgiving draws near, many of us pause to reflect on what we’re thankful for. But gratitude isn’t meant to be a once-a-year guest at our table—it’s meant to live with us every day.
Walker Larson, in his article “Planting Virtue: How to Raise Grateful Kids” writes that “Thankfulness is more than just good manners—it’s the foundation for good character, health, and happiness.” He’s absolutely right. Gratitude doesn’t just make us polite—it makes us strong, centered, and joyful.
The Power of Gratitude: When we count our blessings, something powerful happens. Our focus shifts from what’s missing to what’s meaningful. Grateful people are proven to sleep better, stress less, and smile more. They enjoy stronger relationships, better health, and deeper peace of mind.
Gratitude changes the lens through which we see life—it turns ordinary moments into miracles and challenges into opportunities for growth.
A Heritage of Hope and Gratitude: For me, gratitude is also rooted in heritage. My family’s story began with courageous men and women who emigrated from Europe to America—people who left behind everything familiar in search of freedom, safety, and opportunity.
They arrived with little more than faith, determination, and a belief that tomorrow could be brighter. Their legacy of perseverance and gratitude shaped generations to come. They taught us that blessings aren’t measured in wealth, but in love, resilience, and community.
The Women Who Modeled Gratitude: My mother, Romayne Leader Frank, was the granddaughter of European immigrants who believed deeply in education and self-reliance. She studied law while raising two children, scheduling her classes so she’d be home when we returned from school. We’d sit together at the dining room table—Mom with her law books, my brother and I with our homework. Whenever we struggled, she’d smile and say, “How about opening your book and looking for the answer?”
That simple phrase still echoes in my life—it taught me curiosity, confidence, and gratitude for the ability to learn.
My grandmother, Mary Chernick Leader, carried her parents’ immigrant values forward. She worked as a secretary, led a women’s stock club to teach financial independence, and volunteered with the Braille Society. I’ll never forget reading aloud to her at age seven, earning a tiny reward—a bite of chocolate and a sip of Coca-Cola—for each page. She made learning sweet in every sense of the word.
My mother-in-law, Pearl Neustein Berger, was the sixth of eight children born to European immigrants who taught honor, hard work, and faith. Widowed young, she raised two children on her own, working long hours at B. Altman’s Department Store in New York City. She insisted her children study, serve others, and attend religious services every week. Her quiet strength and endless generosity still inspire me. She was five feet one inches tall and to me she was one of the tallest and strongest women I have known because of her caring and commitment to her family, friends and helping others.
Pearl Berger’s sister, my Aunt- in- Law, Helen Neustein shared that same spirit of gratitude and grace. She was the 7thchild of the family. Helen also worked at B.Altman’s Department store in the shoe department. She was a wonderful person with a very big heart raised with the values of honor and respect just like her sister Pearl. My husband, Allan, remembers her playing baseball with him as a child. She was always patient and kind. Helen was also about 5 foot one inch tall but she seemed 6 feet tall because of her caring and commitment to her family, friends, and clients.
These remarkable women—each descended from immigrants who braved new beginnings—taught me that gratitude isn’t about possessions; it’s about perspective.
How to Live and Model Gratitude: Gratitude grows stronger when it’s shared.
- Start your day with reflection.Write down three things you’re grateful for.
- Acknowledge someone weekly.A note, a call, or a simple “thank you” can make a difference.
- Honor your roots.Remember the people who came before you and the sacrifices they made so that you could live the life you have today.
- Teach by example.Model gratitude for children and loved ones—praise effort, kindness, and integrity more than achievement.
When ungrateful attitudes appear—especially in younger generations—use it as a teaching moment. As Dayton Children’s Hospital notes, helping children handle disappointment builds strength and appreciation.
The Ripple Effect of Thankfulness: Living a life of gratitude is more than good manners—it’s transformational. Grateful people are more creative, compassionate, and courageous. They attract positivity, deepen relationships, and face adversity with calm confidence.
Gratitude is a magnet for joy. It reminds us that every sunrise is a gift, every friendship is a blessing, and every challenge carries a lesson.
So, this Thanksgiving—and every day after—pause to remember where you came from and who helped you get here. The courage of your ancestors, the kindness of your loved ones, and the opportunities before you are all reasons to give thanks.
Count your blessings. Share your gratitude. And live your thanks—boldly and joyfully—every single day. © 2026, 2025 Madeline Frank If you need a speaker or zoom speaker contact Madeline at: [email protected]
“The Secret of Teaching Science & Math Through Music” shares scientific evidence, medical evidence, test results, and true stories of the world’s scientists, medical doctors, and mathematicians who have studied and played musical instruments since they were children by Madeline Frank, Ph.D. Click below:
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“Musical Notes On Math” by Dr. Madeline Frank teaches your child fractions and decimals, the fun easy way, through the rhythm of music, Winner of the Parent To Parent Adding Wisdom Award is available in book form, newly updated as an e-book on Kindle, Nook, or iBook.:
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“Madeline’s Midnight Melodies- Music From around the World”. This CD complements her books with a blend of dance music, gigues, tangos, ballet and favorites including “Danny Boy”, Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”, Debussy’s “Claire De Lune” and others. “Madeline’s Midnight Melodies” CD is now available for purchase by downloading a song, downloading the album click below:
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Wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving from Your Non-Invasive Medicine Music Expert, Madeline
For over 30 years, Dr. Madeline Frank has helped children and adults overcome problems through Classical music. Madeline Frank, Ph.D. is an award-winning teacher, author, researcher, speaker, conductor, and concert artist. She has discovered a scientific link between studying a musical instrument and academic and societal success. Madeline Frank earned her Bachelor and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School of Music. Her education has included scholarships at the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the University of Cincinnati and she has a violin performance diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts. (C) 2026 Madeline Frank