Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

List of Illustrations Part I: The Power and Beauty of Quantification 1. Billions and Billions 2. The Persian Chessboard 3. Monday-Night Hunters 4. The Gaze of God and the Dripping Faucet 5. Four Cosmic Questions 6. So Many Suns, So Many Worlds Part II: What Are Conservatives Conserving? 7. The World That Came in the Mail 8. The Environment: Where Does Prudence Lie? 9. Croesus and Cassandra 10. A Piece of the Sky Is Missing 11. Ambush: The Warming of the World 12. Escape from Ambush 13. Religion and Science: An Alliance Part III: Where Hearts and Minds Collide 14. The Common Enemy 15. Abortion: Is It Possible to Be Both "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Choice"? (co-written with Ann Druyan) 16. The Rules of the Game 17. Gettysburg and Now (co-written with Ann Druyan) 18. The Twentieth Century 19. In the Valley of the Shadow Epilogue by Ann Druyan A Few References and Suggestions for Further Reading Acknowledgements Index