Beyond the Sagan effect

摘要

In 1992, Carl Sagan’s nomination to theUS National Academy of Sciences wasvoted down, despite his solid reputationas a leading planetary scientist. It is widelybelieved that he was denied academymembership because, at the time, thescience community did not approve of hismedia visibility. Sagan later admitted thathe was mostly blissfully unaware of hostilecomments about his dual career as a scientistand science popularizer, but other highprofilescientists have experienced losingthe respect of their peers upon becoming‘media darlings’ or ‘celebrity scientists’.Subsequently, scientists’ fears that publicvisibility could penalize them career-wise,became known as the ‘Sagan effect’.