Cosmos Returns!

Carl Sagan's Cosmos is one of the pinnacles of scientific and academic programming. The 13-episode series originally aired on PBS in 1980 and has since gone on to become one of the most viewed science documentaries ever. In it, Sagan invited viewers to journey the cosmos on the Spaceship of the Imagination. Throughout the series, Sagan explored life, the universe, and everything, combining scientific fact and speculation with awe-inspiring visuals and spellbinding music. It was a series that helped instil a love of science and learning into a great many people and still does today. Anybody who hasn't seen the original Cosmos series should do so NOW! 

However, it has been over 30 years now since the series first aired, and while it is still incredibly relevant today, scientific discovery has marched on somewhat and some of the series is thus out-of-date. It's time for a new series of Cosmos, one to update and expand on the original, and to tell new tales of scientific discovery. The new series, fully titled Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, will air in 2014 and will be hosted by none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson. The first trailer for the series has now been released (embedded below). I'm hugely stoked for this show, especially because Tyson is doing it, as I can't think of a better person for it (yes, I'm something of a Neil deGrasse Tyson fan).

The series will air on FOX, which at first glance is a little worrying since FOX (rather deservingly) has a bad reputation when it comes to science reporting. However, Tyson (as reported by IO9) has said that he's happy about FOX's involvement as he doesn't want to preach to the converted, but rather wants to reach the mainstream.