Science

Physicist Kent Cullers is Project Manager with SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute. A character in the new film "Contact" is based on Cullers. Cullers has been blind since birth and was the first totally blind physicist in the United States.

Science writer Timothy Ferris. He's the author of the bestseller "Coming of Age in the Milky Way." His new book is "The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the Universe(s) Report" (Simon & Schuster). Ferris is an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gottman talks about what are some of the key factors that lead to either a good or bad marriage. He has studied hundreds of marriages, and found common behaviors that happy couples share. Gottman is author of "Why Marriages Succeed or Fail," "What Predicts Divorce" and "The Heart of Parenting." Gottman is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.

Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died today at the age of 62. A spokesman for the Cancer Research Center says Sagan died from pneumonia after suffering from bone marrow disease for two years.

Science writer David Quammen's new book is "The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions" (Scribner). During his eight years of research, Quammen studied the biogeography of islands around the world. His travels introduced him to plants and animals previously unimagined. Quammen is a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award for his science essays and other work in Outside magazine.

Scientist and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan. His new book is "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark," (Random House).

Biologist Joel E. Cohen. He heads the laboratory of populations at Rockefeller University in New York City. His new book is "How Many People Can the Earth Support?" (W.W. Norton). Cohen's book is "neither an alarmist tract nor a cornucopian lullaby." Cohen considers the central population issues: Has rapid population growth, brought us close to destruction? And what is the carrying capacity of the earth?

"The New York Times Magazine" called Galdikas the "third angel" of Louis Leakey, who also taught Jane Goodall and DIan Fossey. Galdikas has been studying orangutans in Indonesia since 1971, when virtually nothing was known about the animals in the wild. Since then, there have been articles about her, and her research in "National Geographic" and other magazines. She has just written a new book about her work, "Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo."

Dr. Robert Sheets is the director of the National Hurricane Center near Miami, Florida. The Center keeps a constant watch on tropical disturbances which may turn into hurricanes. He'll talk today about what causes hurricanes, and how people who live in regions with many hurricanes can prepare for the storm season.

James Reston, Jr. has written a biography of Galileo, called "Galileo: A Life." In it, he explores how Galileo was publicly humiliated for supporting the theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Reston recently wrote a cover story for "Time Magazine," on the comet crash into Jupiter, before the crash became national news.