SAN FRANCISCO -- The late Carl Sagan's biographer says the Pulitzer Prize winning astrophysicist was an avid marijuana user, and even wrote an essay in the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered under the pseudonym "Mr. X." The book's editor, longtime Sagan friend Lester Grinspoon, revealed Sagan's secret to San Francisco Examiner writer Keay Davidson, whose Carl Sagan: A Life hits shelves in October.

''I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of Gaussian distribution curves,'' Sagan-as-Mr. X writes in Marihuana Reconsidered. ''I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down."

Never mind what the hell Gaussian distribution curves are; this soapy, stoned scribe was on to something. Too much, in fact -- the following are some less cerebral pot-induced revelations Sagan disclosed to Grinspoon for his yet unpublished follow-up work, Marihuana Re-Reconsidered:

• Discovered saying "billions and billions" repeatedly sounded really cool during a visit to a friend's cabin in Humboldt County, California.

• Uranus, Venus, and Pluto, are -- in that order -- the funniest planets in the galaxy.

• His "space probe" was more eager than ever to explore the "big-bang" theory.

• Confirmed that peanut butter and chocolate were, indeed, two great tastes that taste great together.

• Crafted a rocket-shaped bong nicknamed Spacey that was "way cool."

• Uncovered the connection between Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz long before anyone else.

• Found a redoubled appreciation of the northern lights.

• Posited that extra-terrestrials were just waiting for more people to lighten up and "smoke this righteous weed" before making contact with Earth.

• Theorized that although a gravity bong would work in zero gravity, using a keg stand would be virtually impossible.