Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science |
Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science |
Jan 8 2007, 07:15 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 117 Joined: 7-December 06 From: Sheffield UK Member No.: 1462 |
I have just watched the BBC's report on the newly created 3D map of dark matter using Hubble data; and it made my heart sink.
I applaud the BBC for giving airtime to such discoveries, but for such a respected organisation their research was awful. It's no wonder the vast majority of people are either bewildered or disinterested the the universe as a whole when the facts they are given are completely wrong. It's a shame that tonight 60 million or so people in the UK and many other people around the world were told Hubble shone a beam of light out into the depths of the universe and studied how it was bent by the gravity of dark matter billions of light years away! And this was a report from the BBCs science correspondant! I remain downhearted that perhaps the most important story of the week was reported in such a shoddy manner. Does anyone else feel space is being let down by TV coverage? -------------------- It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.
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Jan 12 2007, 04:42 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Mchan: Sadly, I think that most of these guys think that photons and (if they know of them at all) antiprotons are tangible objects about the size of a tennis ball, color-coded for easy identification and only found in mysterious labs located in European castles on cliffs surrounded by continuous thunderstorms and populated by clinically insane, cackling near-sighted old men with tangled long white hair. (If I missed a stereotype here, please feel free to fill it in! )
Ed: Thanks for the tip; heard of the story, now have to read it. A fav of mine is Pohl's The Space Merchants...looks like it's almost in the same vein. [EDIT]: Just had a weird thought, and please forgive me if it's OT. What if UMSF PIs & astronauts commanded huge salaries & led lavish lifestyles? Do you think that public attention to space would increase to the same level as "entertainment"? This may sound facetious, but it's not. Operational analysis of systems sometimes points to very odd-seeming solutions. This conjecture is purely intuitive, but let's fantasize for a moment that fame & fortune are very visible rewards of scientific excellence; would public attention be refocused thereby? [/EDIT] -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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