Reaching Out With Science

from the greatest webcomic ever xkcd

     Scientists walk a precarious line between appeasing the publics views and causing mental revolts. From the eyes of someone who hopes to one day assist in the upwards progress of humanity the public is scary, one day they are interested in a topic and the next day they are crying for your head on a plater. For instance back late last fall, a NASA researcher claimed to have discovered life on Earth that used arsenic instead of phosphorous.
It was quite the hulabaloo and the scientific journalism world jumped all over it as though it were the find of the century. As it would be, within the next few days certain skeptical scientists started picking holes in the idea, much as always happens and the media sided with those that were fighting the idea that arsenic was really used by these life forms. For someone in the public it looked like science was wrong and couldn't get its act together.
     So where else are there problems. Well when you happen upon a revolutionary idea that the public is unhappy about, you have to do some convincing. While the following video is unrelated to planetary sciences, it touches greatly upon to need for scientists and skeptics to look onto themselves and their behavior to better how they are viewed. Warning it is about half an hour long but is well worth the time.

 

May the stars shine brightly in your skies!