Category Archives: astronomy

astronomy, astronomy media

Stars Who Study Stars

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The astronomy profession is a small community of kindred souls all focusing on dozens of different ways to understand the science of the cosmos. I go to astronomy meetings pretty frequently (well, at least once or twice a year), to catch up on the latest and greatest in astronomy research. Mr. Spacewriter has accompanied me to a couple of meetings because I wanted him to experience the science being presented, and so he could meet some of the same folks. At the opening reception of the meetings, we’ve run into many, many people I’ve worked with or went to school with “back in the day.” And, marvelled at the fresh infusion of new blood into the profession. Of course there are folks from NASA and many research institutions at the meetings, but also people like Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain, who are the main drive behind Astronomy Cast. Pamela (who is also a university professor) is doing a lot more than research and teaching in astronomy. Like me, she loves to share astronomy with the public, in any way she can.

There are also a good many very talented science writers who attend AAS meetings, reporting on the science “hot off the presses.” It’s been an honor to meet some of them, too. Where else could I have met New York Times science writer John Noble Wilford? He attended a great many AAS meetings, always asking the astute questions and subtly drawing out an education in astrophysics through his questions. Or Dutch writer Govert Schilling? Or many others who have attended these sessions over the years.

As a writer, I’ve found many outlets for the material I learn at astronomy meetings. Of course, I use the science in my documentary shows. But, for the past few years, in addition to my fulldome show production work through Loch Ness Productions, I’ve been contracted by various observatories to work as an editor and outreach person. The work runs the gamut from writing and/or editing press releases to creating exhibits. Lots of fun, and I’d love to do more of it.

And, so I shall. To wit: in a very short time, Mr. Spacewriter and I will be starting production on some vodcasts under a NASA grant with MIT Haystack Observatory. And, much of the material we’re going to talk about is from papers I’ve heard and read about at AAS meetings, as well as from direct contact with astronomers in their research settings. Through all my “productions,” I hope to excite the downloading public about the science these guys are doing. I want to show their enthusiasm and love of subject to the rest of the world, because astronomers really are as much the stars of my work as the stars they research and explore.

astronomy

Hey AP!! We are IN the Cosmos

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We are PART of It!

Phil Plait over at the Bad Astronomy Blog is always battling dumb portrayals of science in movies, on TV, in the media, etc. You know what I’m talking about—wrong lunar phases in movies, stupid things like having Barbie say “Math is hard!” and mis-statements about physics and astronomy in newscasts. It happens every day, and nobody in the media really gives much of a hoot because to them, science is just another beat, another story, another “weird” thing to write about to keep people from worrying too much about all the other problems in the world. Don’t wanna write about the White House breaking the law cuz it’s too hard on one’s reportorial skills or the editor doesn’t want you to? Well, hey, let’s write a story about weird science. That’ll deflect people’s attention! Don’t understand anything about astronomy or physics or math, Mr. or Ms. Reporter? Doesn’t matter as long as you have a snappy lead, right? (And, just for disclosure, I consider myself a journalist too, even got a degree in journalism and mass communications—so I know their jobs and I know their beats. But I still get to call shenanigans on ’em!)

Okay, so I’m a bit cynical about media portrayals of science and misuse of science terms in movies, TV and news. Wouldn’t you be if your profession were continually misrepresented by the media? If you’re a scientist, you continually read really silly stereotypes about science and scientists, like the one about how scientists are just geeks. Or you go to movies and see scientists being portrayed as loners, or evil geniuses, or lonesome weirdos working at the frontiers of science. Wearing pocket protectors. And thick glasses.

It’s kind of like being an atheist and reading stories about how atheists supposedly worship Satan (hello!! atheists profess no belief in any deity, and last time I looked, Satan was supposedly the Lord of the Underword in several mytho-romantical religious cultures). Or being a Muslim and finding out in the media that you’re a bloodthirsty bomber, or being a Christian and reading that all Christians hate everybody, or being a woman and reading in the media that all women want or need is a good man, or being a teenaged girl and finding out that your biggest goal should be to look anorectic so you can attract boys. Or… well, I could go on and on. Stereotypes and mistakes in the media are an annoyance, but if people who read and watch media are well-educated enough, they can look beyond the stereotype. (And the sad state of science education in my country is another tangent I could go off on, particularly since it seems that many reporters don’t take ONE class in science when they’re in J-School… but I digress…).

What got me up on my Science Mistakes Soapbox today? Reading CNN.com. Which kind of surprised me, because usually their science stories are pretty good and reasonably accurate most of the time. They don’t make the usual bone-headed mistakes that I see so often in much of mainstream media.

So, today I was reading about Sunita Williams, one of NASA’s astronauts on the International Space Station. She was all over the news last week (at least in Boston) because she ran the Boston Marathon in space while the race was being held here on Earth. There was lots of cool coverage about her training and how she’d run it on the treadmill while whirling around the planet at 17,239 miles per hour (27,273 kilometers per hour). Today’s story (which you can read here), talks about Sunita catching a ride home soon, if the Atlantis shuttle launches on time.

The part that set me off on this discussion was the last part of the first sentence (called the “lead” in J-talk), which said:

“…so she doesn’t have to spend more than six months in the cosmos.”
In the cosmos??? That one definitely jarred my attention, and I asked myself, “Okay, what part of “cosmos” doesn’t the story writer understand?”

For those of you following along at home, here’s a nice definition of the word at Dictionary.com. It cites the American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of “cosmos” that says, in part:

“the universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole.”

The use of the word “cosmos” in the CNN story is wrong. And you don’t even have to be a scientist to know it. Any reasonably well-educated person should know what the word “cosmos” means, right? Probably the writer didn’t want to say “outer space” or “on orbit” (although I don’t know why not). But, substituting the word “cosmos” is just plain wrong. We’re already IN the cosmos! Earth is part of the cosmos. Low-earth orbit is part of the cosmos.The flowers in my yard are part of the cosmos.

The tale comes from the Associated Press, which I used to admire quite a bit for its accuracy and good writing. But, it seems they’ve let their standards slip a bit. I think that somebody’s writer is a little non-cosmos-mentis. and shame on CNN for just running it as is, without correcting the mistake.