Friday afternoon I’ll be on NPR’s Science Friday to talk about the recent dark matter results. Nothing that regular readers haven’t heard already, I suspect.
(Update: the audio files are on the right-hand side of this page. At least the mp3 file seems to be working. It was a short-but-sweet segment.)
We’ll share the show with an update on Pluto’s status. A quick query of Google News reveals that there have been about ten times more stories about Pluto than about dark matter. This despite the fact that the Bullet Cluster data have taught us something profound about the constituents and forces of our universe, while the “planet” business has taught us about the vote of a committee on what to call stuff. Why is that?
(Motivational poster generator found via La Blonde Parisienne.)
I want that poster.
I want it in my office
and I want it in my apartment
I am a high school jounralist and aspiring astronomy student in po-dunk Wyoming.
I agree with previous statements that the Pluto story is printed more because its easier to write. It’s also because anyone who doesn’t know what Pluto is wouldn’t be reading a paper, whereas, a lot more people didn’t even know dark matter was yet to be “discovered” or proven. It becomes a matter of what people will read. It doesn’t help that many people still believe astronomy is not useful to anyone on Earth and some mistake it for astrology.
I am excited about this discovery, as I know all of you are, too. So let us put up that poster, celebrating with those who understand it and telling the story to people who look at it with an questioning look.
Long live truth and the scientists who pursue it.