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Vagn
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I have been wondering about the state of Scientific Journalism recently after reading an article in a UK newspaper discussing the recent http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100822/full/news.2010.423.html" having formed 4.568 billion years ago.
The article does not appear on the newspaper's website, so I shall quote it below:
Now it isn't exactly difficult to research the age of the Universe and discover that current estimates are 13.75 ± 0.17 billion years. So why would a meteorite from our solar system help to date the Universe?
There are also documentaries on various TV channels which are propogating the 2012 Apocalypse Hoax and other pseudoscientific rubbish such as Nostradamus and so on, which has led to NASA's http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/"[/URL] being bombarded with questions regarding "Nibiru" ad other components of the 2012 hoax.
My question is, what is your opinion on mainstream scientific journalism and how would you like to improve the quality of it? Would you want to attempt to increase scientific literacy in the general population, or would you try to legislate against such lies?
The article does not appear on the newspaper's website, so I shall quote it below:
THE Solar System could be 2million years older that was thought, say US Scientists. The claim comes after minerals buried in a meteorite found in north-west Africa were tested and shown to have formed 4568.2million years ago - up to 1.9million years earlier than the previous estimate for the birth of the Sun and the Universe.
The research, by a team at Arizona State University, is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Now it isn't exactly difficult to research the age of the Universe and discover that current estimates are 13.75 ± 0.17 billion years. So why would a meteorite from our solar system help to date the Universe?
There are also documentaries on various TV channels which are propogating the 2012 Apocalypse Hoax and other pseudoscientific rubbish such as Nostradamus and so on, which has led to NASA's http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/"[/URL] being bombarded with questions regarding "Nibiru" ad other components of the 2012 hoax.
My question is, what is your opinion on mainstream scientific journalism and how would you like to improve the quality of it? Would you want to attempt to increase scientific literacy in the general population, or would you try to legislate against such lies?
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