1st October 2010, 9:14 AM
Yeah, it's a big problem. It's all the worse today, as nothing scientists say can get reported even somewhat resembling what the original scientist was even saying. As you say, it's not just astronomers. Engineers are also affected, and notably lately, biologists are affected.
Look at the whole "mouse ear" thing. When that first got announced, just about every news outlet reported it as a "cloning" thing, with articles like "could human clones be right around the corner?" which completely missed the point of that development. Further, every single time a new transitional fossil is found, every single news outlet has the same headline "Evolution vindicated at last! Missing link found!", as though evolution doesn't already have reams of existing evidence for it, each new transitional fossil just being another small part. Besides, creationists tend to not be phased in the least, to them every single new transitional form is really just introducing TWO new missing links where there was just one before :D. That's not to mention that the "straight path" is actually more like us finding different branches from earlier along, with whatever form was between them, in all likelihood, still being hidden.
Then there's the massive confusion over the LHC where all the news outlets were reporting, for a false sense of "balance", the fear mongering that the LHC could destroy the world. That was just insane...
Look at the whole "mouse ear" thing. When that first got announced, just about every news outlet reported it as a "cloning" thing, with articles like "could human clones be right around the corner?" which completely missed the point of that development. Further, every single time a new transitional fossil is found, every single news outlet has the same headline "Evolution vindicated at last! Missing link found!", as though evolution doesn't already have reams of existing evidence for it, each new transitional fossil just being another small part. Besides, creationists tend to not be phased in the least, to them every single new transitional form is really just introducing TWO new missing links where there was just one before :D. That's not to mention that the "straight path" is actually more like us finding different branches from earlier along, with whatever form was between them, in all likelihood, still being hidden.
Then there's the massive confusion over the LHC where all the news outlets were reporting, for a false sense of "balance", the fear mongering that the LHC could destroy the world. That was just insane...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)