Monday, September 8, 2008

Science Illiteracy in the News

Fox News has a piece with the headline "Fear Looms Over Scientist's Experiment to Uncover Secrets of 'Big Bang'."

It contains this gem: "For centuries, scientists have sought unsuccessfully to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang Theory — a model explaining the birth of the universe. "

Prior to the 20th Century, most scientists believed the universe was eternal. The Big Bang Theory was proposed in the 1920s (it got its name in the '40s) and proponents fought with adherents of various eternal universe models for decades.

That the average person doesn't know this is fine; that the science reporters and editors at Fox don't is sad. Incidentally, they link to a report at the Daily Mail that does not contain that silly line. (BTW, I like Fox.)

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