Blogs / Bad Astronomy

The L.A. Times has a lengthy article about the multi-nation effort to get back to the Moon.

You can bet I have a lot to say about this, but I don’t have the time right now. Just read the article and you’ll get a sense of what a lot of different people are saying about this. My own thoughts are complicated, and perhaps a multi-part blog entry will be forthcoming once I get them organized.

I received an email from a reader the other day after all the NASA blather that happened last week. He is an evolutionary biologist, so of course he feels my pain. He sent me a link to a page about Science Literacy Month for kids, which talks about ways to celebrate science. I just have to pass it on here.

Last week, there was Darwin Day. In that vein, he suggests that February 17th be called Heliocentrism Day. That’s because Copernicus was born on February 19th, and Galileo on February 15th. The 17th is the average between them.

He suggests baking a cake, and frosting it with concentric circles to represent the model of the solar system. And, of course, a single candle in the middle represents the Sun.

I think this is a fine idea. It’ll help kids remember how things really work in Nature. And cake never hurts, either.