I would feel slightly guilty about such a young one turning to the dark side — literally — but if they’re interested in science in this age, better this than something squishy.
Behold, the power of astronomy!
This was total link bait, of course, but fair is fair: I found this on RobiNZ Personal Blog, via a Google trackback.
Cutest. Kid. Ever.
Besides The Little Astronomer, of course.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
February 17th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Oh — anyone who points out any trivial errors this four year old kid made would be a cad.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Come on BA, you’re in trouble when your wife reads that last line.
I’m going with second cutest kid ever, but perhaps the most interesting to talk to.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I used to be that kid. Well, not that exact kid, but when I was that age I knew all that stuff, too. Lots of fun learning about that stuff. And I may not be a scientist, but I keep learning about that stuff. Lots of fun.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Eat your heart out, Stephen Colbert!
J/P=?
February 17th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
There is a video with over two million hits of a 23 month-old girl named, Lilly, who was very cute. Of course, talking about astronomy instead of geography wins you extra cuteness points. It’s very close.
Some of the books my parents gave me when I was little had to do with science and astronomy in particular. That wins them parenting points. However, I do not recall either of them talking to me about them. That costs them some points.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Cute. However, when I was his age Pluto was a planet, and wil always be a planet in my books. You cannot just go and arbitrarily decide one day that Pluto will NOT be a planet! If you want to add more planets, fine! But they never asked me! There was no referendum on whether or not Pluto should be thrown out.
Now, I’d like to talk about the twin moons of Uranus, if I may….
February 18th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Phil, It’s never too early to start kids out on the true path.
My friend’s son was born last Thursday, and a few of us are already figuring out how to turn him to the astronomy side.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Adorable. Wish that I could do something like that with my cousins (being 3 and a half hours away at school does make teaching them things a lot harder than it was to teach my little brother).
I always loved science, and once I was older, taught my siblings science when I had the chance. My little brother loved to watch the weather channel with me (I’m a meteorology major, so I did a lot of watching of the weather channel), and I would teach him everything I knew. My brother, on the way to kindergarten one morning, told the girl next to him on the bus (who happened to be a friend of mine from when we are in middle school) everything about the weather - it didn’t take her long to realize that that was my doing. When my siblings told me about this after school, I nearly died laughing.
Kids will learn anything that you try hard enough to teach them.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Glad you enjoyed the ‘lecture’ from my offspring.
Thanks, he is quite adorable, isn’t he?
And, believe me, I’m not *trying* to turn him into an astronomy geek, Mommy wants him to be an Engineer… if I have to settle for the Aeronautical variety, I suppose that’s okay.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Behold the power of astronomy? What became of the power of cheese?
February 18th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I really, really wish I had a video camera when my friend’s 7-year-old daughter came up to me playing with my HP calculater and said “Can you teach me what a square root is?”
Of course, I did.
JC
February 18th, 2008 at 9:11 am
My favourite part:
“On PLuutO, it’s just cold, cold, cold forever.”
:D
I haven’t been fortunate enough to view a video of the Little BA debunk Hoagland, or explain a beautiful image from the Hubble, so I guess, to me, he is the cutest kid, EVAH.
And he knows there are only eight planets. That makes him the smartest. 
February 18th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Actually, there are 11 planets. It’s just that three of them are small.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:29 am
As far as I’m concerned there are billions, even trillions, of planets. It’s just that a handful of them are exceptionally large & complex.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Thanks, BA, that made my day. BTW, those placemats are sold in the Houston Museum of Natural Science - I even once bought one of the Periodic Table to use as a mouse pad. They can be bought online at Amazon here. There are ones with stars and constellation, rocks and minerals, etc. When I was a kid we had geography placemats - easy way for kids to learn.
He really is cute talking about the asteroid belt.
February 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Also, check out American Science Surplus (americansciencesurplus.com) for astronomy and geography placemats and many kinds of cool science-related stuff, useful and just fun.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
His mother has every right to be proud!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Little-genius-boy-whose-name-I-do-not-know:
You rock!
I hope this becomes a viral hit!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Q: Why is there an asteroid belt?
ATo keep the solar system’s pants from falling down!!
A bad joke? Yes, but at least it’s cleaner than Michael’s remark about “the twin moons of Uranus.”
February 18th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Doctor: Well madam, I have some bad news for you. The test results for your son came back, and I’m afraid your son has what we call “The Knack.”
Mother: *GASP* What is “The Knack?”
Doctor: Well, in technical terms, it’s a mastery of all things scientific and technical, but a complete lack of anything resembling social skills.
Mother: Oh no! Will he be able to live a normal life?
Doctor: No, he’ll have to be an engineer.
Mother: Oh god! NO!! *sobs*
February 18th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Awwww, he’s adorable!
February 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Yipes! Dawkins calls it child abuse to call a kid a Muslim or a Catholic. But an astronomer! That’s got to be super-duper child abuse! And such a cute kid, too. Kidding aside, I wish there where a lot more great parents like that in the world. Well done.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Well, top 10 anyway, but you should see my niece holding forth about cephalopods. And mollusks in general. The only person I’ve ever seen voluntarily pet a slug[1]. Talk about the *dark side*. (She’s going to be 6 next week.)
[1] Me: Isn’t it slimy?
Her: Of course. It’s a slug.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Damn, that Lilly video was good. At first I was suspicious but at one point she definitely knew where the next country was and didn’t turn around to look at anyone, and you couldn’t shine a laser pointer or anything there.
As for the kid..well, I dunno what the standard is for kids. I could name the planetary bodies and various compositions for them, types of stars etc by the time I was 6..but wow did that knowledge and interest evaporate when I learned that astronomy was maths instead of pictures and diagrams >_>
Ah well, he’s got a great head start.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:12 am
[…] Entering the solar system, we pass an unremarkable point some 550 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is. Unremarkable, that is, apart from the fact that, as Centauri Dreams reports, it could be the destination for the FOCAL mission to create the world’s most powerful telescope. For basic navigation, Phil’s found someone to give him a hand. […]
February 21st, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Thanks for biting the link bait. I thought you’d like the video, I thought it was cool