Last night, Foxs Cosmos series yet again waded into a bizarre politico-scientific controversy. This time, though, it wasnt about evolution, or climate change, or even the Big Bang. No. This time, it was about comets. The Cosmos episode was about what comets are, and why they are not, as humanity believed until quite recently, evil omens. Before the age of science, explained host Neil deGrasse Tyson, comets were portents of doom across cultures. Tyson also pointed out that the word disaster itself means bad star in Greek. The show then dove into the history of science to tell the story of Edmund Halley, who realized how comets work and that the comet that now bears his name returns roughly every 75 years (most recently in 1986; next up, 2061). Halley also inspired Sir Isaac Newton to publish what may be the most important book ever in the history of science, the Principia Mathematica. So why does the science of comets irk some creationists?
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:25:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015