Sun's Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity

[curly_kate]

The dire warnings of impending disaster aren't science.... they are media, and in particular (these days) people who cherrypick whatever news items happen to fit their personal preferences/preconceptions and then flog them around the internet as The New Big Sign Of What's To Come (or in other cases, e.g. nutrition related, You Have To Do Things Exactly This Way).

Science is the process of figuring out how things work.

It is a PROCESS, contains MULTIPLE plausible interpretations of most things, is done by a diversity of people who all have their OWN take on things, and generally really really sucks (to date) at predicting things more complicated than 'the sun will rise in the morning', despite a few conspicuous exceptions.

The problem is that it is just much much more fun for people to pick one thing and run with it as if it's Truth.

The problem ain't science, it's human behavior.

Pat

I agree 100%. I have a couple of friends who are scientists (chemists), and they always have interesting comments about fact v. what the media/pharmaceutical industry says. It's just another case of needing to go directly to the source, instead of a reporter's interpretation of what will generate the most clicks.