Potential Nonsense

As I've written before, I am a nerd; and I tend to read some pretty "nerdy" stuff. So when I saw this week's "science nonsense article" was about another potential planet, I couldn't look away.

I guess I could explain what the "science nonsense article" is first...Once a week or every ten days or so, the mostly main stream news sites such as MSN, Yahoo, etc. feature an article dealing with science related matters. But they only feature ONE article in that span. Two articles in that span would be "nerd" overkill and they would lose style points with the "cool" crowd. And this could be tragic to our culture! Brittney and Lindsey and other "cool" people's lives are much more important than the Higgs Boson. Not to mention that it is difficult to live vicarious lives through a supercollider, rather than a celebrity. We feel better about our mistakes and our lives after we watch the train wreck of celebrity. But that is a different topic for a different day.

Back to the science stuff...This week's article dealt with another potential planet. And you did read that correctly, I said potential planet. But there was something different to this story. A potential Sun! Wow! Not only can astronomers detect potential planets, but potential suns. I will lay down 3:1 odds that they will detect a potential galaxy within the next few years.

The potential technology is possibly unlimited.

Scientists found this potential planet may be orbiting this potential sun. And it has the probability of sustaining life, theoretically speaking. And that leads to the logical assumption that the life sustained may be intelligent life. Potentially.

Does this sound very unscientific to anyone besides myself? Does this even sound logical?

There is a telescope powerful enough to view things parsecs away, but it isn't powerful enough to differentiate between a star, a planet, or an asteroid? Yet they make assumptions based on mathematical theorems and scientific algorithms and proposed trajectory; then they sell it to all of us ignorant lay folk, as all but fact? Maybe that is the only way that they can maintain their grants and funding. That I'm not sure about, but it is probable.

Does this bother anyone except nerds like me? Does all of this potentially proposed stuff make you feel like you're being talked down to? Like maybe the scientists are all laughing behind our backs at the ease of which they peddle their "junk" to us common people?

And is that better than the alternative of the scientists actually believing that swill? As I've said before, I'm a fan of funding these programs. Our lives have been bettered by many products that have come not potentially, but in reality, from many of these galactic goose chases. But there still should be some accountability. We shouldn't just overlook the nonsense of potentials and assume it is harmless. Because eventually this preposterous information gets into the hands of politicians. And worse, it gets into the hands of the religious liberals. Then the next thing we know theory and assumption could be taught in our schools as fact. Oops! Too late...

So I feel we need to arm ourselves with a few facts. If we aren't educated, even in scientific nonsense, we really are left to the will of those who will use and manipulate potential scientific studies. Then we could be left to potentially face problems of possible nature.

So do all of us a favor and read up on the seventeen mile long supercollider in France. Look into the politics that caused Reagan to stop funding a supercollider here in the U.S. years ago. Then when you read up on the Higgs Boson, don't be afraid. It can only point towards God, not away from God.

Venture forward from there and read about quarks, then neutrinos. And how neutrinos are detected. Then tell me if the Standard Model of an atom is accurate. And how much scientific fact is really only theory.

Or leave it all to people like the eggheads that believe in the problematic potential of possibilities...