What’s the difference between real science, where you map surface features and measure craters and help do planetary science, and what passes for science on television these days? Well, for one, no anacondas were harmed in the making of CosmoQuest. No animals at all! In fact I can state for a fact that the pets of our team members are actually rather pampered. Lack of danger to animals is one of many, many differences between an educational show from us, like Astronomy Cast or Learning Space, and the fiasco aired by the Discovery Channel last night, which you can read all about on io9 if you so desire. (Content Notice: Rather strong language – NSFW – in that article!) We’re looking forward to even more content to come in 2015 as we team up with the International Year of Light!
So let’s just say that no matter how oversensationalized television science can get, you can count on us to be realistic and animal friendly.
P.S. The title of this very short post is inspired by one of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs.
Animal friendly is cool (my cat would agree) but with regard to television science… well, I didn’t see the Discovery show in question (preferring content like Astronomy Cast) but when so many people embrace science illiteracy, any science programming that sparks interest has to be good, right? … and I just read what that show was about and it sure was NOT science. Was it promoted as a science show? I didn’t read the whole content because I got turned off rather quickly. Astronomy Cast or something like it NEEDS to be on television. I mean, how many hours a week does “How It’s Made” get televised on Discovery’s Science Channel?