Pluto Demoted (According to Some)

Alas, it was too good to be true. Despite the draft resolution of last week, Pluto has been demoted from planet to "dwarf planet," the result of a final resolution that basically says plaents like Pluto, having not cleared their orbits completely of things like other planets, cannot be called planets. And to add insult to injury, the idea of calling all bodies like Pluto "Plutonian objects" was voted down as well. As was the notion of distinguishing between "classical" planets like the other eight.

I don't like it. I don't get it. I don't buy it. If a larger body is found out there but is in an orbit as eccentric as Pluto and Charon's, it won't be a planet? What if there is something the size of Earth in another solar system that acts the same way? Given that we keep finding seemingly impossible tihngs out there, I would say this is not out of the question.

I can see that Pluto, as small and strange is it, defies defintion. That maybe it doesn't quite fit with the other planets. But I would much rather have seen the defintion broadened. As with other things i life, I prefer inclusiveness.

And let's say this one last time. The word planet had a simple, if non-scientific definition, for a long time. This complicates things. I honestly think that to the average person (assuming he or she cares), the scientific communnity looks silly, pendantic, and self-involved.

And for what it's worth, I don't think this is the end of it. The debate will go on, even if the astronomers voted.

Thus for now, I am not ready to concede. Pluto is a planet, and I don't care what the vote was. Alas, my opinion doesn't matter much. But I am sticking with it.

And therefore I welcome Ceres, Charon and "Xena" to my own list of planets. And look forward to adding more.

(Yes, I am being churlish and stubborn. Is that a problem?)

Possible Onion Headline?

IAU REJECTS BID TO MAKE DEATH STAR PLANET
"That's No Planet" Say Astronomers.
Emperor and Vader Vow Revenge, Call "Dwarf Planet" Insult

Science IS the News

It's a rare day when three of the major news stories are all related directly to science. There's the Pluto story, the decision by the FDA to allow sales of the "morning after" pill over the counter, and the announcement yesterday of a new way to harvest stem cells witohut destroying the embryo. The stem cell story was the lead in the NY Times today (which is not like most news outlets, of course), and odds are the other two stories will be among the leads tomorrow.

What's interesting about all three is how science and society intersect. In the latter two stories, debates about morality and the very nature of life are once again ignited, even as they collide with matters of health, population control and responsible behavior. And yet, we wouldn't be hearing about this if there hadn't been breakthroughs in medical technology and in understanding how the body works.

The Pluto story, by comparision, is rather minor. There will be no violent protests outside planetariums by Operation Rescue, no debates about government spending. But much of the Pluto debate revolved around public perceptions of astronomy and science, and of science's relationship to the culture it lives in. And if there weren't ongoing advances in telescope technology, there would have been no debate at all.

All three stories show how difficult it is to navigate the shoals of change that come with science. Stem cell research has the potential to change how we treat illness. The morning after pill could have far reaching effects that we cannot predict on how we regard sex and reproduction, as well as more obvious effects on the anti-abortion movement and on population control. And the decision about Pluto could affect perceptions of how the scientific community works, and perhaps actually make that community stop and study its place in the broader culture.

So these news stories, like stories about Lebanon and Iraq, like stories about New Orleans and Ground Zero, like stories about politics and economics, are about us. As Americans, as men and women, as members of society, as humans, and as residents of a strange and fascinating and ever-changing planet and universe.

And anyone who ignores them as just "science stories" does so at the risk of missing something more.

(And for the record, I support stem cell research and the right to get birth control and abortion on demand whole-heartedly.)