Comments on: The Year in Science, 2009

By: Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:27:12 +0000

Chris makes an excellent point– Science has been repeatedly politicized over the past 8 years or so… to the detriment of all of us. Climategate was a farce as many newspaper reports have pointed out. Science has brought us to this age of the internet, modern medicine, transportation, space flight, and all the rest. It still amazes me that some groups of people are still thinking in the 14th century.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:10:59 +0000

This is probably being too picky – but the first exoplanet images were released in November 2008, not in 2009. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a phenomenal and very exciting result, it just didn’t happen in 2009!

(for the sake of full disclosure I know & work with many of the astronomers involved in those discoveries, which is part of why I remember the chronology clearly!)

For exciting exoplanet news from 2009, how about the recent discovery of a water world super-Earth, an entirely new class of planets that’s only been suspected before now. See http://news.discovery.com/space/waterworld-super-earth-discovered.html for instance.

Happy holidays! Let’s hope Santa brings us all lots of exciting new results soon…

By: toasterhead

toasterhead — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:45:28 +0000

“this is the crux of climategate, I’m left with wondering where else data has been massaged to fit?”
__________

What do you mean, “where else?” The swifthack emails showed no evidence of data being “massaged” anywhere. What they showed was evidence of an all-out attack on climate scientists at East Anglia and other institutions, being waged by manipulating mainstream media, invading the peer-review process, and abusing Freedom of Information acts.

They need to spend so much time defending themselves against science denialists that I wonder how they have time left for science.

By: sHx

sHx — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:29:53 +0000

“The battle to restore scientific integrity isn’t over. It has only begun.”

Agreed. Let’s start with the CRU climatologists and the Hockey Stick Team. Unless they are slayed first, we cannot possibly win any battle to restore scientific integrity.

By: nony

nony — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:30:30 +0000

in the hopes that this will get an airing, climategate is/was a good thing. it brought light to an area that many scientists aren’t willing to discuss much; the continuing affect that politics(and read that as meaning the interaction of people and the world)have on scientific conclusions.

science has always been used by people with an agenda, to forward that agenda. But now it is a bit different, as science moves ever further into the abstract it becomes increasingly difficult for laymen, no matter how well educated to grasp essential concepts. and when the margin of error vanishes into the margin of measurement…the scientists in the field must take outstanding precautions in preventing making the science fit the anticipated observations. this is the crux of climategate, I’m left with wondering where else data has been massaged to fit?

>’The battle to restore scientific integrity isn’t over. It has only begun.’
perhaps, a [MythBusters](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html) series tailored just to address this conclusion? (one I wholeheartedly agree with)

anyway, thanks for your time, it’s good to see people willing to move the discussion forward.

By: Read the Code

Read the Code — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:48:56 +0000

It was also a year in which our very own Chris Mooney got mentioned in a Climategate email! Apparently, one of the warm-mongers suggests that “someone like Chris Mooney” should be informed of a particular issue they were having with a skeptical scientist. What do you suppose he meant by that phrase?