I've been reading this bulletin board for a while, but finally felt I had to join after reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning. I am usually pleased when newspapers contain science articles, but this one just doesn't make sense. It dealt with the discovery of the asteroid which is the source of the Quadrntid meteor shower. Here is a link to the article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGCC4152J1.DTL

In brief, the article says the "source of the meteor shower would eventually be confirmed as the dim burnt-out core of an ancient star that must have exploded in violent brilliance more than 500 million years ago."

Also, "When it was a star that exploded, astronomers theorize, debris flew into solar orbit to create what observers on Earth took to calling the Quadrantid meteor shower".

Wow! That's the worst example I've seen in a long time! This belongs on the front page of the site IMHO

I did a quick google search and found this:

http://www.nature.com/nsu/031229/031229-5.html

The SF article seems to not know the difference between a star and a comet. #-o #-o ](*,) ](*,)

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Old laser physicists never die, they just become incoherent.
These days, every Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks he knows what a photon is, but he is wrong. - Albert Einstein

I wonder which "astronomers" were consulted??

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

From now on, refer to this sorry newspaper as the San Francisco COMICAL.

Oh my, it gets worse: a search on Google reveals an "Award in Excellence for Science Journalism" that is named after the author of the aforementioned article in the Comical!

After reading Mr. Perlman's effort, one wonders whether he would be able to win his own award.

Welcome and congratulations for posting just the link and not the entire article.

Regular meteor showers are known to be from orbital trails of comets. What took them so long?

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

Hey, I sent the author a very polite email pointing out the error and he sent me a reply saying that it was just carelessness and that a correction was going to run in tomorrow's paper.

Cool huh

Good move, tofu!

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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Fomalhaut, nice catch. You may just be looking into this online, but if you live in the Bay Area, I would suggest reading the
San Jose Mercury News for anything science or technology related. Surprisingly (or not so depending on your perspective) it is probably ont of the best newspapers in the country for tech news. It's one of the few things that I miss about the Bay Area.

Welcome Fomalhaut! Great catch! this site has a topic just for stuff like this. Check out "bad TV. bad movies. No doughnuts!" Just the spot for posting this kind of thing! Keep 'em honest out there! Wally

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. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

Right after I submitted the original post, it occurred to me that I should have used the "Bad TV, etc" forum. Sorry about that.

Anyway, the Chronicle did print a correction in today's paper. It was a very short paragraph, so I'll copy it whole:

"An article on the Quadrantid meteor shower in Wednesday's Chronicle misstated details of the star explosion from which the Quadrantids originated. The explosion occurred about 500 years ago, producing debris that generated a comet. Later, the comet became a tiny asteroid detected by astronomers."

(Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGPD41SRD1.DTL)

I still have a problem with the "star explosion" part.

Incredible--this doesn't correct the error at all. It merely restates it! This is to be expected from a newspaper as AWFUL as the San Francisco Comical. This horrible newspaper is STILL maintaining that a "star explosion" "500 years ago" led to the creation of this meteor shower.

For the record: Astronomers have long known that COMETS--not stars, not "star explosions"--are the source of most meteor showers. They've known this ever since 1866, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli identified Comet Swift-Tuttle as the source of the Perseid meteor shower.

You'd think the "science editor" of the Comical would know something as basic as the origin of meteor showers. Well, actually, no, you wouldn't, because it's such a TERRIBLE newspaper.

Would anyone like to win the "David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism"?

Wow! Out of the frying pan, and into the fire! Where the heck is this reporter getting his info? It's a shame they can pass off this amount of mis-information!

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. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

Here's an article from Nature that gets it right:

Here's another accurate source.