Cosmic Imperfection?

Three scientists have been awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering a mechanism known as "spontaneous broken symmetry", thought to explain the origins of the universe as we know it.

Under the headline "Cosmic Imperfection Celebrated", Jonathan Amos (BBC Science reporter) describes this mechanism in terms of "tiny - but hugely significant - flaws in the fabric of the Universe".

Words like "imperfection" and "flaw" sound suspiciously like value judgements. And since they lead to the creation of the world, it is perhaps not surprising to find people talking about these so-called imperfections in teleological terms. The God Particle. Et In Arcadia Ego. God Only Knows.

In other words, the effect (and therefore the purpose) of this mechanism is to create life. We are imperfect because the fundamental origins of life are imperfect. Original sin. Or something.

I should stress that Jonathan Amos himself doesn't go this far. However, this kind of quasi-religious discussion seems to follow almost inevitably once you start to attach value judgements to scientific concepts.

This kind of popular discussion is of course completely unscientific, and irrelevant to the scientific breakthrough that won the Nobel prize in the first place. But then, as we've pointed out here before, science journalism often has to strike a difficult balance between pure scientific objectivity and the need to make science more interesting to the general public.

Intergalactic violence

Astronomers and/or science reporters are trying to sex up some astronomical events that are taking place in a distant galaxy.

Black hole 'bully' blasts galaxy

by Paul Rincon, BBC Science reporter, Monday, 17 December 2007.

It is the first time this form of galactic violence has been witnessed by astronomers.

The larger of the two galaxies in 3C321 - dubbed the "death star galaxy" by the astronomers - has a jet emanating from the vicinity of the black hole at its centre. The unfortunate smaller galaxy has apparently swung into the jet's line of fire.

This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling.

It is possible that it would not all be bad news for the galaxy being struck by the jet. The massive influx of energy and radiation from the jet may induce the formation of large numbers of stars and planets once its initial wake of destruction is complete.

I sympathize with the desire to describe some distant and obscure phenomenon in Homeric terms (and brave 3C321 smashed his pitiless particle stream into the unseeing face of the oncoming galaxy, scattering planets with the force of his blow). Homer did the opposite - describing the actions of heroes as if they possessed the unstoppable force of planets.

But it's bad science. Galaxies don't have problems or bad news. And the idea that the bad news might be moderated by the happy creation of stars and planets is just pathetic.

Wikipedia: Pathetic Fallacy