Ison Comet of the Century

One of the things I have been looking forward to most about 2014 is the coming of the comet Ison, the so called Comet of the Century. I have a faint memory of Hale Bopp back in 1996/7 sitting in the Sky for what seemed like months but was probably not that long. I just remember being in complete awe as this visitor from the outer Heliosphere as it cruised past our planet oasis. I want to feel like that again so fingers crossed Ison can deliver!

Ison on the 15th of November taken by Damian Peach

Ison has the potential to be the Comet of the Century however it could also not happen at all. At this moment it it is heading towards the Sun and will swing round it and then come back past the Earth. This is when the real show is supposed to begin for us! If it can safely pass the Sun without burning up completely we will see an amazing sight in our night Sky, shining as bright as our moon. The problem with Ison is that it might be passing the Sun just a little to close. Fingers crossed that its made of hardy stuff and makes it through safely.

"Boffin's Say"...... Move On

This is a little annoyance I have, one that is a complete turn off when I am reading about science or technology in the press or online. Many of the articles insist on using words like Boffin when talking about scientists and the work they are doing. I guess this is a wider issue for me too as I can not read a tabloid paper at all any more as their use of language is infuriatingly juvenile but also super repetitive. Words such as, evil, monster, hanky panky, Gotcha, using bed as an adjective, snub, wacko, Etc. You know what I mean if you have ever read one. So for this very reason I never buy a tabloid and rarely read an article online from one.

This has to be one of the most well know headlines and a perfect example of what I mean.

In regards to science and technology, I often read these sections on sites and use the Google news a lot to get a varied range of articles. In doing this I come across the use of "boffin" more often than not, from websites like the Register, which is nominally a tech page with some general science aswell. A quick Google search of the word boffin brings up plenty of boffin science articles.

What this boils down to for me is the juvenile way Science is reported, Boffin is a British slang word after all and has no place in the reporting of serious Science in my opinion. It belittles it and just shows the extreme laziness of the 'science' section of that particular media source. It also seems that Scientist's have no names they are either boffin's or scientist's and their name is irrelevant in the reporting of the work they have done. I want to know their names, don't you?

Abit of further reading on Tabloid Language if your interested is this article from the Independent.