Blue Collar Scientist

I thought I’d collect all the online examples I could find of reactions to the recent asteroid names. I’ll try to keep it up to date over the next few days. Please let me know of anything I’ve missed!

First, stuff written by the namesakes:

PZ Myers has posted on Pharyngula.

Michael Stackpole has some remarks here. I’m assuming this is going to get wide play on science fiction and gaming blogs; if you are reading this, would you alert me if you know of something?

Phil has posted on the asteroid bearing his name (Michael Stackpole and Rebecca Watson both drop by to comment) and then followed up about the relative sizes of the various asteroids I named in this batch (Rebecca does some good-natured gloating in the comments, and I clarify a few things as well).

Skepchick has coverage by a.real.girl, with Rebecca in the comments; and Rebecca herself posts to the SGU Blog.

Next, stuff written by others:

Archaeoporn covers all the names in one post!

Greg Laden heard about it on the radio and then followed up PZ’s posting.

The Bad Astronomy/Universe Today Forums are discussing things here.

I alerted the Skeptic Friends Network where I expect there will be some follow-up discussion.

The JREF Forums have a discussion kicked off by Rebecca.

Stuart Goldman, my old editor at Sky & Telescope, pointed out some T-Shirts of interest.

Phil is already getting international coverage.

John Scalzi waxes jealous.

Robert Sim, the roboticist, covers the story and demands photos.

The Classic BattleTech forums are discussing Stackpole here.

The Farpoint Forums are abuzz about Stackpole as well.

Jim Lippard discusses Stackpole on the Lippard Blog.

And Say We Did discusses the utter coolness of all this.

There’s a discussion going on at Atheism From Mexico (Ateísmo Desde México) which I don’t fully understand, because my Spanish is next to non-existent. I guess that the OP says I’ve named asteroids after four famous skeptics, and the follow-on has something to do with Rebecca’s house being seen in Google Earth? Someone help me out?

Brian Griggs, in a short and to-the-point message, approves of the asteroid Stackpole.

Rebecca makes the front page of Current with the story (permalink here).

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast for this week leads with the news of Rebeccawatson and the other asteroids.

Tapetenageln reports on Stackpole.

AnakinWeb has a French-language discussion of Stackpole. I know French, and it seems someone reading the discussion thought it might have been an April Fool’s Day joke.

The Daily Camera, a Colorado newspaper, has a story and interview with Phil Plait about the asteroid named for him.

When I started thinking about how I should name some asteroids, I quickly discovered that PZ Myers had not yet had one named for him. I believe that the work he’s doing to explain evolution and oppose creationism is absolutely critical to the public perception of science, and I’m very aware that evolution is just the issue of the day. It is abundantly clear from my own (modest by comparison) science education activities that those who hate evolution have an equal hatred for the big bang theory, for the notion of cosmological distances, and for many other things that we have learned from astronomy.

If the biologists are overrun, the hordes will storm the big bang next. So PZ is doing yeoman service at insulating my discipline from the denialists. But more than this, he’s damn good at what he does¹. I remember reading PZ in the talk.origins days, and I’ve been reading his blog just about forever. I’ve benefitted enormously from it, in terms of the amount of knowledge I’ve soaked up (in a field well outside my own discipline), and it has materially enhanced my ability to respond to antievolutionists that attend my own programs. Besides this, I’ve derived hours - probably a few too many hours - of enjoyment from his writing.

The naming citation I submitted for PZ Myers reads:

Paul Myers (b. 1957), associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, was among the first to study zebrafish as models for evolution and human development. As author of the blog Pharyngula and through public appearances and debates, he educates the public about evolution and science.

I talked to PZ on the telephone Sunday evening, to tell him of the asteroid naming and give him a little warning that he was likely to see some publicity about it. Although I was quite nervous calling up one of my heroes in such a brazen manner, I’m happy to report that PZ is an incredibly likable guy, and that I had no unpleasant experiences with stray tentacles. I will doubtless never know PZ well, but I’m glad that I can say I feel this naming is appropriate not only because of Dr. Myers’ professional accomplishments, but also because of his good character.

1. regardless of what Nisbet and Mooney say. [↩]

Let’s cut right to the chase:

I am deeply privileged to have named asteroids after PZ Myers of Pharyngula; Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer; Rebecca Watson, founder of Skepchick; and Michael Stackpole, skeptic and science fiction author¹. Quick links to my thoughts on the names:

• PZ Myers
• Phil Plait
• Rebecca Watson
• Michael Stackpole

Please go off to their respective blogs and websites and offer these people the congratulations they richly deserve, and then come back to read the rest of the story.

…

As my handful of readers probably know, I’m an astronomer. I’ve done a bit of research on cataclysmic variable stars, active galactic nuclei, and asteroids. During the course of the asteroid work, my collaborator, Dave Healy, and I have discovered almost 500 asteroids.

Back in 2000 and 2001, I was involved day-to-day in an asteroid observing program in southern Arizona, at an observatory bearing the peculiar name Junk Bond Observatory. Its name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the way it was financed, but it is a serious place, with robotic 0.4 and 0.8 meter (16 inch and 32 inch) telescopes devoted to research every clear night.

On the night of November 23, 2001, I was sitting in the cold at the 16″ instrument, trying to debug one of the endless problems this telescope had. In the course of a test run of my latest attempt to overcome the problem, I took three images of a previously unknown asteroid. The following night, I followed up on the find, and reported it to the Minor Planet Center, at Harvard. Within a day or two, I was credited with having discovered (yet another) new asteroid.

When first discovered, asteroids get a “provisional designation” - the year followed by a letter-number code. After the asteroid is followed for a while, and an accurate orbit is determined - something that typically takes several years - the asteroid receives a number. Once an asteroid is numbered, it may be named. The naming process takes a few months, so the asteroid names I’m discussing today, which I learned had been approved by the IAU last Friday, were being worked on in December and January, and were formally proposed to the IAU in February.

The asteroid I discovered on November 23, 2000 was originally called 2000 WG11. It was followed for a few orbits, and eventually numbered 165347. Now, it is officially named Philplait - but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

By the following spring, most of the telescope’s problems were under control, either fixed with nuts and bolts, or worked around with clever software techniques. My collaborator, Dave Healy, observed for most of the month of March, including the latter half of the month. He discovered new asteroids in the same way I had, on March 22, 23, and 29. After being tracked for a few years, they were duly given numbers:

• 2001 FB10, discovered on March 22, was numbered 153289. It is now officially known as Rebeccawatson.
• 2001 FP86, discovered the following night on March 23, was numbered 165612. It is now officially known as Stackpole.
• 2001 FC122, discovered on March 29, was numbered 153298. It is now officially known as Paulmyers.

A peculiarity of astronomy is that by long-standing tradition, the person who discovers an asteroid gets to name it. In order to do so, the discoverer must write a short explanation of the proposed name (called a “name citation”), and send it to the International Astronomical Union for approval. The International Astronomical Union is the international authority for celestial nomenclature - what they say goes, and their decisions about naming are respected by astronomers worldwide. These are the same people that demoted Pluto from planet status a few years back, so it is best not to trifle with their power.

(The IAU’s activities in naming celestial objects stand in sharp contrast to the companies selling the opportunity to name a star after a loved one. While some may consider this practice to result in an entertaining and worthwhile novelty, the name has no official standing and will never be heard of or used by astronomers.)

The number of asteroids Dave and I have discovered that are numbered but not named has been growing over the last year or two, and Dave started bugging me to propose some names. Discussions and brainstorming ensued. I take the responsibility of naming an asteroid exceptionally seriously. An asteroid name is forever, as Phil Plait points out:

Think of it: unless some future astronaut mines it, a billion years from now that rock will still be orbiting the Sun. Itʼs almost literally a piece of immortality.

I feel as though I have to give some careful consideration to the matter, and to choose names that are meaningful and important in some way. My longstanding interest in skepticism and in science education had previously resulted in me naming asteroids after Derek Colanduno and Robyn “Swoopy” McCarthy, the hosts of Skepticality, who had pioneered the new media of podcasting and put it to service for skeptical thinking. It seemed logical to continue the practice.

The next few postings to my blog will be about the people I chose to name asteroids after - and their namesake space rocks.

1. I’ve listed them in order of Technorati “authority.” [↩]

Greg Laden has an excellent post up about what I can only conclude are antiscience activists Matt Nisbet and Chris Mooney - who, for reasons I cannot understand, host their blogs at Scienceblogs.

I’ll be revisiting this issue this week with a proper explanation of why I consider these framists to be fatal to science education and communication, but just right now, I’m sending press releases all over the country, and I simply don’t have time.

By the way, check this blog tomorrow around 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time, or 6:00 AM Alaska Daylight Time, for an announcement of some very big news involving some of our favorite people.

If you haven’t heard - and really, if you are learning of this here, you really should read some other blogs - the makers of Expelled, a propaganda movie claiming that science professors kick intelligent design creationists out of classes, lectures, and discussions of evolution in order to censor debate, have kicked a science professor out of a screening of their movie in oder to censor debate.

Repeat after me: HYPOCRITES!

What’s truly baffling about this is that they kicked out PZ Myers, but they let his guest in. His guest? Richard Dawkins. You know, the virulently anti-intelligent design guy who even wrote a book called The God Delusion. Nobody could write fiction this good.

Repeat after me: DUMBASSES!

The movie also apparently claims that frail bespectacled science professors sitting in their offices and writing letters to one another were responsible for the murder of six million Jews in Nazi Germany.

Repeat after me: Deplorably disrespectful of the millions of people alive today who lost family as a result of a genocidal Christian dictator and his devout henchmen. These intelligent design creationists are just uncivilized for suggesting such a thing.

Greg Laden, from whom I’ve lifted the images, has a running mini-carnival of posts about this. If you haven’t heard the story, it should be enough to convince you that (a) intelligent design creationists are radical religious extremists, and (b) religious extremism is inherently silly, at least when it isn’t deadly.

If you are interested in science, the skeptical movement, or rational thinking; if you read and enjoy Pharyngula (see also here), the Bad Astronomy Blog, or Skepchick; and if you want to meet other such people, here’s all you have to do:

Go to the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble, tonight, Thursday, March 20, at 7:00 PM.

This meetup is co-sponsored by Zach Miller of the blog When Pigs Fly Returns, Scott Elyard of Coherent Lighthouse, and by yours truly.

If you don’t know any of us, just look for the MacBook with the JREF sticker on it:

The meeting will be informal and social, but we’ve got a couple activities on deck. According to Zach:

Scott is going to show everybody how to draw Euparkeria and I’m going to teach people how pterosaurs folded their wings. Jeff (the BCS) will be giving the keynote speech, and I’ve heard that…whisper it softly…he’s made of cheese.

Zach must have at least some of his tongue in his cheek, for Scott was last seen complaining about his drawing of Euparkeria, and I do not actually have a speech prepared (although it is possible I am made of cheese - it seems we could somehow experimentally verify this at the meetup). I do look forward to a pterosaur demonstration from Zach and some dinosaur art from both Zach and Scott. I will have a couple videos to play regarding Mythbusters. And if I remember, I’ll bring my Atlas of Creation so we can all see the gorgeous pictures of fishing lures that they used in place of living insects.

We will also be discussing the next meetup - we’ll probably be doing this biweekly or monthly - and soliciting opinions on whether we want to pick a regular venue. But mainly, we’re there to have good conversation and a good time.