When NASA announced “Mars Mystery Solved” last month, it created ripples of speculation across the country. Rumors of flowing water, alien life and other increasingly esoteric discoveries circulated throughout social and news media. Similarly, rumors of alien life on Pluto went viral after New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern used the word “alive” to describe Pluto in a talk at the University of Alberta. As it turns out, NASA did find evidence of liquid water flowing on Mars, but the Pluto rumors were wholly unfounded. And while evidence of flowing water on Mars is a scientifically exciting discovery, the announcement was, to some extent, met with disappointment. Both the circulating rumors and disappointment following the Mars Mystery announcement indicate a growing divide between the scientific community and public expectation, and one that can only be remedied by the effective communication of science.
Science is prevalent in American society, and is thus subject to much unscientific interpretation. When public expectation is high enough to repeatedly assume NASA has discovered extraterrestrial life, for example, it is clear the concept of extraterrestrial life is misplaced. This is an unfortunate truth, as the possibility of life beyond Earth is one of the fundamental investigations of science. Both the Pluto and Mars situations beg the question: what are people really expecting? I would argue entertainment: something to Tweet, blog or joke about. Had there been anything more, any small part of wonder tied to questions of our “place” in the universe, the Mars discovery would have made ripples in the broader U.S. community. Instead, Twitter was alive with disappointed humor, and Bill Nye “the Science Guy” was forced to defend the discovery in settings like The Nightly Show.
Any discovery short of finding extraterrestrial life is not, by any means, disappointing. In fact, as popular scientists like Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson have argued, evidence of flowing water does point to life. That possibility certainly makes the Mars discovery a potent one. But if flowing water on Mars points to extraterrestrial life, why was the announcement considered lackluster? For one, no scientific announcement short of finding little green men on Mars could live up to the hype created by “Mars Mystery Solved.” This “hype” is to some extent symptomatic of the gross misrepresentation of science by the media, politicians and, perhaps surprisingly, itself.
Though I considered including science fiction in the list of those factors responsible for scientific misrepresentation, sci-fi is, by definition, fiction. The real problem is the ever blurred line between science fiction and science in media coverage. In the event of scientific progress, headlines proclaim alien megastructures and other grandiose possibilities, signaling they are the leading thoughts in the observation at hand. Frequently, this is not the case. In this way, media coverage turns exciting scientific possibilities (and I stress the word possibilities) into buzzwords. This process, I argue, is largely responsible for the public reactions to the Mars discovery and Pluto rumor.
The nature of science is incremental progress, and both scientists and the media often fail to communicate it. Especially in the realm of politics, science is oversimplified and many without any scientific background at all are left to judge the nature of scientific progress. Under constant scrutiny and the threat of budget cuts, NASA must always present the “bigger picture.” This, in turn, contributes to the unbounded public expectation for progress in outer space. Of course, many of us were thrilled to learn about evidence of flowing water on Mars. However, the “why should we care?” reactions exhibited by some signal the need for increased and direct communication between NASA and the public. As long as the media communicates more science than the scientific community itself, science will surely continue to be misrepresented.
Gage DeZoort is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached a g.dezoort@cavalierdaily.com.
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