RE: BAD vs. BADD (was: Re: Most popular/common dinosaur misconceptions)

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

At 1:11 PM -0400 8/24/06, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:
>
>Although I personally preferred the definition that would have returned Ceres 
>to planetary status, as well as Charon and "Xena", at
>least they have a repeatable definition to work with now.
>
>And making Pluto the prototype of its own category of dwarf planets is a fine 
>idea, and entirely analagous to what happened with
>Ceres. Originally "just another planet", Ceres became the prototype of the 
>brand-new category "asteroid" once it was found that it
>was simply one of a whole cluster of similar worldlets.
>
>And fie on those who say "but if there are only 8 planets they'll have to 
>change the textbooks."  Well, duh! You can either do
>Science (in which knowledge is tentative and accumulative and subject to 
>additional modifications with new study) or you can follow
>dogma.

Or in other words, Science evolves. :-) 
>
-- 
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
jeff@jeffhecht.com  http://www.jhecht.net
Boston Correspondent: New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor: Laser Focus World
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