Science Friday: Arsenic and Old Place, Bill Gates is optimistic, and Attenborough Theory

Gates VS Ridley, and why both think we should look on the bright side

Bill Gates wrote in the WSJ about Matt Ridley's book The Rational Optimist, and agrees with his debunking of 'automatic pessimism' but disagrees about how a better future is acquired.

Although I strongly disagree with what Mr. Ridley says in these pages about some of the critical issues facing the world today, his wider narrative is based on two ideas that are very important and powerful.

The first is that the key to rising prosperity over the course of human history has been the exchange of goods.

The second key idea in the book is, of course, "rational optimism." As Mr. Ridley shows, there have been constant predictions of a bleak future throughout human history, but they haven't come true. Our lives have improved dramatically—in terms of lifespan, nutrition, literacy, wealth and other measures—and he believes that the trend will continue.

Do you agree or disagree with Matt Ridley's take on our future?  Come along to our Prism Book club for an intimate discussion with the author himself, or attend his talk this Wednesday the 8th Dec, hosted by Mark Little at Science Gallery.

Arsenic and an old place

Yeah, Mono lake is a freaky place.  And yes, Arsenic-baed life is pretty amazing, though it was previously predicted.

But is it too cynical to say that NASA pulled a "Beatles on iTunes" this week by teasing the international press with announcements that it would announce "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life"?

This kind of announcement caused rampant (and unhelpful) speculation, according to the Big Think blog:

The news advisory immediately sent in motion rampant speculation among bloggers leading some mainstream outlets to follow in similar fashion.  Examples include this article at Fox News.com: "Rumor Roundup: Has NASA Discovered Human Life?" and this article at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.com: "Has NASA found life near Saturn?"

As Curtis Brainard describes at the Columbia Journalism Review, the speculation put many science journalists in an odd fix.  With advance access to the paper, they were in position to comment on the accuracy of the speculation but bound by the Science embargo policy to do so in only very limited and indirect ways.  For example, Atlantic Senior Editor Alex Madigral tweeted: "“I’ve seen the Science paper. It’s not that.”

So, is NASA guilty of 'sexing-up' their press release too much, and are we suffering from a bit of news fatigue?  Remember the Ida drama?

(Top photo of Mono Lake by kT LindSAy)

The theory of wildlife documentaries

Mental Jib, part of the ITP group over in NYC gets theoretical about Wildlife documentaries.  Is it time we took a more critical look at this Sunday afternoon viewing?  

The moon museum?

Is there an Andy Warhol on the moon?  Decide for yourself.