The Triceratops Panic: Why Does Science Keep Changing Its Mind?
One of the nice things about growing up is you don’t have to spend time thinking about planets, digestion or awesome dinosaurs if you don’t want to, because what you were taught was “science” so those things are supposed to stay that way forever.
And then, suddenly, there is “news.” Someone in authority says, “Wait a second! New information has come to our attention, and that thing we told you was true may not be true any more. Or not as true. Please pay attention so we can un-teach what we told you.”
“WHAT?” is a lot of people’s first reaction. “I thought you knew this. I believed you…”
And then they get mad.
Perhaps the first failure of science education is the notion that “things are supposed to stay that way forever.” The facts and realities of science are always the best interpretation that we have available at the time, but it’s subject to change as we get more information. New information will always be interpreted according to the best theories of the day. (And someone in the media will always distort it to the point that its wrong.) What science won’t (or at least shouldn’t) do is be dogmatic and push information that’s become outdated, even if it’s for the comfort of the casual observer. There are sources for reassuring lies, but science should not be one of them.
For most people, brontosaurus will still be the popular name, and apatosaurus the scientific name. I notice that the former is in my spelling dictionary, but not the latter. So, now a triceratops is an adolescent something else. Does anyone outside the paleontology department know what? It’s like all those 18th century pedants arguing that turtles were birds, specifically doves, and that tortoises were reptiles with shells. (“The voice of the turtle” meant tidings of peace.) They were right, but they lost the battle.