[Ninong]

From the same people who told us that a single crown of thorns starfish "can eat up to 13 square miles of coral per year," we now learn that Mars was subjected to a period of major bombardment only 3.5 million years ago: "Teresa Segura and her thesis director, professor Owen Toon — both from the University of Colorado — used photographs of Mars and computers to calculate the effects of the impacts of asteroids that bombarded the planet some 3.5 million years ago." http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs...212967387#jump

This is obviously another example of so-called science writers who learned everything they know about science during their employment at the National Enquirer and editors who are either non-existent or incompetent.

There is no way that Mars was hit with a period of major bombardment 3.5 million years ago or earth would have experienced the same thing. The period of major bombardment on earth was 3.5 - 4 billion years ago.

There is no way that a single starfish can eat 13 square miles of coral per year. The correct figure is 5 - 6 square meters per year, although an especially large specimen might be able to eat 13 square meters per year. One would have expected that someone at Discovery would have questioned the figure of 13 square miles per year. That's on a par with saying that Santa Claus visits every home in the world in a single night.

I just re-checked their website to see if they ever got around to correcting their "cool facts" section that claims a single starfish eats 13 square miles of coral per year and the answer is no, it's still in there, believe it or not: http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp...49.84613553719

[reddhaus]

"That's on a par with saying that Santa Claus visits every home in the world in a single night."



WHAT!?!?............You mean he doesn't?

This Christmas just won't be the same.

[hcp28]

Thanks Ninong I don't know how I'm going to explain that one to my jr. highs. Good things they don't visit many reefboards lets keep this one under our hats.

[Skunk Clown]

Originally posted by reddhaus
"That's on a par with saying that Santa Claus visits every home in the world in a single night."



WHAT!?!?............You mean he doesn't?

This Christmas just won't be the same.

Settle down. this is false info also!

[Ninong]

I sent Teresa Segura an email on Dec. 11th. asking her if I was correct in assuming that the "science" writer at Discovery had screwed up her findings. Here is her reply that I just received today:


Hello Mr. Davis,

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Yes, the word "million" is incorrect. It should read "3.5 billion years ago." The size of the impactors is correct but these impacts occurred in the early history of the planet, 3.5 - 4 billion years ago, and as far as we know there is no evidence of these large impact events in recent history.

Sincerely,

Teresa Segura

[schrocat]

What about the 13 square miles of annual starfish dining?

Any mention of perhaps fixing it?

[Ninong]

Schrocat,

Teresa Segura has nothing to do with Discovery. Her research was totally misrepresented by their science writer just as the article on starfish was screwed up.

In fact, they really did a number on her findings when they changed the time frame from 3.5 billion years ago to only 3.5 million years ago and then went on to claim that "some 25 meteorites ranging from 60 to 150 miles in diameter shower Mars every 10 to 20 million years" at the present time. They incorrectly placed her claim in the present instead of something that happened 3.5 billion years ago.

"Teresa Segura and her thesis director, professor Owen Toon — both from the University of Colorado — used photographs of Mars and computers to calculate the effects of the impacts of asteroids that bombarded the planet some 3.5 million years ago."

"The clash of asteroids and meteorites that collided with Mars unleashed frozen water, which released brief bouts of torrential rains and created the planet's canyons and river valleys, they believe.

"According to Segura, some 25 meteorites ranging from 60 to 150 miles in diameter shower Mars every 10 to 20 million years, producing periodic layers of hot debris that have covered the surface, warming it above the freezing point of water for decades or centuries at a stretch."

It's just another example of the popular press misrepresenting everything they get their hands on. A few months ago they were all jumping up and down claiming that recent studies proved that global warming was not taking place. It didn't seem to phaze them too much when the scientists who published the referenced studies held a press conference to say that their studies proved no such thing.

When I was 11 years old I found a stupid item in a little corner of the comic strips in the Sunday paper called "Amazing Science Facts." Amazing was an understatement. It was sponsored by Wrigley's chewing gum. Anyway, they claimed that light from the sun takes a full 7 seconds to reach Earth. I sent them a letter telling them that my friend Albert Einstein and I were both amazed alright and asked if they had just discovered that the speed of light was a lot faster than 186,000 miles per second or if they had determined that Earth was a lot closer to the sun than 150 million kilometers. They thanked me for being such a little smartass and sent me a carton of Doublemint Gum.