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Irrationality Dwarfs Science Once Again

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By AL HUTCHISON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2009

"The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet," by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Norton, $23.95)

Science? You're going to let science dictate what is and what isn't a planet? Surely you jest! If the American public thinks Pluto qualifies as a planet, how dare some fancy-pants astrophysicists decide otherwise?

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who has become a familiar and amiable presence on late-night television ("The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart and its spinoff, "The Colbert Report"), has compiled a fascinating account of how many Americans - including lots of third-graders - reacted angrily when, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted to downgrade Pluto from full membership in the family of planets to the status of "dwarf planet."

Tyson, director of New York's famed Hayden Planetarium, clearly thinks that Pluto's official rank in our solar system isn't terribly important. It either is or isn't a planet, and its status is merely a function of how the term "planet" is defined. Once scientists agree on the definition, what difference does it make? Pluto's behavior and characteristics won't change.

But American children were taught that there were nine planets, and they learned how to remember them by adopting mnemonic phrases. For example: My (Mars) Very (Venus) Early (Earth) Method (Mercury) Just (Jupiter) Simplifies (Saturn) Us (Uranus) Naming (Neptune) Planets (Pluto).

When the news spread that Pluto - which had been identified as a planet only since the early 1930s, at about the same time Walt Disney introduced an animated dog of the same name - was at risk of being demoted or had already been stripped of its planet status, Tyson was on the receiving end of e-mail and letters from outraged children. To them, Pluto was special, and their protests are rather endearing in most cases.

But "The Pluto Files" also describes how many adults - including seasoned astronomers - reacted with dismay to Pluto's demotion. These reactions did little to honor the nature of science but did expose the sometimes irrational and emotional components of human behavior.

"In many cases, Pluto's demotion served as a window on who and what we are as a culture, brilliantly blending themes drawn from party politics, social protest, celebrity worship, economic indicators, academic dogma, education policy, social bigotry, and jingoism," Tyson observes.

It all boils down to nomenclature, but Pluto's platonic defenders would have us believe in evil conspiracies. This slim volume is a good-natured, if mildly alarming, testament to mankind's imperfect grasp of science. We've seen it in the debate over evolution, so it's not surprising to find it in a debate over Pluto.

But when it comes to nomenclature, Tyson has a small problem of his own. Several times he refers to newspaper headlines as "titles." Sorry, sir, but books have titles, newspaper articles have headlines. But, like Pluto's status, it really makes no difference.

Al Hutchison of Citrus County is a freelance writer.

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