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Pluto reclassified as a planet.

In case anyone skims the article and misses the point, look at the very end of the linked article:

the fucking article said:
*This article was posted for April Fools day, 2014. Hopefully, you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.*
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I'm not sure why it would be disappointing that it's not a planet, it's one less thing to remember.
 
Great. I was shocked by the thread title.

I was like:
"I.A.U.!!!"
kirk-khan-shout__span.jpg

And then I was like:
"Alright... I'm watching you..."
captain-kirk-pre-khaaaan.jpg
 
Why is everyone so upset about this?

If Pluto remained a planet, then all those other dwarf planets would also have to be considered planets, and who wants all that extra memorization?
 
If I were Pluto, I would be like, "Yeah, thanks, but I'm seeing an asteroid now and our orbits are so in sync, I think after the next pass, she'll become my moon. It's like we were made for each other. You'll meet her at this years planetary alignment, I mean, if we decide to show up."
 
Underseer said:
Why is everyone so upset about this?

If Pluto remained a planet, then all those other dwarf planets would also have to be considered planets, and who wants all that extra memorization?
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OK then, if you think that way tell me the names of all those Saturnian* and Jovian** moons.

Didn't everybody get the memo about seven plus or minus three and no more than nine groups of four?

Why do psychologists even bother?

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Saturn

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter
 
Underseer said:
Why is everyone so upset about this?

If Pluto remained a planet, then all those other dwarf planets would also have to be considered planets, and who wants all that extra memorization?
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It would just mean remembering a longer Ceres. ;)
 
Well I was upset when poor old Pluto was demoted. However, having found out that he may have about 50 cousins? Well, it least he isn't that much alone out there. Poor thing. Besides, are we sure there aren't any planets out there? We just may not have 'found' them yet.
 
gmbteach said:
Oh Crud :( Sorry all.
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Well, in all fairness, there was one thing in the article that was perfectly true...

IAU said:
...the IAU made the infamous decision to demote everyone’s favorite planet to a “dwarf planet.” Their reasons were unscientific and contemptuous.
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Underseer said:
If Pluto remained a planet, then all those other dwarf planets would also have to be considered planets,
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Show your work.
 
What is interesting is that the behavior of objects in the solar system change behavior depending on how they are described by scietists.
 
If Pluto were a planet, we would have to stop making jokes about how Pluto is no longer a planet.

...which would be unacceptable.
 
Bomb#20 said:
Well, in all fairness, there was one thing in the article that was perfectly true...




Show your work.
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C'mon, Google isn't that hard to use, is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet

Pluto got reclassified because we found a whole bunch of other things beyond the orbit of Pluto. Heck, some of them are even bigger than Pluto. When Pluto was the only dwarf planet we knew about, it made sense to classify it as a planet, but now that we know about all those other dwarf planets, it makes more sense to put Pluto in that other category with the others.
 
Underseer said:
C'mon, Google isn't that hard to use, is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet

Pluto got reclassified because we found a whole bunch of other things beyond the orbit of Pluto. Heck, some of them are even bigger than Pluto. When Pluto was the only dwarf planet we knew about, it made sense to classify it as a planet, but now that we know about all those other dwarf planets, it makes more sense to put Pluto in that other category with the others.
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The real shame of demoting Pluto is that the story of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who first identified Pluto, was a standard part of US elementary school science education in the 50's and 60's. We learned how Tombaugh built his own telescope, including grinding the lens by hand. Millions of American school children were introduced to astronomy through his story. When Pluto was knocked off the list, it was like being told Benjamin Franklin did not fly a kite in a thunderstorm.
 
Bronzeage said:
The real shame of demoting Pluto is that the story of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who first identified Pluto, was a standard part of US elementary school science education in the 50's and 60's. We learned how Tombaugh built his own telescope, including grinding the lens by hand. Millions of American school children were introduced to astronomy through his story. When Pluto was knocked off the list, it was like being told Benjamin Franklin did not fly a kite in a thunderstorm.
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Well, he probably didn't.

Tom Tucker, a lecturer and historian at the Isothermal Technical College in North Carolina, first began to suspect the story while working for NASA. He examined the original documents, and found accounts by Franklin that were vague about when and where the experiment was performed.

"There was no witness identified in the announcement, no location named - and nowhere does Franklin say he actually performed the experiment," Dr Tucker says.

Franklin had also dropped his initial claim that the experiment could be performed "by anyone", and claimed the kite and the twine had to be wet to conduct electricity. In practice, this would have led to all the electricity leaking into the ground.

Dr Tucker's suspicions were confirmed when he tried to replicate the experiment, using materials available in the mid-18th century. "I followed the design of the kite and tried it several times - and it just wouldn't fly."

Even if it had, there was no way it could have reached the heights needed to draw electricity from thunderclouds.
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But he wasn't about to let a good story get away.

Tucker notes that Franklin had been sending the British Royal Society reports about his electricity experiments, but that these reports were being marginalized, mainly because the members of the RS regarded him as an uncouth American. So Tucker suggests that Franklin, frustrated at how he was being treated, sent the RS a report of the deadly electric kite experiment as a joke. It was basically the scientific equivalent of giving them the finger... suggesting that they go fly a kite in a thunderstorm. Franklin knew, and the RS members knew, that doing so could be fatal. But when the report reached France, people there took it seriously. So Franklin, knowing a good PR opportunity when he saw it, played along and began claiming that he really had done the experiment.
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Bronzeage said:
See what I mean. Next, we'll be saying penicillin is not made from moldy bread.
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It's not.
Penicillin is a secondary metabolite of certain species of Penicillium and is produced when growth of the fungus is inhibited by stress. It is not produced during active growth. Production is also limited by feedback in the synthesis pathway of penicillin.

α-ketoglutarate + AcCoA → homocitrate → L-α-aminoadipic acid → L-lysine + β-lactam

The by-product, l-lysine, inhibits the production of homocitrate, so the presence of exogenous lysine should be avoided in penicillin production.

The Penicillium cells are grown using a technique called fed-batch culture, in which the cells are constantly subject to stress, which is required for induction of penicillin production. The available carbon sources are also important: Glucose inhibits penicillin production, whereas lactose does not. The pH and the levels of nitrogen, lysine, phosphate, and oxygen of the batches must also be carefully controlled.
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Some bread molds can produce penicillin, given the right conditions; but moldy bread contains effectively none of the antibiotic, due to the large supply of carbohydrates available, and the general lack of sufficient stress on the penicillium.

- - - Updated - - -

I should also point out that Santa Claus is a fictional character; and that the money left under your pillow in place of a lost tooth is usually provided by your parents. :D
 
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