Philip Plait
Philip Plait (a.k.a.
The Bad Astronomer) is an
astronomer who runs the
website Badastronomy.com. He works at the
physics and
astronomy department at
Sonoma State University.
Plait grew up in the
Washington, D.C. region and lived there for many years. He received his
Ph.D. in astronomy from the
University of Virginia in
1994 with a thesis on
SN 1987A, which he studied with the
Supernova Intensive Study (SINS). He first worked with the
COBE satellite and then with the
STIS on the
Hubble Space Telescope for five years.
Plait currently performs web-based public outreach for
GLAST,which will launch in
2007. He has appeared on the radio show
Coast to Coast AM many times, but refused to debate
Richard Hoagland (chief proponent of the "
Face on Mars" theory), citing among his reasons as, "A radio debate is not a debate in the real sense, it's more of an argument, and whoever is more emotionally persuasive tends to 'win'." [
1] Phil Plait has been featured on TV and on such websites as
Space.com. His work has also appeared in the
Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook of Science and the Future and
Astronomy magazine. He has a regular column in Night Sky magazine (an offshot of
Sky and Telescope) called "Straight Talk", which has appeared since the magazine's first issue.
He is also a frequent guest on the
SETI Institute's weekly science radio show
Are We Alone? hosted by
Seth Shostak. He can be heard on many
Are We Alone? installments debunking
junk science and waxing poetic on the
sublime nature of the
universe [
2].
He has written a book,
Bad Astronomy, which deals with much the same subject matter as his website.
Badastronomy.com is a
website dedicated to clearing up public misconceptions about astronomy and space science in
movies, the news, print, and on the
Internet. Plait also
debunks several
fringe theories related to space and astronomy, such as
Planet X,
Richard Hoagland's theories, and most famously, the
moon landing "hoax". In March 2006,
Science magazine's NetWatch feature lauded the Bad Astronomy website, praising in particular the Bad Astronomy
Blog which Plait began in March 2005. This blog was also a finalist for the 2006
Weblog Award (the "Bloggie"), in the "best topical weblog" category since the Bloggies, like many blog awards, do not have a specific
science category. Plait also contributes occasional science articles to
The Huffington Post.The Bad Astronomy message boards were merged with the Universe Today message boards to form a more robust, combined site, appropriately titled, the "Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Message Board."
* Philip Plait (2002).
Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax".
John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-40976-6.
*
Bad Astronomy*
Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Message Board*
Bad Astronomy Blog*
Plait's page at Sonoma State University*
Collection of Phil Plait audio files*
"Science is under attack", by Philip Plait*
NetWatch,
Science 31 March 2006: Vol. 311. no. 5769, p. 1841.
