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A comet's tale

Scientists are just beginning to examine the pieces of a comet brought back to Earth by NASA’s Stardust mission. Mark Peplow tagged along to one lab to watch researchers examine their prize catch.

Continue reading the story here.

Posted by Mark Peplow on February 13, 2006
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I would have hoped for details of what was found, not the details of the reporter's day out. So much scope, so little presented. Is this the trend of modern science magazines - all social science and no investigative science?

Posted by: katy kringe | February 16, 2006 03:00 PM

It was a pretty cool day out though, wasn't it?

I'm not sure what this says about the trend of the modern science magazine, I'm afraid. But I hoped the penultimate par of the piece went some way to explaining why the details of the results they found weren't reported:

>>Exactly what Bland found, however, isn't yet public information. NASA is keen for all the results, from the many teams around the world, to be gathered together before they are announced. "If it comes out in dribs and drabs it'll be total chaos," explains Zolensky. He and his team will put together all the results, which they expect to present at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, in March.

Essentially, the scientists had had a three-line whip from NASA not to spill the beans or scoop their colleagues. That meant the only way a reporter could get into the lab was to agree to keep the results to themseleves for a while. We could either have waited for the first wave of results to come out, or brought you a sneak preview of what these bods are doing, and why. As a colour piece, we figured the latter was the best option - and don't worry, we'll be following up with the specifics in a few weeks.

Posted by: Mark Peplow | February 16, 2006 03:24 PM

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