I was a bit shocked today by an article that I read in CNN's science section (space chronicles).

It discussed the discovery of "The Flattest" star ever seen - Achernar (Alpha Eridani). One of the many articles I read described the star to be the exact shape of an M & M.

The fact that a star of this particular magnitude is not what surprised me so much, but the fact that scientists were taken by surprise is what really got me.

Why? Well, I would think that a scientist would remain open to even the oddest discoveries (or expect to some degree that almost anything can happen - breaking the bounds of any paradigm).

Please don't get me wrong here, I am not coming to the conclusion or suggesting that scientists are close minded at all. I am saying that maybe it should have not come to much of a surprise with respect to this particular discovery. Yes, (Alpha Eridani) is quite a bit odder than odd stars of it's type. Hey, I got it, instead of calling this a class M star, we can call it a class M & M star.

Anyway, my point being that one (scientist or not) should expect that almost any type of phenomena can and will happen.

I guess "the element of surprise" is equally proportional to the difference one might find with repect to "the norm".

But this is what makes discovery so much fun.

And so it goes...

• Are scientists surprised about M&M star's physical equations? - carefuluniverse - June 21, 2003 - 15:54 UTC
  • Model this... - robertgregory - June 21, 2003 - 23:31 UTC
  • Wait, an M&M sideways or upright? - lysithea - June 23, 2003 - 03:05 UTC