People often complain that scientists are too dry and prosaic in their statements. It's true, they are. But that's partly because sometimes when they try to get creative it just comes out weird. Consider this otherwise not-very-important press release about the ESA's Venus Express probe. Larry Esposito calls Venus the "Evil Twin" of Earth and expects the probe will encounter surprises. I know what he's trying to say: Venus is similar in mass and size to Earth, but is hellishly uninhabitable; and the probe, like most probes, will probably discover some things the team weren't expecting. (Although if they're expecting to find things they didn't expect, wouldn't that mean the most completely unexpected result would be for things to be exactly what they expect?) But somehow compressing all that into the lead paragraph makes it sound like Esposito's expecting the probe to get attacked by Zontar when it arrives.
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November 03, 2005
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- Diane A. Kelly
Diane Kelly is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she studies the neural wiring and mechanical engineering of reproductive systems. - James L. Cambias
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Venus is NOT evil! hee hee evil!
Venus and Earth are "twins" right? So what venus can not inhabbit life due to the toxic atmosphere! it's the "special" child of the planets!
Posted by: Socks | February 10, 2006 at 12:32 PM
What things the Venus made, how big is it, and interesting features?
Pleace help me.
Posted by: sandy park | October 02, 2007 at 08:29 AM
Sandy-
We really appreciate your interest, but we just don't do other people's homework for them. We have enough homework of our own to finish.
Posted by: DianeAKelly | October 02, 2007 at 11:20 PM
I would really like to help you but i have to worry about my own homework.
Posted by: rishi | January 02, 2008 at 07:21 PM