You might think that I am being rather uptight, but the role of the scientist is slowly being undermined with a growing belief that scientific results are merely subjective guesses that go in and out of fashion. In short, Katie Melua has no right to call the age of the universe "a guess" or quote it as 12 billion years when we now know it to be 13.7 billion years old. We are entering a new era of so-called precision cosmology. This is an astonishing result, because astronomers are giving the first decimal place in their estimate of the age of the universe, implying a hitherto unheard-of level of confidence in their measurements. Today, the very latest data implies that the age of the universe is precisely 13.7 billion years. Initial estimates were, not surprisingly, wildly inaccurate, but by the 1980s it was known that the universe was 15 billion years old, give or take 5 billion years. The age of the universe is not just "a guess", but rather it is a carefully measured number that is now known to a high degree of accuracy.Īs soon as the idea of the Big Bang was proposed in the 1920s, astronomers set about trying to work out when the bang happened. To say that the age of the universe is "a guess" is an insult to a century of astronomical progress. This alteration is just about acceptable, but the next line in the song is unforgivable. She replaced the bisyllabic number "14" with the nearest monosyllabic number, namely 12". I suspect that Katie took some poetic licence in order to make her lyrics scan. This is incredibly frustrating, because there are thousands of astronomers working day and (of course) night to measure the age of the universe, and the latest observations imply a universe that is almost 14 billion years old, not 12 billion. When Katie sings "We are 12 billion light-years from the edge", she is suggesting that this is the distance to the edge of the observable universe, which in turn implies that the universe is only 12 billion years old. In the past, I have found her ballads to be enchanting, but Katie's latest little ditty is deeply annoying, because she demonstrates a deep ignorance of cosmology and no understanding of the scientific method. love it babe.K atie Melua's latest single, Nine Million Bicycles, entered the charts this week at No 5. I'll give you anything you want from me anything you want anything you need anything your soul desires I'll give you anything you want from me anything you want anything you need anything your soul desires Your love is a one in a million it goes on and on and on You give me a really good feelin all day long. Your love is a one in a million it goes on and on and on you give me a really good feelin all day long. Your smile your style so fly I can't deny I got a crush on you and that's true indeed. Personality(ty) in everything you do(do) Makes me love everything bout you. Don't want nobody else you are all I need.
Wanna share my world don't you understand. That's why I want to spend my life with you.
Cause the love you give can't be replaced. Won't let noone come and take your place.