Science in Action

With apologies to Bruno Latour, this essay by Simon Singh - a physicist and science writer - offers a hilarious story of science in action:

... As far as I know I became the first ex-particle physicist to persuade a No.1-selling pop artist to re-record a song to make it more scientifically accurate.

The artist was Katie Melua, Britain's answer to Norah Jones. In October she had a top-five hit with a song entitled Nine Million Bicycles, which essentially said that it was a fact that there are nine million bicycles in Beijing. She went on to quote another fact, namely that she would always remain with her new found love. So far, so good.

However, in the second verse, Katie made a reference to cosmology that implied that the universe is 12 billion years old, whereas current estimates imply an age of 13.7 billion years. While this error annoyed me, the next line was even more irritating. She implied that scientists could only ever guess at the age of the universe, contrasting such guesswork with her own confidence in her blossoming long-term love.

I responded by writing an article for The Guardian newspaper in which I corrected the fact and tried to explain that the number is not a mere guess but rather a careful measurement... [After some public back-and-forth] Katie Melua offered to re-record the contentious verse according to some lyrics that I had composed for her.

[snip]

The original verse by Katie Melua in the original version of Nine Million Bicycles
We are 12 billion light years from the edge
That’s a guess
No one can ever say it’s true
But I know that I will always be with you.

The new, more scientifically accurate verse by Simon Singh
We are 13.7 billion light years from the edge of the observable universe
That’s a good estimate with well defined error bars
Scientists say it’s true, but acknowledge that it may be refined
And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you.

You can hear the re-recorded version of the song here.

I dunno about you, but I like it. Accuracy, as anyone who's ever had an argument with a spouse knows, is very important in affairs of the heart.