You expect controversy in politics. Every
religious story comes served with intense debate. And you almost demand
hullabaloo in sport. But controversy in science? Scientific controversies are
actually quite common, and throughout history, within and outside the
scientific community, battles have raged over many topics, from Galileo vs. the
Catholic church over the motion of the planets, to Einstein not believing in
quantum mechanics, and current debates over global warming, intelligent design
and stem cell research. But the controversy that we are dealing with today is
astronomical in size, yet deals with the runt of the litter. Whatever do we do
with Pluto? A few months back, when we did a Mr Science show on Pluto, we all
slept soundly in the knowledge that Pluto was a planet. But now things have
changed, and Pluto has been demoted to a new class of heavenly body called a
Dwarf Planet.
