LUNAR LET-DOWN

Just one article at the time of the moon landings revealed the truth. Fifty years ago we were transfixed by humans landing on the lunar surface - but all the lead-up had been founded on exaggeration and hype. The mountains of the moon would be jagged, dramatic, and awe-inspiring; the astronauts would be bouncing as high as a house, unable to see anything in inky shadows, perhaps sinking into bottomless dust, confused by optical illusions if not infected by space-plague. I explained how these wild predictions were false, and showed that the moon would be much like a stony desert - a "vast, barren ash-heap". And so, indeed, it proved to be.

Much of modern science is a racket. Practitioners, hell-bent on attracting the headlines that will bring them bigger and better grants, overstate everything. In astronomy they publish invented images as if they were real planets; in physics they claim to on the point of creating a formula for every aspect of life. as I have explained in a recent column, it is all invention:

A generation ago we trusted the scientist. Today's practitioner is driven by commercial pressures to be in sales, not science.