beamjockey: Drawing of Bill of the Heterodyne Boys by Phil Foglio. (Default)
beamjockey ([personal profile] beamjockey) wrote2006-02-16 12:53 pm

Song, er, Singh of the Nitpickers

The new issue of Symmetry hit the streets. In it is Simon Singh's account of the mock feud he got into with pop singer Katie Melua.

Originally, the song went:


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.


Singh persuaded her to re-record the song with more scientifically accurate lyrics:

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.



He writes, "Thanks to my flippant spat with Katie, people who would never think of picking up my 500-page book on the big bang were getting a dose of cosmology. As a writer who wants to get people excited about science, the writing of the original article was probably the most productive hour of my career."
(deleted comment)

(Anonymous) 2006-02-16 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
The changes make it a worse song. It will sound clumsy, and most listeners will associate the problems with the scientific content.
alicebentley: (Default)

[personal profile] alicebentley 2006-02-16 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I would want to hear both versions before trying to come to a conclusion like that.