Comments on: Ask Smithsonian: Can Birds Be Identified Just From Their Feathers? Questions from Our Readers http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/03/can-birds-be-identified-just-from-their-feathers-questions-from-our-readers/ A new Smithsonian blog covering scenes and sightings from the Smithsonian museums and beyond. Tue, 21 May 2013 19:14:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Ren Dodge http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/03/can-birds-be-identified-just-from-their-feathers-questions-from-our-readers/comment-page-1/#comment-9150 Ren Dodge Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:30:07 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/?p=26555#comment-9150 Astronomer and Illustrator, David Aguilar, answered the question: "How much artistic license do scientists use when they portray astronomical features detected by radio telescopes?" He makes some statements in this answer which are confusing and basically false. He states that radio telescopes "detect what our ears might pick up if we could hear the universe." No. Radio waves are not sound waves, the only similarity they have is that they are waves. He might as well have said that radio wave are like waves in the ocean, if we could feel the universe splashing against us.There are no sound waves coming from beyond the atmosphere, not that our ear or any other instrument could detect. Also he states "Based on the intensity of the radio waves, astronomers plot signal strengths and assign different colors to them." this is partially true, astronomers also plot frequency or wavelenth. There may not be a convention for how colors are assigned to different frequencies or intensities of electromagnetic radiation, but there is a general "rule-of-thumb, which is higher frequencies are usually depicted as re and lower frequencies as blue. Check out this handy, easy to read booklet from NASA: http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/TourOfEMS_Booklet_Web.pdf Next time you see some dubious information framed as science, be a skeptic, peer-review it and thank yourself for being a scientist. Astronomer and Illustrator, David Aguilar, answered the question: “How much artistic license do scientists use when they portray astronomical features detected by radio telescopes?” He makes some statements in this answer which are confusing and basically false. He states that radio telescopes “detect what our ears might pick up if we could hear the universe.” No. Radio waves are not sound waves, the only similarity they have is that they are waves. He might as well have said that radio wave are like waves in the ocean, if we could feel the universe splashing against us.There are no sound waves coming from beyond the atmosphere, not that our ear or any other instrument could detect.

Also he states “Based on the intensity of the radio waves, astronomers plot signal strengths and assign different colors to them.” this is partially true, astronomers also plot frequency or wavelenth. There may not be a convention for how colors are assigned to different frequencies or intensities of electromagnetic radiation, but there is a general “rule-of-thumb, which is higher frequencies are usually depicted as re and lower frequencies as blue. Check out this handy, easy to read booklet from NASA: http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/TourOfEMS_Booklet_Web.pdf

Next time you see some dubious information framed as science, be a skeptic, peer-review it and thank yourself for being a scientist.

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