Royal Astronomical Society ends blacklisting of James Webb
That’s nice of them: The Royal Astronomical Society in Britain last week announced that it has ended its blacklisting of James Webb, the man who headed NASA during the 1960s space race, by once again permitting writers of science papers for its Monthly Notices journal to use the full name of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) previously criticized NASA for not immediately addressing concerns that Webb persecuted queer employees; the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) that launched in December 2021 is named after him. But with new information to hand suggesting Webb played no direct role in these issues, Webb’s name can now reappear in scientific papers, the RAS stated Dec. 22.
“The RAS will now allow authors submitting scientific papers to its journals to use either ‘James Webb Space Telescope’ or the acronym ‘JWST’ to refer to the observatory,” RAS officials wrote. The major journals of the RAS include the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), one of the top astronomical journals worldwide.
The society backed off from its position after NASA published a long detailed report documenting the utter falsehood of the claim. Too bad this so-called science organization didn’t consider the evidence itself before issuing its blacklist order. One would think scientists above all would consider evidence, not undocumented slanders, as essential before condemning a person.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
That’s nice of them: The Royal Astronomical Society in Britain last week announced that it has ended its blacklisting of James Webb, the man who headed NASA during the 1960s space race, by once again permitting writers of science papers for its Monthly Notices journal to use the full name of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) previously criticized NASA for not immediately addressing concerns that Webb persecuted queer employees; the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) that launched in December 2021 is named after him. But with new information to hand suggesting Webb played no direct role in these issues, Webb’s name can now reappear in scientific papers, the RAS stated Dec. 22.
“The RAS will now allow authors submitting scientific papers to its journals to use either ‘James Webb Space Telescope’ or the acronym ‘JWST’ to refer to the observatory,” RAS officials wrote. The major journals of the RAS include the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), one of the top astronomical journals worldwide.
The society backed off from its position after NASA published a long detailed report documenting the utter falsehood of the claim. Too bad this so-called science organization didn’t consider the evidence itself before issuing its blacklist order. One would think scientists above all would consider evidence, not undocumented slanders, as essential before condemning a person.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
As the RAS appears to love acronyms, why not just call it the LGBTQ+ Telescope, and be done?
I can not wait for the RAS to find out about the British Empires hand in slavery and violently oppressive colonialism. Let alone its part in anti homosexual activities.
Oh sorry. I now realize that the USA is the only nation on the planet that will never be forgiven for its past deeds and always blamed for everything that happens in the future,
Its those dang MAGA drones.
Good to see the Brits stiffening.
Robert wrote: “One would think scientists above all would consider evidence, not undocumented slanders, as essential before condemning a person.”
Their off the cuff, slap-happy reaction was indicative of emotion, not reason and research. One has to wonder what other topics that they cover are so sloppily handled.
Those who were besmirching James Webb count upon people to react emotionally rather than check the facts, and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) fell for it. We could expect the emotional left to react emotionally, but now that everyone reacts emotionally we can see why the dark ages are coming (or are here). It is why we get all this blacklisting and why U.C. Berkeley, home of the Free Speech Movement, has shadow-banned all conservative speeches and virtually all conservative thought. So much for free speech; they don’t even support freedom of thought.
This is also happening at the RAS. Just the fact that they ban all reference to someone just because he has a different thought, creed, or hypothesis sets them back a century and a half to the time when they wanted to reject Darwin’s hypotheses. How can we advance science if differences of thought or opinion are rejected, banned, or shunned?
I wonder what future “Royal Societies” will do to those whom they discover had smoked cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, bringing death to millions through secondhand smoke. I shudder to think of the amount of science that will have to be denied when that discovery happens.
At Christmas, some in my family were mocking Elon Musk for his support of free speech, although I think they have been played for fools on that and many other topics — succumbing to quick emotion rather than reasoned thought — but it now seems that the RAS is easily played, too.
And we thought those guys were smart.