The Mars Rat

The Curiosity rover has done some wonderful work on Mars already, and it's still going strong,  Among its achievements is providing data strongly suggesting Mars could have supported life billions of years ago.  If that is confirmed-- and especially if Martian fossils are found-- it will be one of the truly great scientific discoveries.

So, what is the Internet going wild over?  An image taken by Curiosity in which some people claim to see a rat, or a squirrel, on the surface of Mars.  Proponents of this view say its either a real Martian or a rodent NASA secretly delivered to Mars to see how long it survived.

The attention that claim is received is in fact an indictment of the American educational system-- insofar as the craze is American based-- and especially of the understanding of science.  That's not only unfortunate, but dangerous.  Modern society is increasingly based on science and technology.  To make good public policy decisions, the electorate needs a basic grasp of science and the universe we inhabit.  A large percentage of people seem to lack that grasp.