Cleopatra and Mars by Roderick T. Long by Roderick T. Long I
remember how, when the Viking lander first began sending photos
back from Mars, scientists were amazed to discover that the
Martian sky is pink. Initially the sky showed as white, but the
Viking project's scientists quickly noticed that the colour of
the lettering on the lander itself was off, and when they
corrected the colour, the sky blazed forth in glorious pink — a
development which the scientists noted was completely
unexpected. At the time, the scientists' astonishment baffled me
— because I had learned years before, in elementary school, long
before any photos had come back from Mars, that scientists were
predicting that the Martian sky would be pink or purple. So how
did the scientific community manage to forget its earlier
prediction? Why were they surprised by something a fifth-grader
in Idaho could have told them? Beats me. But I lately had a
feeling of déjà vu over the recent news story concerning the
discovery of a coin with Cleopatra'