Know Your Scientists! Archaeology or Paleontology?
How do you make an archaeologist really mad, really fast? Ask her if she's found any dinosaurs. SciShow helps you Know Your Scientists by explaining the ...
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Do you want to know how to make an archaeologist really mad, really fast? Ask her about the dinosaurs she's found. People use catch-all, shorthand terms for things all the time, even in science. Like, we might refer to one kind of physicist as an astronomer, even if he's never set his eye to an eyepiece because the calculations that he works on have to do with the motions of stars and galaxies. It's just easier for people to understand when you're at a cocktail party, and it's basically accurate, so no harm done. But, to use archaeology as a synonym for the study of dinosaurs and fossils and forms of ancient life, which actually called paleontology, is not lazy shorthand, it's wrong. While the two disciplines do have some very basic principles in common, mixing up arch...
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Do you want to know how to make an archaeologist really mad, really fast? Ask her about the dinosaurs she's found. People use catch-all, shorthand terms for things all the time, even in science. Like, we might refer to one kind of physicist as an astronomer, even if he's never set his eye to an eyepiece because the calculations that he works on have to do with the motions of stars and galaxies. It's just easier for people to understand when you're at a cocktail party, and it's basically accurate, so no harm done. But, to use archaeology as a synonym for the study of dinosaurs and fossils and forms of ancient life, which actually called paleontology, is not lazy shorthand, it's wrong. While the two disciplines do have some very basic principles in common, mixing up arch...
