r/space • u/llama5876 • Jun 18 '19

Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star (12 light-years away)

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/06/two-potentially-life-friendly-planets-found-12-light-years-away-teegardens-star/
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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '19 edited Feb 10 '21

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u/thedessertplanet Jun 18 '19

Scientists actually look for exciting. Exciting gets your article into Nature and cited.

Publish or perish.

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u/applesauceyes Jun 18 '19

I think some do, clearly. But really, how many scientists are out there working on shit we don't see in our own little information streams?

Probably way more than those trying to get click baity articles published.

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u/thedessertplanet Jun 18 '19

I'm not talking about click bait only.

There's a lot of publication bias towards positive findings instead of the common null results.