Tardigrades on the moon is not good. It is not exciting. It is not cute. It is the result of a major gap in accountability for planetary protection and ethics between public and private science, and we have no idea what can happen as a result.
-
Show this thread
-
It means that the private sector can keep doing as it wishes. It means they don’t answer to any protection/ethics office. And the fact that nothing is happening in terms of policy, and that decontamination standards STILL have not been updated, is dangerous beyond imagination.
6 replies 114 retweets 1,060 likesShow this thread -
And if you’re thinking anything along the lines of “sweet, we made moon beings!” Then stop. Think carefully. WE made something on ANOTHER world that we do not fully understand. It has an environment, even if we deemed it “barren” to any life on earth. Even if it is close to us.
2 replies 89 retweets 928 likesShow this thread -
What you are doing is showing excitement at the long history of forcing OUR values, systems, and in this case, living beings on another world. That is not our right, and it is not our job. If we carry on with that mentality, even if we took away the “colonization” word —
15 replies 83 retweets 1,017 likesShow this thread -
— the premise is the same. It’s colonialism. It’s imperialism. It’s not for us. And if our science carries on under the same institutions of imperialism, in the name of the same government and not for all of humanity, it is not science. No matter what you call it.
15 replies 61 retweets 842 likesShow this thread -
And yes I am aware there’s literal human shit on the moon, and there are portions where it is contaminated, just like Mars. But that doesn’t give us license to colonize. It gives us something to create new protection and ethics policy off of.
8 replies 31 retweets 658 likesShow this thread -
Ok y’all we have OFFICIALLY gotten to the point of white dudes – yes, JUST white dudes so far! – telling a biology-based planetary scientist about the barrenness of the moon and how they resent the use of the term colonialism like that totally isn’t what they’re all about!
25 replies 36 retweets 1,010 likesShow this thread -
This Tweet is unavailable.
hope she sees this bro
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.