Phil Plait

[[File:Philip Plait 2007.jpg|thumb|right|165px|A pasty geek, as he likes to describe himself.]]{{skepnav|1}}
'''Phillip Cary Plait''' {{lived|1964}} is an [[United States|American]] [[astronomy|astronomer]], [[Author|writer]], blogger, [[skeptic]] and noted [[goat]] aficionado.<ref>https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer/status/815602234562060288</ref> Plait got his main start in [[physics]] and [[astronomy]] by working with the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Hubble telescope before moving into the lucrative career of popularizing science and debunking [[pseudoscience]]. He was the president of the [[James Randi Educational Foundation]] (JREF) between 2008 and 2009. Plait also has a small asteroid named after him (165347 Philplait).<ref>"[http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=165347 165347 Philplait]" in NASA's JPL Small-Body Database.</ref>

== Work ==
Plait earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1994 from the University of Virginia. After his work with Hubble and COBE, Plait attended Sonoma State University, where he worked on outreach for the Fermi Gamma Ray space telescope, a small lab for gamma ray observation in Low Earth Orbit. Since then, he's appeared in various locations, such as [[Coast to Coast AM]],<ref group="note">Really. Summaries of the topics of his interviews there can be found in the "[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/index.html Misconceptions]" section of the old Bad Astronomy website.</ref> ''[[Penn & Teller: Bullshit!]]'', ''Space TV'', and the ''Yearbook of Science and the Future'', published by Encyclopedia Britannica.

===''Bad Astronomy''===
In the late 1990s, Plait started ''Bad Astronomy'', a website dealing with, well, bad astronomy — an attempt at correcting misinformation about astronomy in TV shows, movies and print, as well as popular astronomy-related misconceptions (you can stand an egg on its end on any day, not only on an equinox). The website also contained (and still contains) explanations of various astronomical concepts on a popular level and answers to astronomy questions from the readers.

His work on ''Bad Astronomy'' inevitably led him towards fighting [[pseudoscience]], [[conspiracy theories]] and other [[fringe]] ideas. He tackled Fox TV's 2001 ''Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?'' special<ref>Phil Plait. "[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax]." ''Bad Astronomy''. 2001 February 13.</ref> and other [[Moon hoax]] claims. He also devoted pages to refuting the claims of [[Richard Hoagland]],<ref>Phil Plait. "[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/index.html Richard Hoagland's Nonsense]." ''Bad Astronomy''. 2011 March 5.</ref> [[Nancy Lieder]] and Mark Hazlewood's [[Planet X]]<ref>Phil Plait. "[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/index.html The Planet X Saga: Introduction]." ''Bad Astronomy''. 2011 March 5.</ref> and [[James McCanney]]'s "electric comets" bullshit.<ref>Phil Plait. "[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/mccanney/index.html James McCanney's Nonsense]." ''Bad Astronomy''. 2011 March 5.</ref>

Like most websites of that era, ''Bad Astronomy'' was a collection of static HTML pages, but in March 2005 Plait started a blog. Originally, the blog was supposed to supplement the website, but soon overshadowed it and in July 2006 replaced the main site. In July 2008, the ''Bad Astronomy'' blog was moved under the umbrella of Discover Magazine's blog collective; in November 2012 it was moved to Slate. In February 2017 the Bad Astronomy blog moved to SyfyWire. In September 2022, Plait stopped posting at SyfyWire.  The old site and blogs are still available online, though they're not updated and the badastronomy.com address redirects to the latest blog. Both the old and the new blogs branched out considerably from the subject of astronomy, and frequently deal with [[creationism in public education]], [[global warming denialism]], and [[vaccine denialism]].

''Bad Astronomy''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> message board was merged with the one of ''Universe Today'' to form the [[Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum]], which remains a place feared by space bullshitters to this day. In July 2012, BAUT was merged with [[Pamela Gay]]'s CosmoQuest forum, where the BAUT rules and moderation continue.

===Books===
In 2002 Phil Plait collected the material from his website in a book with the same title — ''Bad Astronomy''. It started an entire series on pseudoscience debunking material, including ''Bad Medicine''.<ref>Christopher Wanjek. "[http://www.christopherwanjek.com/Site/Bad_Medicine.html Bad Medicine]." Christopher Wanjek.com.</ref><ref>Phil Plait. "[http://www.badastronomy.com/newsletter/issue25.html Issue #25]." ''The Bad Astronomy Newsletter''. 2002 October 4.</ref>

In 2007 he wrote ''Death from the Skies'', which explores all the ways [[doomsday scenario|outer space is trying to murder us all]].

==JREF==
From August 2008<ref>Jeff Wagg. "[http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-news/208-new-jref-president-phil-plait.html New JREF President - Phil Plait]." James Randi Educational Foundation. 2008.</ref> to December 2009<ref>"[http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-news/797-james-randi-educational-foundation-names-new-president.html James Randi Educational Foundation Names New President]." James Randi Educational Foundation. 2009 December 7.</ref> Plait was president of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). He left the post to work on a secret television project (see below). Plait was been succeeded as JREF president by [[D. J. Grothe]], formerly of the [[Center for Inquiry]].

==''Bad Universe''==
[[File:Modest_phil.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|Phil demonstrating what's often held to be the Porsche of telescopes, for some reason.]]''Bad Universe'' was a short series of, errmm, ''documentaries'' created for the [[Discovery Channel]]. It covered approximately the same material as ''Death from the Skies''. Only three episodes were produced:
* ''Asteroid Apocalypse'', about the possibility of a catastrophic asteroid impact on Earth.
* ''Alien Attack!'', about the possibility of [[extraterrestrial|alien invasion]].
* ''Death Stars'', about supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares and all other neat ways the stars (including our Sun) can smite us.

Like ''[[MythBusters]]'', the show made heavy use of explosions and other spectacular demonstrations. Apparently, it didn't pan out well.

The second episode may have been a "jump the shark" moment for Plait, as a segment involving certain claims about space travel and acceleration (g-forces) was not just an oversimplification, but outright wrong and met with a strong reaction in the comments to his blog and elsewhere. Phil claimed that continuous high acceleration was necessary for interstellar travel, which is not true — even an acceleration of 1 g (~9.8 m/s, the standard Earth gravity) is enough for gaining very high speeds very quickly. Speculation is that the segment was added so that Phil could get a joyride on a jet-fighter.<ref group="note">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXSBMAuPSYM For science, you know?]</ref>

Throughout each episode Phil can be heard exclaiming "Holy {{wpl|Haleakalā}}." Many, many times.

==Involvement with Crash Course==
As of 2015, Plait works as writer and host for the introductory [[YouTube]] channel ''[http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/about Crash Course]'', lecturing on the basics of [[astronomy]] in a pedagogical and popularizing manner.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPAJr1ysd5yGIyiSFuh0mIL Crash Course Astronomy]</ref>

==More goat==
Phil and his wife keep four miniature goats on their property.<ref>[http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/11/26/thanksgiving_goats_just_a_little_joy_for_the_holiday.html Happy Goatsgiving!]</ref><ref>[http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/12/25/clayton_the_goat_in_an_elf_costume.html Merry Goatsmas!]</ref>

==External links==
*[https://www.syfy.com/tags/bad-astronomy ''Bad Astronomy''], the blog at SyFyWire.
*[http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html ''Bad Astronomy''], the blog at Slate Magazine.
*[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ ''Bad Astronomy''], the blog at ''Discover'' Magazine.
*[http://www.badastronomy.com/index.html ''Bad Astronomy''], the original website.
*[http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/bad-universe-main/ ''Bad Universe''], video gallery at the Discovery Channel.
*A speech entitled [http://vimeo.com/13704095 "Don't be a Dick"], about addressing pseudoscience followers.
*[http://epo.sonoma.edu/group/plait.html Biography] at the Sonoma State University website.
*[https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PhilipPlait/posts Plait's G+ page].

==Notes==
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==References==
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