Where science and religion conflict most Americans choose religion. According to the AP-GFK poll most  Americans lack confidence in the greenhouse effect, the 4.5 billion year age of the Earth, the theory of evolution, and the big bang theory.   This article could be called why having a TV show like Cosmos matters, or no wonder it's ratings aren't much higher.  It isn't instead let us look at the numbers and worry about the state of science literacy in this country. 

This is the table from page two of the poll results.  

SETI Live's data on Kepler-186's solar system could be revealing evidence of extraterrestrial life. SETI may have seen ET's satellite signals already. Here is the data and my analysis.   From my own expertise and experience in astronomy, specifically classifying signals for SETI Live... I say there is a better than 50/50 chance we have found that we are not alone.

The habitable zone planet announced by NASA today is most probably Mars Like...at best a frozen snowball or slushball.  I make this determination based on a sober reading of NASA'S press release.   Kepler-186f is a star approximately 500 light years away in the Kepler 186 system.  Kepler 186 is a red dwarf, and 186f is the fifth planet from it's star, and it is smaller than the other planets in it's system.  This planet receives much less solar heat than Earth.  If it is not Venus like or Mars like in it's atmosphere then it is habitable.  Even then it is likely much colder than Earth.
As icy as it is in NASA's Image seen all over the web...

This is a TV show which will be more appreciated in ten to twenty years than it is now.   The nation may not be as ready as we would like to hear this content from any host much less one like Dr. Niel D. Tyson. "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" has settled at a two week plateau in the ratings on Fox where it has a respectable 4.01 million viewers.  For a documentary on network TV up against pure entertainment programs that is pretty good.

The first reported direct detection of gravitational waves via the B-mode polarization of the CMB may have supported the simplest and most popular inflationary models.  Results from the European Space Agency’s Planck CMB observing satellite may or may not contradict these new findings.  Great, what does any of that mean?  I present a plainly worded, but not patronizing, explanation of all this.  The B-mode polarization of the CMB is what it is called but what does that mean and why is it important?  How might this week’s smashing announce

I will blog my real time reaction to Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane's Cosmos remake. From the perspective of a relatively young astrophysicist and science educator.

7:20 PM CST: I love astronomy and astrophysics. When people would ask me what my dream job was since I was 16 I would say a theoretical astrophysicist. That was when I read "A Brief History of Time" by Prof. Stephen W. Hawking. Now I am at the entry level of the university or college educator career track. This reboot was made to appeal to a younger audience. So it will be interesting to see if I like this. If I don't, then it would not bode well.