What's happened to "Horizon"?

[zeitghost]

A good question.

Tuesday's prog was one of the most tedious I've dozed through...

"Are chimps human?"

As narrated by some know nothing non scientific goon.

Who apparently smells like a chimp on the T shirt test.

[Lucifer Box]

Horizon's being very lightweight for a long time now. Rarely worth watching.

[expat]

Horizon's being very lightweight for a long time now. Rarely worth watching.

It used to be a science programme. Now it's a piece of trend journalism, with "science" as the peg to hang it on.

As Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College London, wrote recently about the new GCSE in "scientific literacy for the 21st Century" :
"A science curriculum based on encouraging pupils to debate science in the news is taking a back-to-front approach.
"Science should inform the news agenda, not the other way round."

[TheMonkey]

Men In White is far more educational.

[Flubster]

Men In White is far more educational.

I found watching 'Debbie Does Dallas' taught me much more that any class at school.

[sasguru]

It used to be a science programme. Now it's a piece of trend journalism, with "science" as the peg to hang it on.

As Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College London, wrote recently about the new GCSE in "scientific literacy for the 21st Century" :
"A science curriculum based on encouraging pupils to debate science in the news is taking a back-to-front approach.
"Science should inform the news agenda, not the other way round."

It happens to every civilisation. In Victorian times, scientists were celebrities because society then had its values straight - substance over form. Now the opposite is true.

Doomed etc.

[BoredBloke]

I agree that Horizon is not what it once was, but I thought the programme was entertaining enough. What is the point of making a programme to encourage people to take an interest in science if you make it so boring and dry that the potential viewer switches off after 30 seconds?

[BoredBloke]

I thought the guy presenting it did drop a few good lines in it. But the point I was making was, if you make it like an Open University programme, you will only get hardcore geeks watching it. You have to dumb it down to attract a bigger audience

[sasguru]

I thought the guy presenting it did drop a few good lines in it. But the point I was making was, if you make it like an Open University programme, you will only get hardcore geeks watching it. You have to dumb it down to attract a bigger audience

Do you have to dumb it down so much that he has to repeat the inane assertion that "Chimps are people"? Utter crap.

[BoredBloke]

The point he was making was that a fully mature chimp is mare advanced than say a two year old child. They can reason, solve problems, co-operate to complete tasks, communicate with each other and are pretty intelligent. Kind of like chico without the god trappings! Oh and with more intellegence.

What he was saying was given that they portay most of the characteristics which make us human, then why are they not considered so. So the point was put to scientists who each time would agree that chimps did show the characteristics but would not go far enough to say that they were human.