Science Snippets: Why People Dislike Scientists

Draft script:

There are undoubtedly many reasons people dislike scientists, at least individually. With this video, I will focus on actions generally associated with scientists, rather than on actions taken by individual scientists.

An article published at The Brighter Side of Life on 24 May 2025 is titled New study redraws the world map: Earth has only six continents. The subtitle: “Schoolchildren around the world have memorized the same lineup: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.”

Here’s the lede: “Disregard what you learned in geography class—Earth may not have seven continents after all.”

I thought about this headline and the lede for several minutes before reading the article. I was fairly certain the scientific community was doing away with Europe. After all, Europe is connected to Asia. Combining Europe with Asia seemed like the obvious choice.

I was wrong. A peer-reviewed paper in Gondwana Research is challenging the barrier between Europe and North America.

Wait, what? There’s a rather large ocean between Europe and North America. As pointed out by one of the three scholars who coauthored the peer-reviewed paper, “The North American and Eurasian tectonic plates have not yet actually broken apart, as is traditionally thought to have happened 52 million years ago.”

The article at The Brighter Side of Life points out: “At the heart of this theory is Iceland—a fiery island perched along the mid-Atlantic ridge. Scientists once believed the island formed about 60 million years ago, thanks to a deep mantle plume triggered by the ridge that separates the two plates. That view has shaped how we understand continental drift in the North Atlantic.

The new study offers a fresh perspective. Rather than seeing Iceland as proof of a past separation, the research positions it as evidence of an ongoing geological connection. This subtle, continuous stretching between plates undermines the idea that a clean break ever happened.

If this holds true, the conventional definition of what counts as a continent might need a rewrite. The map of Earth, long thought settled, could be far more dynamic than once imagined.”

I now turn to the peer-reviewed, open-access paper in Gondwana Research. Titled The Davis Strait proto-microcontinent: The role of plate tectonic reorganization in continental cleaving, the article was published in September 2024. It begins with three Highlights: (1) “Crustal thickness data reveals a new Davis Strait Proto-Microcontinent.” (2) “Plate modelling and crustal thickness data indicate a Pre-Ungava transform margin.” And (3) “Seismic and plate kinematic analyses links transpression with continental cleaving.”

The Abstract follows the three Highlights: “A prolonged period of rifting and seafloor spreading between Greenland and North America formed the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay oceanic basins, connected by the Davis Strait. However, disagreement exists regarding the exact plate motions between Greenland and Canada, as well as the tectonic evolution of the Davis Strait, with previous models unable to explain the origin of anomalously thick continental crust within the seaway. Here, we present a new plate tectonic reconstruction of Greenland’s separation from Canada, constrained by a new comprehensive set of mid-ocean ridge (MOR) and transform fault lineaments identified using free-air, vertical gradient, and filtered directional gradient maps from the Sandwell and Smith gravity data. Furthermore, the reinterpretation of seismic reflection data offshore West Greenland, along with a newly compiled crustal thickness model, identifies an isolated terrane of relatively thick (19–24 km) continental crust that was separated from Greenland during a newly recognised phase of … [East-West] extension along West Greenland’s margin. We interpret this continental block as an incompletely rifted microcontinent, which we term the Davis Strait proto-microcontinent. Our reconstruction suggests release of the proto-microcontinent coincided with a change in the spreading orientation from ∼58 to 49 Myr during the alignment of Canada and Greenland’s rifted margins, indicating a fundamental control of lithospheric structure on plate motions. Proto-microcontinent separation was induced by transpression along a newly recognised … [northeast-southwest] trending transform margin that joined the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, prior to development of the Ungava Fracture Zone (UFZ). The location of this transform margin is constrained using our crustal thickness model, which demonstrates a sharp … [northeast-southwest] trending continent-ocean transition across the northern Saglek basin. We term this newly identified first-order tectonic feature the Pre-Ungava Transform Margin …, which accommodated early … [northeast-southwest] motion between Greenland and Canada. Our identified mechanism of microcontinent formation may be widely applicable to other microcontinents around the globe, and further study is merited to understand the role of plate motion changes and transpression in microcontinent calving.”

The word transpression is not found in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. According to ScienceDirect, transpression refers to “a type of strike-slip deformation in orogenic belts that involves a combination of shortening and extension orthogonal to the deformation zone, typically occurring at plate boundaries in response to oblique convergent or divergent relative plate motions.” Lacking a degree in geology, this definition doesn’t provide me with much help. Further inquiry left me lacking clarification, hence frustrated. I conclude that the peer-reviewed paper presents sufficient evidence to question the divide between Europe and North America. I further conclude that, had the peer-reviewed paper provided a bit more information, I would have found the conclusion regarding the non-separation of Europe and North America a lot more conclusive. As it is, my ignorance of relevant language limits my ability to reach a firm conclusion.