Comment by thatjoeoverthr

Comment by thatjoeoverthr 2 days ago

I assume you're downvoted for pedantry (understandable) but it is a real pattern. Whenever it's a space topic it's always "we" or "Japan" or "America". Nobody is so vague on other topics. I suspect it's a throwback to the Cold War space race when the major players did flights in a geopolitical context. If the institute's name is very long, like here, maybe "Scientists detected ..." or "Researchers ..."

genezeta 2 days ago

> Whenever it's a space topic

It relates "us" to "earthlings". We, as in "humans", live on Earth. Space is "outside". We humans look outside to space and discover things there.

I feel it's more that sense of making clear that it's "us", humans, doing the discovery vs some other species or entity out there.

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wongarsu 2 days ago

Imho it's a quirk due to English's hate for the passive voice. Most languages would just go with "Lightning was detected on Mars". Naming the institute does not add any value to the average reader here, nor does the word "Scientists". "France" adds a bit of value, so that'd be the next best thing after the passive voice

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freehorse 2 days ago

Passive voice in english is fine but it does not make for as catchy news articles (as also in other languages).
"Scientists detected lighting on mars" is also just fine.

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