The Latest "Cosmos" Explains How Corporations Fund Science Denial

Neil Tyson explores the surprising connection between the age of the Earth and the dangers of lead.

—By Chris Mooney | Mon Apr. 21, 2014 1:49 PM PDT

The most amazing thing about Fox's new Cosmos series is that it exists at all. A program that is, at its core, educational, airing at 9 p.m. on Sunday and competing with shows like Game of Thrones…in what universe does that happen?

Today's audiences are not accustomed to this sort of fare, and the show certainly hasn't been a runaway success when judged by the most traditional metric: ratings. Last night, though, Cosmos powerfully demonstrated that those who haven't watched it yet really ought to give it a shot (watch here). Simply put, Cosmos told a magnificent scientific story that drew together (yes, really) the tale of how we determined the age of the Earth (about 4.5 billion years old) and of how one courageous scientist showed, in the face of intense challenges, the dangers of leaded gasoline.