Right or wrong

Today, I was with my nephew in the library were he looked at books on dinosaurs. As he could not read, I helped him looked up which page the dinosaurs. He told me the name of the dinosaur and I would flip to the correct page. The problem arose when he asked about the Brontosaurus. The book did not refer to the dinosaur by old name but by its new name, Apatosaurus.

There was a little problem. If I taught him the new name of dinosaur, by the time he goes to school, he may learn that the name Brontosaurus was actually correct. dinosaur. Apparently a more recent study points the Brontosaurs may actually be the correct name of the dinosaur. I also knew that my nephew would have learnt all the names of the dinosaur from his father who I knew was a keen fan of the latest findings in science.

At his point, I had a dilemma. I could not explain why the book was outdated as he would not be interest in reading. I accept that most children's books are fairly accurate in their scientific facts. At the same, I would not want to tell him that he was wrong as he would then update his father and we will have a big debate about scientific facts.

The last big debate was over the fact that turtles were reptiles. My incorrect definition was that reptiles could not manage their body temperature for long without relying an external source of heat. Turtles apparently could maintain a temperature higher than the surrounding waters that they swam in. I knew that the concept of warm-bloodedness was out of favour but I did not think that cold-bloodedness would follow suit.