Phil Plait
E771345
Phil Plait is an American astronomer, science communicator, and author best known for his "Bad Astronomy" blog and books debunking pseudoscience and explaining space science to the public.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Phil Plait canonical | 2 |
| @BadAstronomer | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8997311 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Phil Plait Context triple: [Penn Radio, notableGuest, Phil Plait]
-
A.
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan is an American science writer and essayist known for his works on evolution, ecology, and complexity, and for coauthoring influential books with his mother, biologist Lynn Margulis.
-
B.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator known for popularizing astronomy and hosting shows like "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey."
-
C.
P.Z. Myers
P.Z. Myers is an American biologist, outspoken atheist, and science blogger best known for his popular blog Pharyngula and his advocacy of secularism and critical thinking.
-
D.
Nick Sagan
Nick Sagan is an American science fiction writer and screenwriter, known for his work on television series like Star Trek and for being the son of astronomer Carl Sagan.
-
E.
William Sanford Nye
William Sanford Nye is an American mechanical engineer, science educator, and television presenter best known for hosting the educational show "Bill Nye the Science Guy."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Phil Plait Target entity description: Phil Plait is an American astronomer, science communicator, and author best known for his "Bad Astronomy" blog and books debunking pseudoscience and explaining space science to the public.
-
A.
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan is an American science writer and essayist known for his works on evolution, ecology, and complexity, and for coauthoring influential books with his mother, biologist Lynn Margulis.
-
B.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator known for popularizing astronomy and hosting shows like "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey."
-
C.
P.Z. Myers
P.Z. Myers is an American biologist, outspoken atheist, and science blogger best known for his popular blog Pharyngula and his advocacy of secularism and critical thinking.
-
D.
Nick Sagan
Nick Sagan is an American science fiction writer and screenwriter, known for his work on television series like Star Trek and for being the son of astronomer Carl Sagan.
-
E.
William Sanford Nye
William Sanford Nye is an American mechanical engineer, science educator, and television presenter best known for hosting the educational show "Bill Nye the Science Guy."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
person
ⓘ
science communicator ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Bad Astronomy blog
ⓘ
linked to:
Bad Astronomy
Skeptics movement ⓘ
linked to:
Skepticism
|
| blogTopic |
astronomy
ⓘ
pseudoscience debunking ⓘ space science ⓘ |
| citizenship |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| debunks |
Moon landing denial
ⓘ
UFO pseudoscience ⓘ astrology ⓘ |
| degree | PhD in astronomy ⓘ |
| education | University of Virginia ⓘ |
| employer |
NASA (contractor, past)
ⓘ
linked to:
NASA (as customer)
Sonoma State University (past) ⓘ
linked to:
Sonoma State University
|
| familyName |
Plait
ⓘ
linked to:
Braids
|
| fieldOfWork |
astronomy
ⓘ
science education ⓘ skepticism ⓘ |
| genre |
popular science
ⓘ
science writing ⓘ |
| givenName | Philip ⓘ |
| hasActivity |
media appearances about space
ⓘ
public outreach in astronomy ⓘ |
| hasBlog | Bad Astronomy ⓘ |
| hasTwitterAccount |
@BadAstronomer
ⓘ
linked to:
Phil Plait
|
| hasWebsite | https://www.badastronomy.com/ ⓘ |
| hasWritten |
Bad Astronomy (book)
ⓘ
Death from the Skies! ⓘ |
| knownFor |
Bad Astronomy
ⓘ
debunking pseudoscience ⓘ science communication ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| name | Phil Plait ⓘ |
| nationality | American ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Bad Astronomy (book)
ⓘ
Death from the Skies! ⓘ |
| occupation |
astronomer
ⓘ
author ⓘ science communicator ⓘ |
| role |
lecturer
ⓘ
public speaker ⓘ research astronomer (past) ⓘ |
| writesAbout |
cosmology
ⓘ
critical thinking ⓘ planetary science ⓘ scientific skepticism ⓘ space exploration ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Phil Plait Description of subject: Phil Plait is an American astronomer, science communicator, and author best known for his "Bad Astronomy" blog and books debunking pseudoscience and explaining space science to the public.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Phil Plait