Can science survive a garish shirt?

In discussing the mission on camera after the landing, Taylor wore a Hawaiian-style shirt depicting cartoonish, scantily clad, buxom women brandishing firearms. And just like that, Taylor stood for the subjugation of women and their exclusion from the world of science. Taylor was mercilessly condemned on Twitter and the Internet until the next day he apologized in tears for having committed the sartorial equivalent of a thoughtcrime.

Let’s stipulate that Taylor’s shirt — custom-made for him by a female friend who was delighted he wore it — was tasteless. It was more appropriate for a stroll on the Atlantic City boardwalk or for a day at Comic Con than for any professional setting, let alone for highly public interviews about an event generating interest around the world. Taylor could have done worse than make a trip to Brooks Brothers prior to his star turn.

Although he is not exactly the buttoned-up type. Involved in authoring 70 scientific papers — focusing, in the words of the NASA website, “on energetic particle dynamics in near-Earth space and in the interaction of the Sun’s solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field” — the bearded Taylor has enough tattoos to compete with the average rock star. He added one on his leg earlier this year depicting Rosetta’s module reaching the comet as a sign of his confidence in success. This is not your father’s Mission Control.