Re: Hubris of physicists

[George Spagna <gspagna@rmc.edu>]

At 04:10 PM 7/22/97 -0400, Mike Monce wrote:
> This year's (freshman)
> list includes the book Wonderful Life, by Stephen Gould.  While reading
> the book I kept noticing many undisguised put-downs of physics and
> physicists.  Finally, near the end, Gould admits his reason for writing
> the book was to try and rearrange the pecking order of the sciences
> through the example of the work done on the Burgess Shale fauna.

	It's usually a good idea to beware anyone with an admitted agenda.
	It's an even better idea to be aware of hidden agendas when reading
research results or even popularizations.

>  Gould

is a worthy popularizer of science - but as shameless a self-promoter as
ever strutted the stage.

> 	Meanwhile I open up my July copy of Physics Today, and find a
> sidebar by Rober Austin indicating that "Having lived with biologists and
> biochemists for a number of years, I know damn well that many of them
> can't reason their way out of a paper bag, and that they really need the 
> analytic and experimental gifts of good physicists to help in the really 
> major conceptual logjams that are facing modern biology."  

Gee - I know some fellow physicists and astronomers who could also benefit
from those gifts.  The disciplines are not well-served by this kind of
sniping!


> 	I would just like some of your opinions on this.  Is 'historical
> science', as Gould puts it, a valid field ranking the same as physics?  Is
> environmental biology (a lot of cataloging and observation) science?  Is
> Austin right?  It would help to have a broader view of this from
> physicists before I give my own opinion to those poor freshmen.
> 	

Why rank the sciences?  Surely there are contributions to understanding
from all of these various perspectives.  More important to help instill in
your students a sense of skeptical wonder at the universe around them, and
a conviction that understanding is within their grasp.  Help them to see
the difference between science and pseudo-science, help them to see science
as a human activity rather than as a set of cold, dry factoids to be memorized.
George Spagna           ****************************************
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