As is well known by those who have seen my postings on the
PHYSOC list, I'm on the far right end of the political
spectrum. But I was still delighted by BC pointing this
cartoon out to the list. Humor is humor - I even find Al
Franken funny at times.
Wouldn't it be neat if the general public was educated in
physics to the level that they would actually recognize the
term 'wave-particle duality' or catch the reference to
'Schrodingers cat'.
We're being a little schizophrenic here. On one hand, we
try to instill in students the idea that science (and
physics in particular) is an integral part of their lives,
and on the other we act like we have too much starch in our
shorts when they actually make a reference to what we
profess in a way that is not 100 percent accurate or does
not treat the the terminology as religious artifacts.
Physics is seen by most people as complicated, dull, and
boring. That's no surprise when one sees the reaction of
most physicists to any popular reference to physics. Every
time a science fiction movie comes out - you can be sure
that a column will show up in the newspaper with some
humorless dolt debunking all the inaccuracies portrayed in
the film.
What BC pointed out to us was something as rare as a
snowball in July - a cartoon meant for general consumption
that actually requires the reader to have some scientific
literacy. Regardless of our individual politics, we should
be rejoicing.