<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> I remember reading that Einstein didn't get the math either and that he had to have help on that. One of the foundational myths of modern science, by the way, is that "Mathematics is the language of nature and that, therefore, if you don't speak math, you can't do science." To forestall,  a lot of churn, I should add that I am not contemptuous of measurement, or experiment, or mathematics. But the reality of science is that 1) it proceeds by intuitive leaps as much as it does by measurement/experiment and 2) the numbers are only a beginning (or sometimes a diversion) as they always have to be interpreted because when you run an experiment, you get all kinds of numbers, some of them you include in your data; some you don't. Joanna andie nachgeborenen wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid20061010162433.31077.qmail@web50407.mail.yahoo.com"> <pre wrap="">In my opinion, someone without the math can understand the physics (pop biolog, etc.) only as well as a blind person can understand painting. There's a reason you have to put this stuff in math language to make it go. That doeesn't mean ppopular translation out of math isn't possible for general interest purposes. Of course I have the bias of having made the commitmebt to lerarn the math at great personal cost, which I have now all forgotten -- the math, not the costs. Most of the science studies crowd are morons. --- Daniel Davies <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:d_squared_2002@yahoo.co.uk"><d_squared_2002@yahoo.co.uk></a> wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">From: andie nachgeborenen </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:andie_nachgeborenen@yahoo.com"><andie_nachgeborenen@yahoo.com></a> </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">These were not the science-free ignoramuses of </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">today's </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">science studies crowd </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">bad luck in the timing of picking this particular week to repeat this rather dull slur on sociologists of science; Harry Collins of Cardiff University recently passed a version of the Turing Test for physicists; he submitted answers to seven questions on gravity waves which convinced a panel of independent judges that he was a physicist (and that the physicist who also submitted answers wasn't). He was able to do this because he's spent the last thirty years hanging around the gravitational waves community in order to carry out science studies on the sociology of new discoveries. I suppose this falls under the heading of "no true Scotsman" (which it does; he's a Welshman). <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2150974/fr/rss/">http://www.slate.com/id/2150974/fr/rss/</a> It is actually incredibly interesting, because it confirms a prejudice of mine; that it is possible to understand all of this science stuff at the highest level without going through the details of how to calculate the equations, as long as you keep a clear head and are prepared to apply yourself. Scientists aren't demigods and Master of Reality - they're just people who did a science degree. Lots of them seem to have very little understanding of the underlying science, as opposed to the manipulation of particular fashionable calculations; there are plenty of "science-free ignoramuses" holding down jobs in physics departments, just as the economics departments are chock full of people who don't know anything about economics. best dd </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">___________________________________________________________ </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail. "The New Version is radically easier to use" – The Wall Street Journal <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html">http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html</a> ___________________________________ </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </pre> <pre wrap=""> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mail.yahoo.com">http://mail.yahoo.com</a> ___________________________________ <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>