Wednesday, October 25, 2006
scientific literacy
Those who have seen the new "Electronic Secretary" here will, of course, want to include one on their own site. The problem with Site Pal, though, is that in order to use the 15-day free trial, you have to select a payment package first!
It will be interesting to predict what will happen to traffic on "The Reference Frame" during the next few weeks. Will the new secretary annoy a lot of people, or will she have a positive affect? I think the former is more likely.
"The best physics blog", as well as all the others, have really made esoteric concepts in science a lot more accessible. This has been a plus, but... it has also had negative consequences, like the infamous Slate article. The author of the aforementioned article thought he knew more than he actually did about modern science; either that, or he was just trying to throw a wrench in the works (or an infinity in the equation)! Too often, those who are interested in advanced scientific concepts won't actually investigate them. If they do investigate them, they do it badly. Reading a popular physics book doesn't qualify you as a physicist; that alone doesn't qualify you to be a science journalist, either. I wish more people knew that.
At the Mensa conference two weeks ago, I heard numerous conversations that went something like this:
"What brought you to this conference?"
"Well, I was really interested in physics and stuff. I read The Elegant Universe and thought that was cool, although I could never understand all those extra dimensions."
"Yeah, me neither."
Wow. What a profound conversation.
Unfortunately, I heard a lot of those. I ran into only a handful of physicists and physics students; the majority of people didn't have much of a scientific background. I know that because of the questions people asked the speakers. Some of them (I'm not referring to the speakers here) really flaunted their ignorance. It's a good thing the scientists were patient; I wouldn't have answered most of the questions.
If more science journalists were scientifically literate, scientists wouldn't have so many problems. They'd have a better chance of getting grants, and... perhaps the barrier between the "two cultures" would fall. No one likes that barrier anyway. ¶ 4:15 PM
It will be interesting to predict what will happen to traffic on "The Reference Frame" during the next few weeks. Will the new secretary annoy a lot of people, or will she have a positive affect? I think the former is more likely.
"The best physics blog", as well as all the others, have really made esoteric concepts in science a lot more accessible. This has been a plus, but... it has also had negative consequences, like the infamous Slate article. The author of the aforementioned article thought he knew more than he actually did about modern science; either that, or he was just trying to throw a wrench in the works (or an infinity in the equation)! Too often, those who are interested in advanced scientific concepts won't actually investigate them. If they do investigate them, they do it badly. Reading a popular physics book doesn't qualify you as a physicist; that alone doesn't qualify you to be a science journalist, either. I wish more people knew that.
At the Mensa conference two weeks ago, I heard numerous conversations that went something like this:
"What brought you to this conference?"
"Well, I was really interested in physics and stuff. I read The Elegant Universe and thought that was cool, although I could never understand all those extra dimensions."
"Yeah, me neither."
Wow. What a profound conversation.
Unfortunately, I heard a lot of those. I ran into only a handful of physicists and physics students; the majority of people didn't have much of a scientific background. I know that because of the questions people asked the speakers. Some of them (I'm not referring to the speakers here) really flaunted their ignorance. It's a good thing the scientists were patient; I wouldn't have answered most of the questions.
If more science journalists were scientifically literate, scientists wouldn't have so many problems. They'd have a better chance of getting grants, and... perhaps the barrier between the "two cultures" would fall. No one likes that barrier anyway. ¶ 4:15 PM
