Thursday, January 11, 2007
the trouble with physics... blogs
I've noticed that the two big physics blogs have been... changing.
Not Even Wrong is getting somewhat self-deprecating; why should physicists feel embarrassed about having "geeky" interests in astronomy? Or jealous of astronomers?
Is there really that much new in astronomy to warrant jealousy? Astronomers have had difficulties in getting funding also. It really upsets me when physicists despair and start getting jealous of people in other fields.
"Other fields." Isn't astronomy very closely related to physics... astrophysics and cosmology? Why should physicists start talking about other fields when the laws of astronomy result from the laws of physics? When the laws of biology, chemistry, psychology... everything... result from the laws of physics? Why can't we think of the other sciences as the "physics of living systems", or "chemical physics", or "psychological physics"? I'm starting to think that the only reason why physics isn't the only department in universities is because most physicists don't realize this!
The Reference Frame is somewhat better, although I got an annoying pop-up ad for distance education on there earlier today that I couldn't get rid of. I really don't understand why he spends so much of his time writing about the "bell curve", considering how pseudo-scientific it seems. (Of course, LQG is unequivocally pseudo-scientific, at least in his mind.) However, I do like how he points out that global warming is a pseudo-scientific hoax (which it probably is) and that global warming in one area signifies global cooling in another.
I just hope the LHC finds a cosmic string so that physics bloggers can blog about physics again. ¶ 12:54 PM
Not Even Wrong is getting somewhat self-deprecating; why should physicists feel embarrassed about having "geeky" interests in astronomy? Or jealous of astronomers?
Is there really that much new in astronomy to warrant jealousy? Astronomers have had difficulties in getting funding also. It really upsets me when physicists despair and start getting jealous of people in other fields.
"Other fields." Isn't astronomy very closely related to physics... astrophysics and cosmology? Why should physicists start talking about other fields when the laws of astronomy result from the laws of physics? When the laws of biology, chemistry, psychology... everything... result from the laws of physics? Why can't we think of the other sciences as the "physics of living systems", or "chemical physics", or "psychological physics"? I'm starting to think that the only reason why physics isn't the only department in universities is because most physicists don't realize this!
The Reference Frame is somewhat better, although I got an annoying pop-up ad for distance education on there earlier today that I couldn't get rid of. I really don't understand why he spends so much of his time writing about the "bell curve", considering how pseudo-scientific it seems. (Of course, LQG is unequivocally pseudo-scientific, at least in his mind.) However, I do like how he points out that global warming is a pseudo-scientific hoax (which it probably is) and that global warming in one area signifies global cooling in another.
I just hope the LHC finds a cosmic string so that physics bloggers can blog about physics again. ¶ 12:54 PM
