Posted by Over at Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins pokes string theorists:
Ernst Rutherford, the “father” of nuclear physics, once airily declared “In science there is only physics. All the rest is stamp collecting”. By this he meant that the theory of physics is the only significant thing in science. Such mundane activities as taxonomy in biology were just sampling contingent examples of physics.
So it is with some amusement that I note that in order to make sense of string theory, a group of physicists have been trying to do taxonomy over string theories.
I’m never sure who reads what blogs, but I wouldn’t want this to fail to come to the attention of the right people…
(There’s much more to the post than that– the shot at string theory is just the jumping-off point for a discussion of philosophy of science. I doubt he realizes what a can of worms he’s (potentially) opening with that, though…)
March 29, 2008
March 30, 2008
