[LINK] Physics and Science in the world today...Re: Tsunami Warning - contact bom.gov.au

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Stephen Wilson wrote:
> 
> Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>> Stephen Wilson wrote:
>>> Stephen Wilson
>>> ex physicist.  
>>>     
>> Surely "lapsed physicist" would be more descriptive? :-)
>>   
> No way!  Physicists should never lapse.  I use my physics almost daily, 
> to make sense of the world, and to make nonsense of e.g. creationism, 
> gambling, and climate change deniers.  Physics substantiates much of my 
> creeping grumpy-old-manhood.
> 
<snip>

I'm with Steve, I find snippets of my Science education 
useful all the time, and have been amazed at the low level 
of understanding of basic science demonstrated in the whole 
climate change debate and other environmental issues.

Emma Tom was on the topic, in yesterday's paper
<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/to-all-but-the-boffin-its-scientific-correctness-gone-mad/story-e6frg8l6-1225834646892>

and...the source of her aggravation:
>                                                    Movies,
> “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy builds girl.”
>                                                    Science, &
>                                                    the End of
>  in this entertaining book, Sidney Perkowitz
>                                                    the World
>  discusses the portrayal of science in more
>  than one hundred films, including scientific
>  biographies and documentaries. Beginning
> with early films like Voyage to the Moon and
> Metropolis and concluding with more recent
>  offerings like The Matrix, War of the Worlds,
> A Beautiful Mind, and An Inconvenient Truth,
> Perkowitz questions how much faith we can
>  put into Hollywood’s depiction of scientists
>  and their work; how accurately these films
>  capture scientific fact and theory; whether
>  cataclysms like our collision with a comet can
>  actually happen; and to what extent these films
>  influence public opinion about science and
>  the future. Movies temporarily remove viewers
>  from the world as they know it and show them
>  the world as it might be, providing special
>  perspective on human nature and society. Yet
> “Hollywood science” can be erroneous, distort-
>  ing fact for dramatic effect and stereotyping
>  scientists as remote and nerdy, evil, or noble,
>  and these characterizations do little to improve
>  the relationship between science and society.
> Hollywood Science features dozens of film stills
>  and a list of the all-time best and worst sci-
>  ence-fiction movies, offering a winning com-
>  bination of history, accurate scientific theory,
>  anecdote, and humorous observation.
<http://www.sidneyperkowitz.net/books/hollywood_science.php>

-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202