By LISA RANDALL
NY Times, Published: September 18, 2005
Physics professor writes on the difficulty of writing about science - misleading terms ("ambiguous word choices" or terms that in normal conversation mean one thing, but when used by scientists mean something much more specific and possibly quite different), the inherent complexity of scientific research and subtleties not entertained in the press.
For the latter problem, she suggests more emphasis on the "mathematical significance of results", which would also be easier if the public were not so afraid of math, and accepted science as complex rather than as a simple story. Whose prerogative it to achieve this? She doesn't say.
Examples include relativity, string theory, evolution, global warming/climate change.
Physics professor writes on the difficulty of writing about science - misleading terms ("ambiguous word choices" or terms that in normal conversation mean one thing, but when used by scientists mean something much more specific and possibly quite different), the inherent complexity of scientific research and subtleties not entertained in the press.
For the latter problem, she suggests more emphasis on the "mathematical significance of results", which would also be easier if the public were not so afraid of math, and accepted science as complex rather than as a simple story. Whose prerogative it to achieve this? She doesn't say.
Examples include relativity, string theory, evolution, global warming/climate change.
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