Freedom of Science

Doctor Lisa Randall on the Colbert Report. 
Here in the idealized setting of a comedy stage you see the true face of physics. There are three elements.
1. A Doctor of Philosophy
2. A book
3. A comedian
Let’s see if we can find truthiness of each.
Lisa Randall — the Doctor of Philosophy
Lisa Randall is a professional doctor of philosophy […]

I read all the answers to this year’s question with great interest. I noticed one thing though. How I perceive a statement is greatly influenced by my knowledge of its author. Do you feel the same way?
I thought that if I read the same responses without knowing who said them I could free myself from […]

After reading a summary of Witten’s upcoming paper at Not Even Wrong I posted Witten’s Pyramid of Authority and also wrote about Witten’s toy fiefdom.
People who actually read the paper could not control their sarcasm either: gunpowder&noodles commenting on Not Even Wrong wrote:
For all my admiration for EW, and gratitude to him for the way he […]

I know that as regular folks we have filed this issue under the category UGLY and we have no intention of thinking about physics, math and science. These are UGLY stuff. These things are UGLY subjects that some genius who call themselves theoretical physicists spend time investigating. When they find something, which they continuously do […]

Lisa Randall on Freedom of Science 

Historically, technology, or applied physics, has always existed.
Historically, scholasticism has always existed, as well.
These two branches of human activity are incompatible.
Scholasticism changed its name to theoretical physics in order to use and abuse the authority of technology.
Scholasticism is the art of definitions.
By defining themselves as physicists and technology as physics […]

For decades professional photographers in collusion with big stock photo houses control the market. They establish a monopoly and keep prices as high as they want.
Then comes iStock and sells photos for less than a dollar. It turns out that amateurs take as good photographs as the pros. When amateurs find a distribution channel pro’s […]

Charles wrote in http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/12/15/putting-your-money-where-your-beliefs-are/

I will take you up on your wager and bet on Sklansky on the math test. It be interesting to see how Newton tackled questions involving complex numbers, for example, where many of the basic results were established decades after his death.

I agree. Newton being a mathematician of genius is a myth. […]