Comments on: Yellow Journalism In The War On Science

By: mrmandias

mrmandias — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:32:48 +0000

How do you “strictly interpret” boilerplate language like that? Anyone who thinks this language is meaningful needs to talk to a lawyer.

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By: Barry Deutsch

Barry Deutsch — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:11:04 +0000

Thanks, Anatoly! I appreciate it.

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By: Anatoly

Anatoly — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:56:35 +0000

Speaking as a reader with no definite position on this issue, your reply was insightful, very well-argued, and convinced me; thank you for it. It’s a pity Scott stopped participating in this thread at this point.

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By: komponisto

komponisto — Thu, 02 May 2013 01:00:07 +0000

You’re under the wrong impression. NSF grants are a very big deal in mathematics, virtually essential for any chance of being hired or getting tenure in a major department.

Andrew Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem was supported by an NSF grant, as a footnote on the first page attests.

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By: Randy M

Randy M — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:51:49 +0000

I think the connection between “students use facebook to ask what the literature assignment was” and “we are ushering in the brotherhood of man”* is rather tenuous. But that’s research, I guess.

*unfair hyperbole solely intended for comedic effect. Replace with more reasonable end goal such as “improve information sharing between federal agencies using p2p networks” if not you’d prefer a fair argument.

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By: Fnord

Fnord — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:21:19 +0000

I would think that understanding the mechanisms people use to cooperate could be useful information for lots of people.

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By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:34:23 +0000

One hopes they also investigated whether it destroyed relationships as well, as a time sink.

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By: g

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:39:47 +0000

What happens with (pure) mathematics is that most of it is never of any interest to anyone other than mathematicians, but every now and then something previously obscure and obviously-useless turns out to be absolutely vital for something extremely important and practical. (Various bits of linear algebra for quantum mechanics. Differential geometry for general relativity. Number theory for cryptography.)

Also, everything in mathematics is connected to everything else, so when one branch of mathematics is unexpectedly found to have practical applications lots of other bits may be indirectly implicated.

(None of the above should be taken to endorse the proposition that pure mathematics is valuable only, or mostly, for its occasional practical applications.)

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By: Randy M

Randy M — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:36:33 +0000

Is some of what you do non-obviously beneficial to society at large? Honest question, I’m not intimately familiar with academic mathematicians.