A little history... was Re: Aquatic eccrine etc.
Bill Burnett (bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk)
Wed, 15 Nov 1995 09:38:16
(H. M. Hubey) writes:
>bdiebold@minerva.cis.yale.edu (Benjamin H. Diebold) writes:
>>Most scientific change, including major paradigm shifts, come from within
>>the scientific community. Einstein, Darwin, Pauling, Watson and Crick are
>Crowley is close to the truth and so are you. Einstein was an outsider;
>he was working in the patent office not in expensive physics labs.
>Darwin was nobody and evolution was nothing when he wrote it, unless
No, actually Darwin was well established and respected by the scientific
community. He fitted the mould, an independently wealthy, ideologically
correct gentleman naturalist who wrote beautiful treatises on barnacles (they
really are stunning, have a look sometime.) It took him 20 years to pluck up
the courage to publish the 'origin' because he knew it would mean ridicule and
rejection my many of his peers and society in general. The strain nearly
killed him. He was definitely on the inside.
>you count Rumi's writings circa 1200. One of Watson/Crick was a
>mathematician, hardly a biologist. And biology is only now getting
>math in it (well the last 50 years or so).
Lets call it 75-100ish and cite population genetics just for the sake of
argument (and not wishing to belittle other fields) (Hardy 1908, Weinberg
1908, Castle 1908, Fisher 1922 the list is long and distinguished). (Just
being over sensitive :-)) That makes it as old as quantum physics, doesn't
it? (or by all means correct me.) What's your point?
Watson and Crick were also on the inside too, you don't get to play with
expensive machinery at Cambridge unless you are.
>But most knowledge is added by pros in the field obviously. This is
>especially true in fields in which outsiders cannot even comrehend
>anything, ie math, quantum physcis, etc. Now PA is not one of
>these fields. Neither is psychology nor sociology, or archaeology.
Must be nice for you. :-)
>And I think everyone knows the reason why.
I think everyone is astounded by your rudeness and arrogance. Still, it must
be reassuring to know that what you do is more important and scientific than
everyone else.
Bill
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Burnett - bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk
Scottish Association for Marine Science
P.O. Box 3, Oban, Argyll PA34 4AD, UK
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