The shantytown of physics and other sciences

Tony Rothman of Princeton University has written an insightful and must-read piece on the state of physics as a science and sacred cow. Rothman describes physics as being presented as a "shimmering cathedral" by its practitioners and textbooks but "often more closely resembles a hastily erected shantytown." Modern science can and engineers can produce complex gyroscopes to pilot ships into space, among other uses, but modern physics cannot describe what the gyroscope is pointing at.

Rothman writes, "(a)fter decades - indeed, centuries - of employing such tricks, physicists have forgotten that they are modeling phenomena, not necessarily uncovering "divine truth". For instance, we can easily write down the equations for a ball on a swinging spring, but if we stretch the spring enough and swing the ball hard enough, we can't solve those equations. The motion becomes chaotic, making an exact mathematical solution impossible."

"Even something as fundamental as Newton's law of gravity is ultimately an approximation."

But is Rothman's concern for differentiating between phenomenon and truth in physics also applicable to other sciences? Rothman points to hubris in physics and surely there is enough hubris in climate science to fill a black hole, and on both sides of the great climate debate divide. Admitting what we don't know if far more important than defending scared assumptions we are prepared to die for.


http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/20118475558654674.html

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rothman1/English