pouët.net

Or people like him part of the gene pool.

Caves, so comfortable!

Yes, studies of knots would mean nothing in the context of, say, protein folding, or nanotechnology. And Ultimate Gas is certainly not Shane, or any other random troll.

KNOT == CANCER!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/scientists_ask_congress_to_fund_50

Scientists Ask Congress To Fund $50 Billion Science Thing

PDVD: Best reply! You win the thread! :) The Onion rules!

Turtle Bladder:
Here's another discovery - http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Here's a take on bad science by Richard Feynman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_science
(The story behind the term 'cargo cult' is quite interesting as well)

SHIT! In my sleep I was just dreaming yesterday that I tried to prove that knot theory and took long strings, wrap them together and they very easily where mantled into knots and said to my brother "See? How easy it is??? We have something interesting here. Living knots!". Yes,. I have seen that yesterday in my dream even if this thread was not all day in my head. Strange..

thumb up for ps :)

francis: that pic is missing the half-eaten human torso ;)

without science, psytrance-music-quotes would be a lot less fun....

and dexter's laboratory too

without science, i'd have had fewer rock solid boners in secondary school

thanks for reminding me why i still hang around

yeah yeah, science is great, but we still know (should I say understand?) relatively very little, I think that's something people often forget. In my opinion, the worst thing about modern science and the media's attitude toward it is what it does to the average Joe's relationship with the universe. People are actively discouraged from asking deep physical and philosophical questions because they've been taught to think science will eventually give all the answers...

of course, to some elitist twats, that may sound like a good thing, but I'd much prefer to live in a world with people who are all questioning their existence, than a world where 'science' does all the questioning for us, and we're left with a world where the attitude is generally "hey, don't worry, we've got that shit covered. Here's something shiny to buy instead...". I actually find that completely fucked up... that we're born into this world with no idea why or how we're got here, and within ~15 years we're completely lulled to sleep, and forced to concentrate on more 'concrete' things, like our identity and status in the context of an abstract and ignorant society.

Sorry for the ramble.

It's hardly science's fault if the average Joe or Shane just can't figure it out. No one's telling anyone to stop asking deep philosophical questions. However, the physics is beyond the grasp of most people.

You miss my point. The average Joe CAN figure it out, which defeats the purpose of ploughing public money into science labs to tell us what we already know or can figure out for ourselves.

If they want to prat about with cables or lizards all day that's fine if they're privately funded, but there are better things to spend taxes on - i.e. homes for homeless, hospitals and schools, emergency services and so on.

Yeah, what's science ever done for the homeless, the hospitals, the schools or the emergency services.

Average Joe can read popular science magazines and feel smart. That's not the same as having a clue about physics.

True, most people have very little idea about the intricacies of physics, but they *can* - with a little thought - construct a good idea of the possible implications of a given law / theory / idea.

Besides, being an active practitioner of physics does not automatically imply that you have a creative imagination.

Remember that behind many "silly", "obvious" or "useless" results there is often real substance, not exposed in public presentations of the subject.

The average joe gets only "clearly evident" results such as "the sun revolves around the earth"

By that I mean that you don't do science with intuition alone. It's a terrible guide.