The Velvet Underground of… 8 Oct 2010 Recently there have been a couple of “Velvet Underground” posts, of the kind that the VU were a very unknown but amazingly influential group. As Chad Orzel says, “only of order a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every one of them went on to start a band.” He identifies the VU of physics as Sadi Carnot. Larry Moran identifies Max Delbrück as the VU of molecular genetics (and a great choice it is too). But this is a meme! We can uselessly pass this on! Who are the VUs of other disciplines and topics? I’m going to identify Otto Neurath as the VU of the philosophy of science. Do you have a VU? Biology General Science History Humor Philosophy Science HistoryPhilosophy
Humor Amusing typogarphical errors – 4 12 Oct 2007 From an AP Bio student on his vocab quiz (they have to learn word roots, like -itis, -logy, etc. and be able to use the parts in real words w/ definitions): “Mammograb: Examination of the breasts.” Via Beautiful Biology, hat tip to John Pieret. Read More
Philosophy On the straits of philosophy 11 Apr 2010 My recent post on “Mammals” led one commentator at Panda’s Thumb to reiterate the old joke about philosophy being like mathematicians but without erasers and rubbish bins, and more serious comments about philosophy having a GIGO problem. Coincidentally, Jason Stanley has a piece in the Times Higher Education Supplement bemoaning… Read More
What’s the difference between being aVU of x and being an xer’s xer? I want to see some serious conceptual analysis here.
I just wanted to say that Max Delbrück seems like a character from either a Mel Brooks or Steve Martin movie.