Bill Nye, \u201cThe Science Guy,\u201d in 2010. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
I do confess to a visceral and life-long dislike of bow ties. I can\u2019t see why people who wear them don\u2019t just go whole hog and put on a red clown nose, as well. But none of that plays any role in my lack of enthusiasm for Bill Nye.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found Anthony Standen\u2019s Science is a Sacred Cow<\/em> (1950) in the San Gabriel High School library and I read it when I was a teenager. \u00a0I\u2019ve never forgotten it.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anthony Standen (1906-1993), born to an American mother and a British father, received his education at the University of\u00a0Oxford, the\u00a0Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the\u00a0University of New Hampshire. \u00a0He went on to become a respected scientist, focusing on both chemistry and entomology.\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Science is a Sacred Cow<\/em>, Standen expressed his view that scientists and scientific theories should be treated with the same skepticism and subjected to the same scrutiny that the claims of people in other professions face.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are a couple of passages from the book:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lord Kelvin was so satisfied with this triumph of science that he declared himself to be as certain of the existence of the ether as a man can be about anything. . . . \u00a0\u201cWhen you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it. . . .\u201d Thus did Lord Kelvin lay down the law. And though quite wrong, this time he has the support of official modern Science. It is NOT true that when you can measure what you are speaking about, you know something about it. The fact that you can measure something doesn\u2019t even prove that that something exists. . . . \u00a0Take the ether, for example: didn\u2019t they measure the ratio of its elasticity to its density?<\/strong> \u00a0(Science is a Sacred Cow<\/i>, 69-70; 85)<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Certain students] suppose that because science has penetrated the structure of the atom it can solve all the problems of the universe. . . . \u00a0They are known in every . . . college as the most insufferable, cocksure know-it-alls. If you want to talk to them about poetry, they are likely to reply that the \u201cemotive response\u201d to poetry is only a conditioned reflex. . . . \u00a0If they go on to be professional scientists, their sharp corners are rubbed down, but they undergo no fundamental change. They most decidedly are not set apart from the others by their intellectual integrity and faith, and their patient humility in front of the facts of nature. \u00a0They are . . . uneducated, in the fullest sense of the word, and they certainly are no advertisement for the claims of science teachers.<\/strong> \u00a0(Science is a Sacred Cow<\/i>, 18-19)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 I found Anthony Standen\u2019s Science is a Sacred Cow (1950) in the San Gabriel High School library and I read it when I was a teenager. \u00a0I\u2019ve never forgotten it. \u00a0 Anthony Standen (1906-1993), born to an American mother and a British father, received his education at the University of\u00a0Oxford, the\u00a0Massachusetts Institute of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Science](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/08\/800px-Bill_Nye.jpg\")
<\/a>