[rwjst4]

Unfortunately, this isn't the only example. What government has done to science, is alot like what it has done to art; i.e. from funding it.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

They probably got it from someone like Brian Swimme or Thomas Berry.

[TightSqueeze]

"The more carefully I read them, the less sense they make. Eventually I either start laughing or get a headache."

If I didn't read the whole post and know he was talking about physics, I would have sworn this quote was a direct reference to our IRS tax code.

[RightWhale]

a heuristic exercise

We expect some rigor in mathematical proofs or demonstrations, unless it is just an introductory paragraph to the monograph. But, you know, it up to the degree committee to accept or reject a thesis. It is not necessary that the rest of the scientific world approve. Getting a paper published is up to the publisher. If it is peer-reviewed, fine, even if the content is just heuristic hermeneutics.

[scouse]

for which they were sued (unsuccessfully) for plagiarism

I read somewhere that the law suit against these two was successful, but it is just that they haven't paid up yet.

[Doctor Stochastic]

What are the titles of the papers so I can check them out for myself. And who are the twins anyway, I seem to be out of touch with Western Culture.

[Happygal]

Do these two guys word EU dictats? ;-)

[FreedomPoster]

Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics

[Barry Goldwater]

ping-a-ling

[ccmay]

Many scientists recall laughing when in 1996 the physicist Alan Sokal wrote a deliberately silly paper called Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, and managed to get it accepted by a journal of social and cultural studies, Social Text.

It's worth your time to read more about the Sokal affair. Never have the pompous left-wing postmodernists been so thoroughly humiliated.

-ccm