Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Big, bewildering science to thank for cranks, says writer

Catherine Armitage - Senior WriterDate - September 7, 2012

View more articles from Catherine Armitage
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/by/Catherine-Armitage


Margaret Wertheim has chronicled those who develop theories outside the
scientific mainstream. Photo: Steven Siewert

A BOOK about cranks could be a career-limiting move for someone with degrees in physics and mathematics whose livelihood is writing about science. But Margaret Wertheim became intrigued by ''what drives a man [and they are invariably men] with no science training to think he can succeed where Einstein and Hawking have failed.''

Newspaper offices get them all the time, and so do world-famous science stars: thick manuscripts with capital letters in marching sentences setting out alternative theories of the universe claimed by the authors to be ''simpler'' or ''more comprehensible'' than the unsatisfactory efforts that have gone before.

After 15 years of collecting their efforts, she has concluded there are no potential Nobel prize winners among those she calls outsider scientists and their work will not be taught at Princeton or Harvard. But the movement's existence points to a serious problem for mainstream science, she argues.



Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Despite its success and relevance to everyday life, many people reject ''big science'' because it is incomprehensible to them. We have ended up with a bewildering, bamboozling picture of the universe that most people can't even begin to comprehend, she says.

With the field under attack, she thought about shelving the project for fear she would be accused of being ''anti-science''. But she is standing her ground. "If you can't ask these questions without being accused of being anti-science, it seems to me science itself is in danger of becoming another fundamentalism."

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/big-bewildering-science-to-thank-for-cranks-says-writer-20120906-25hav.html