Re: [asa] important physics result announced today (fwd)

The funniest physics parody I know of is "Rasputin, Science, and the Transmogrification of Destiny" by (supposedly) "John Archibald Wyler" (General Relativity and Gravitation 5.2 (1974), pp.175-182.) Anyone familiar with the writings of John Archibald Wheeler will find it hilarious.

Shalom
George
http://home.roadrunner.com/~scitheologyglm

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Kirk Bertsche
  To: gordon brown
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:31 AM
  Subject: Re: [asa] important physics result announced today (fwd)

  I sent this link to some co-workers yesterday. One of them mentioned his favorite physics spoof, which fooled the editors of a social science journal:
  Alan D. Sokal, ``Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,'' Social Text #46/47 (spring/summer 1996): 217-252.
  http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html

  Here's a discussion of the spoof by the author:
  http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/noretta.html

  Kirk

  On Apr 1, 2009, at 10:01 AM, gordon brown wrote:

    I don't have time to read this right now, but maybe some physicist can tell us what it is all about. My quick glance at it made it appear that it was in the context of string theory and that it said that some dimensionless constant pi might vary with time and help to explain the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Maybe ten seconds of skimming isn't enough for me to have given the correct description.

    Gordon Brown (ASA member)

    ---------- Forwarded message ----------

    http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5321

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Received on Thu Apr 2 15:08:37 2009