No, physicists have no fear of math. But they should have more respect.

Heart curve. [Img Src]

�Even physicists are `afraid� of mathematics,� a recent phys.org headline screamed at me. This, I thought, is ridiculous. You can accuse physicists of many stupidities, but being afraid of math isn�t one of them.

But the headline was supposedly based on scientific research. Someone, somewhere, had written a paper claiming that physicists are more likely to cite papers

Wissenschaft auf Abwegen

Ich war am Montag in Regensburg und habe dort einen �ffentlichen Vortrag gegeben zum Thema �Wissenschaft auf Abwegen� f�r eine Reihe unter dem Titel �Was ist Wirklich?� Das ganze ist jetzt auf YouTube. Das Video besteht aus etwa 30 Minuten Vortrag und danach noch eine Stunde Diskussion. Alles in Deutsch. Nur was f�r eche Fans ;)

String phenomenology of the somewhat different kind

[Cat�s cradle. Image Source.]

Ten years ago, I didn�t take the �string wars� seriously. To begin with, referring to such an esoteric conflict as �war� seems disrespectful to millions caught in actual wars. In comparison to their suffering it�s hard to take anything seriously.
Leaving aside my discomfort with the nomenclature, the focus on string theory struck me as odd. String theory as a

The Holy Grail of Crackpot Filtering: How the arXiv decides what�s science � and what�s not.

Where do we draw the boundary between science and pseudoscience? It�s is a question philosophers have debated for as long as there�s been science � and last time I looked they hadn�t made much progress. When you ask a sociologist their answer is normally a variant of: Science is what scientists do. So what do scientists do?
You might have heard that scientists use what�s called the scientific

What makes an idea worthy? An interview with Anthony Aguirre

That science works merely by testing hypotheses has never been less true than today. As data have become more precise and theories have become more successful, scientists have become increasingly careful in selecting hypotheses before even putting them to test. Commissioning an experiment for every odd idea would be an utter waste of time, not to mention money. But what makes an idea worthy?

Does the arXiv censor submissions?

The arXiv is the physicsts' marketplace of ideas. In high energy physics and adjacent fields, almost all papers are submitted to the arXiv prior to journal submission. Developed by Paul Ginsparg in the early 1990s, this open-access pre-print repository has served the physics community for more than 20 years, and meanwhile extends also to adjacent fields like mathematics, economics, and biology.