| Subject: |
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Re: Re: Re: Re: RealClimate on 1970s global cooling |
| Name: |
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Dave Gardner |
| Date Posted: |
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Jul 12, 08 - 12:18 AM |
| Email: |
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djgardner@btinternet.com |
| Message: |
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My own theory about the decline in physics in the UK is that it's due to the decline in the UK military-industrial complex, coupled with the rise of IT. The sort of technically minded people who would have gone into physics in the past now go into IT.
The key age group that have to be impressed enough to go into physics are 8 to 14 year olds. Now I was in that age group in the late 1960s and at that time physics looked very impressive. The military-industrial complex had a lot of status - we were told that Britain had partly won the second World War through cutting-edge technology like the Spitfire plane, radar, bouncing bombs, etc. One of the most popular programmes on TV was 'Tomorrow's World' presented by Raymond Baxter. The idea of being a boffin even looked vaguely glamorous - one of the most popular TV shows was 'The Avengers' which often had a storyline where Steed and Emma would investigate the activities some renegade boffin working at a government research establishment out in the English countryside.
In subsequent decades the industrial part of the military-industrial complex has lost a lot of its previous status thanks to the efforts of various left-wingers, CNDers and cost-cutting politicians. The military bit of the complex however still enjoys quite a bit of status thanks to its friends in the media and Parliament.
I can't see anything about present day physics that would attract young people into the subject. Who wants to be another Stephen Hawking?
But the political class does get one advantage from the decline in physics, it softens the population up for future waves of Green nonsense. |
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