If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction. -- Judith Hayese



Damien Martin
Graduate Student
Department of Physics
University of California at Davis


E-mail:

dmartin at removethis dot physics.ucdavis.edu
(Make obvious correct email address to contact me)

Snail-mail:

Physics Department
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
United States of America 		Me in Melbourne

About me

I am a graduate student at the University of California, Davis. Depending on who you are, you will come here looking for different things. My teaching resources are located under the "Teaching" tab (students are often impaitent to find what they are looking for). I also have a brief introduction on writing applets to demonstrate physics principles in the "Computing" section, as well as some advice on using your computer (specifically Unix based machines) effectively for physics. "Links" contains information about the high energy physics wiki, seminar speakers and assorted links to other sites.

Why physics?

We all start off as scientists. I have yet to meet a child that is not curious about the way the world works, why a star twinkles or why rainbows form. Some of us lose interest when we find that the answers are not always simple, but the majority of us grow up and accept the world the way it is. That majority spends their time on more pragmatic issues such as how to make a good income, raise a family or make a difference in their community.

Those of us that end up doing physics (or science in general) are typically those that never grew up. We will certainly not make as much money as we could doing other things, but we get to spend our days asking why the universe is the way it is. How does it work? What are the effective laws that govern our entire world? Where did we all come from?

Unlike other disciplines, science truely persists. Laws of mankind are necessary, but are overturned as civialisations change. The laws of science also evolve, but provided the scientific method is adhered to when a law is superceeded, it is still just as good as an approximate description of the world as it ever was. For example, we know that the Newtonian model of mechanics is not correct at high speeds or for small systems, but it is still a very good approximation when applied in the regieme that it originally described. Try arguing a case in court with laws from 300 years ago!

These comments are not specific to physics; they apply to science as a whole. Even social sciences, such as economics, share the same basic ideas. The thing that makes physics different is that it is the most fundamental science. Nothing happens in chemistry or biology that does not ultimately result in the fundamental interactions in physics.

Disclaimer

If you are interested in this reductionalist viewpoint, you should read for a contrary viewpoint by a leading condensed matter physicist.