3 ms·

Am I the only one who loved that this article talks about an author named Andrew Hacker.. writing an article about myths of science.. on HN..? But regardless,

Am I the only one who loved that this article talks about an author named Andrew Hacker.. writing an article about myths of science.. on HN..? But regardless, while I disagree with the article’s argument it’s valid to debate this topic. My undergrad background is in engineering so I’m very biased here (and work as an engineer and have never used calculus for work). I do think a math major should take biology as much as a biology major should take math (calculus)! Folks often talk about the goal of a liberal arts education being learning a “breadth of topics” or the “classical teachings” and that’s fair and important. But I also think the same for individuals studying a STEM field. Maybe bio majors don’t need the level of calculus rigor required for a physics major but I personally think it’s such a fundamental topic they should learn it.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
As far as I know, in the US, a bachelor of science major does require a variety of science courses. I had to take at least 2 biology courses with accompanying labs, 2 chemistry with accompanying labs, multiple physics, thermodynamics, plus a certain number of humanities (equaling at least 1 per semester I believe, so 8 courses). Math was probably the most numerous universal course requirement, between multiple calculus and probability, statistics, discrete, and analysis courses. But that kind of makes sense given the foundational nature of it being the fundamental tool one needs to verify information in all the other sciences. https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/