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Why would he write an article in a national newspaper to point out that exceptional mathematical ability is required in only a few fields? That follows almost b
by Myrmornis 14y ago
Why would he write an article in a national newspaper to point out that exceptional mathematical ability is required in only a few fields? That follows almost by definition. No, the effect, and intention, of his article is to make students of biology think that they don't need to worry about difficult-seeming math courses. My rebuttal is entirely appropriate; I would imagine that most people involved in teaching biology at university level would be very disappointed by what he is promoting.
- rdouble 14y agoHe's actually taking a dig at "Quantitative Biology" specializations and saying they aren't really producing anything interesting, so are not worth the trouble.
- epistasis 14y agoHis motivations are clearly stated in the second paragraph: >During my decades of teaching biology at Harvard, I watched sadly as bright undergraduates turned away from the possibility of a scientific career, fearing that, without strong math skills, they would fail. This mistaken assumption has deprived science of an immeasurable amount of sorely needed talent. It has created a hemorrhage of brain power we need to stanch. He doesn't have to dig on quantitative biology to recognize that there's lots of science that is largely founded on using reasoning that doesn't require lots of symbol manipulation.