http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/28/science-terry-pratchett
"People in the UK must stop thinking of science as too difficult and scientists as elitist, the science minister Lord Drayson said today. He has enlisted the help of celebrities including authors Terry Pratchett and Bill Bryson, and the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to change attitudes towards the subject. They will meet ministers in Downing Street today to launch the government's Science: So What? So Everything campaign."

Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto and John Barrow FRS should also have been invited:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/may/22/highereducation.education
Harry Kroto: "The wrecking of British science....The scientific method is based on what I prefer to call the inquiring mindset. It includes all areas of human thoughtful activity that categorically eschew "belief", the enemy of rationality. This mindset is a nebulous mixture of doubt, questioning, observation, experiment and, above all, curiosity, which small children possess in spades. I would argue that it is the most important, intrinsically human quality we possess, and it is responsible for the creation of the modern, enlightened portion of the world that some of us are fortunate to inhabit. Curiously, for the majority of our youth, the educational system magically causes this capacity to disappear by adolescence.....Do I think there is any hope for UK? I am really not sure."

http://plus.maths.org/issue37/features/Einstein/index.html
John Barrow: "Einstein restored faith in the unintelligibility of science. Everyone knew that Einstein had done something important in 1905 (and again in 1915) but almost nobody could tell you exactly what it was. When Einstein was interviewed for a Dutch newspaper in 1921, he attributed his mass appeal to the mystery of his work for the ordinary person: Does it make a silly impression on me, here and yonder, about my theories of which they cannot understand a word? I think it is funny and also interesting to observe. I am sure that it is the mystery of non-understanding that appeals to themit impresses them, it has the colour and the appeal of the mysterious."

Pentcho Valev
pvalev@yahoo.com

Eisntein: Does it make a silly impression on me, here and yonder, about my theories of which they cannot understand a word?


cinci: Well Pentcho, it looks like Eisntein knew youwould show up as long ago as 1921. He was even smarter than I imagined.
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cinci: Well Pentcho, it looks like Eisntein knew youwould show up as long ago as 1921. He was even smarter than I imagined.

E knew his theory was jibberish; so of course he was cleverer than you who don't realise that; also he was clever enough to know someone would say it was jibberish.

cinci: Well Pentcho, it looks like Eisntein knew you would show up as long ago as 1921. He was even smarter than I imagined.

colin: E knew his theory was jibberish; so of course he was cleverer than you who don't realise that; also he was clever enough to know someone would say it was jibberish.

cinci: The other thing E said was in Pentcho's message was: "I think it is funny and also interesting to observe." I agree....thanks for the laugh.
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