I agree with Jim that we often see patterns in randomness -- it doesn't take
a psychologist to find this out. The stars are pretty randomly distributed
(although the concentration varies, esp. around the Milky Way), but people
have found patterns (constellations) there for millenia. And visual
Wow, quite a post! A few comments tangentially related to Wayne's reply.
I am actually quite skeptical about biocalculus, at least as applied to
ecology. Although I consider myself a reasonably skilled mathematician (my
PhD is in theoretical physics), I make very little use of math in my
Hon. (Wow!) Mathecologist Silvert and Forum:
If we can prune pride from the bush somehow, we need have no fear
of brainstorming, provided we are prepared to resist the temptation
to mount the bandwagon du jour and take a hard look at the actual as
opposed to only the virtual outcome. Even
I am finding a poll from 1988, an article in the NY Times
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DD143BF936A15753C1A96E
948260) that says that something like 21% believed the Sun revolved around
the Earth, and that 7% said they didn't know. But I can't seem to find
anything since
