Physics envy

It could therefore be argued that ecology and population dynamics, in particular, have throughout their short history suffered from a physics-envy syndrome whereby the aim of ecology was to simplify the study system to the extent that it could be captured in simple equations (Grimm 1994 Weiner 1995,1999). The reason for this behavior is twofold 1) because a simple system is easy to understand and explain, and 2) because the complexities of ecology were often not tractable to the methods of study available at the time. 

Goldberg, D. E. (2009a). Engineering rigor and its discontents Philosophical reflection as curative to math-physics envy. Manuscript submitted for publication (SPT 2009). http //tinyurl.com/d88p8c... 

The evil eye, envy and fear are not generally recognized as causes of disease in Western medicine. We do not easily believe in such diagnoses and usually label them as naive superstitions. Yet, shamans routinely cure individuals who are genuinely physically ill by working within this frame of reference. In a denotative sense, and quite apart from whatever else it might be, this is psychosomatic medicine, pure and simple, and seems to have more to do with psychiatry than "general practice" -- or does it Where do you draw the line between mind and matter ... 

Electrochemical, chemical, and physical processes associated with the anodic current determine the conditions leading either to local repassivation or to pit propagation. Since the particular set of processes determining repassivation or propagation is specific to each metal/envi-ronment combination, a generally applicable mechanism of propaga-... 

As a profession we are justly proud of our great breadth, for we are the only applied science profession with in-depth training in chemistry as well as in physics and mathematics. Our background and perspective as scientist-engineers makes for flexibility and adaptability that is the envy of our sister disciplines (5). 

There is a nearly endless number of possible environmental impacts causally interconnected through environmental impact pathways or cause-effect chains (see example in Fig. 1 for the impacts associated with emissions of N- and P-compounds causing eutrophication of the environment). Life cycle assessment attempts to address all relevant impacts of a product life cycle (ISO 2006) and has therefore had to develop a systematic approach to the classification of envi-rmunental impacts and the quantitative expressimi of how large an envirOTunental impact is caused by an emission or a physical interventimi. 

The enterprise identifies and defines the operational scenarios that define the range of the anticipated uses of system productfs). For each operational scenario, the enterprise defines expected interactions with the envi-romnent and other systems human tasks and task sequences and physical intercormections with interfacing systems, platforms, or products. 

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