Unpopular Subjects Is
there a place in today’s society for the study of useless subjects in our
universities Just over 100 years ago Fitzgerald argued in a well-written letter
1 Nature that "Universities
must be allowed to study useless subjects— 2 they don’t, who will He went on to use the 3
of Maxwell’s electrodynamics (电动力学) as one case where a "useless
subject" has been transformed to a useful subject. Nowadays
this argument is again very much 4 in
many universities. Indeed one suspects that it is one of those arguments that
must be 5 anew (重新) by each generation.
But now there is an added twist subjects must not only be useful, they must also
be 6 enough that students will flock
(蜂拥) to do them, and even flock to pay to do them. As
universities become commercial operations, the pressure to
7 subjects or departments that are less popular will become
stronger and stronger. Perhaps this is most strongly 8
at the moment by physics. There has been much
9 in the press of universities that are closing down
physics departments and incorporate them with mathematics or engineering
departments. Many scientists think otherwise. They see physics
as a 10 science, which must be kept
alive if only to 11 a base for other
sciences and engineering. It is of their great personal concern that physics
teaching and research is under 12 in
many universities. How Can it be preserved in the rush towards commercial
competition A major turnaround (转变) in student popularity may have to 13 until the industrial world discovers that it
needs physicists and starts paying them well. Physics is now
not only unpopular; it is also "hard". We can do more about the latter by
14 teaching in our schools and
universities. We can also 15 cooperative arrangements to ensure that physicists keep their research and
teaching up to date.