Interesting brief post by Kiki Sanford on the results of word association analyses using the term “science”. Here is a Wordle cloud showing the responses of 126 people when asked what comes to mind when they hear the word “science” (larger = more common).
Dunno about you, but I get pretty tired of (some) physicists and philosophers equating science with physics, and how to do science with how physicists do it. Biology is where it’s at in this century, man, and we do things a little differently (but not less rigourously) in the life sciences. Interesting that public perception is starting to catch this message too, at least in the sample highlighted above.
I think this is mainly because of the journalistic bias in favor of health-related topics.
That's the easy stuff. Chemistry or physics take far more effort to make them interesting.