Talk:2986: Every Scientific Field

My reading of the comic is completely opposite to the current explanation. Rather than the large section being what 'a disproportionate amount of time is spent on', it's the small section, which is why we've heard of that stuff. To me, the large section represents the bulk of what is there to be studied, but is relatively poorly understood, so the point of the comic is emphasising how little we actually know about stuff in relation to what there is to be known. 172.70.160.136 11:16, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

I didn't like the word 'disproportionate' either, because to me it sounded like an accusation of too much time being spent in the wrong branch, which is not what Randall is saying. I reworded and fleshed out the description. Better now? 172.70.111.167 11:38, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

I disagree with "poorly understood" being the central issue, though, rather the branches the general public finds fascinating are often not the scientificially dominating ones. Wasps laying eggs in other insects isn't "poorly understood" at all. It's just that cute baby elephants or pandas draw huge crowds in zoos, whereas 'icky' wasps don't. And e.g. a gyroscope makes for great YouTube videos, but it's no longer a subject of fundamental physics research. 162.158.154.238 13:04, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

It's not really a matter of understanding, it's whether most of the public has even heard of it and knows that scientists are studying it. Randall's point is that most of what scientists study doesn't get much mention in the mainstream press and lay people don't know about it. Barmar (talk) 14:27, 17 September 2024 (UTC)