Klarinet Archive - Posting 000189.txt from 2001/12

From: "Bill Edinger" <wde2@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] scientists on the list
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 15:08:05 -0500

This is intended with respect and friendship, so don't anyone take
offense (and I know Walt won't), but your assertion that "none of us [is a]
scientist" is quite in error. There are several of us who are scientists
(including those with degrees in the natural and physical sciences and, yes,
even mathematicians, who are another type of scientist). The issue you
probably have is that none is an acoustician or acoustical engineer or
whatever specific discipline that would best deal with measuring IN A
SCIENTIFIC WAY the effects of material on sound (though there may be some).
You might want to throw in a psychologist or two, too, to evaluate what
probably is really going on. The real point is that, while you might have
to be an acoustician to do the study, anyone with legitimate scientific
training can recognize whether an assertion is made scientifically or not,
and I think that the objections to your opinion on materials are based on
that kind of training. There seems to be an attitude by the general public
(and artists in particular) that science is an option when evaluating
scientific questions, and alternative approaches are just as good because
everybody's opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Well, they're not, unless
you don't care about getting a useful answer. I'd buy another mouthpiece
from you in a heartbeat, but I'll have to side with the scientists on the
issue of materials' effects on sound. As Dan Leeson wrote, I still haven't
seen your data, and the only scientifically-done work I've heard about
contradicts what you claim to experience. "Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence."

Bill Edinger
(one those "strange microbiologists" Diane Karius wrote about a while back
;-))

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