I’ve just read an article on the BBC about Reading University’s plan to drop physics from its available courses. Nothing too interesting in itself, however, a particular quote jumped out at me;

At the Institute of Physics, science director Peter Main said this illustrated the flexibility of physicists.
“For example, if an archaeologist wants to date something, they get a physicist,” he told BBC News.

Not only does he have the same name as the former VP of Nintendo of America, but he also seems unaware that geologists, specifically geochemists, do a crap load of dating. I mean, the ICPMS was invented and originally built by a chemist, Harold Urey, who is also the father of geochemistry. If you want something dated, you’ll likely be doing acid chemistry. If you’re actually doing archaeological dating, you’ll likely be doing luminescence dating, something you’ll probably be doing in your local geology or archaeology department.

I’m not saying physics isn’t needed, physical chemistry and radioactivity are the cornerstone of most dating methods. Physics is cool in my opinion, but it’s not just people who are physicists by training or occupation who do it, or understand it.

And that’s it for my 2:30am rant.