paleonet Queens of the Sciences

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Apparently, Dr. Dominguez-Alonso is exactly right. Gauss originally said "Mathematics is the queen of the sciences." I can't find a reference to the phrase being used for palaeontology.

http://isolatium.uhh.hawaii.edu/m198/w12/numb.html

"Mathematics, the queen of the sciences, and arithmetic, the queen of mathematics." - Gauss

http://mathforum.com/epigone/historia_matematica/dwowhersmoi/200111012218.RAA04019@clifford.math.psu.edu

The quotation from Gauss comes from "Gauss: A Memorial" by W. Sartorius von Waltershausen (1856). In the published English translation, the passage says (pp. 64-65):

"Gauss said of himself that he was wholly a mathematician. To be anything else at the expense of mathematics was an idea he repudiated. Yet the natural sciences also drew him...

"To use Gauss' own words, mathematics was for him "the Queen of sciences, and arithmetic the Queen of mathematics." It may often stoop to do a service for astronomy and other natural sciences, but under all circumstances it must take first place..."

Alas. Palaeontology and the following disciplines trying to claim this title will have to duke it out for second-runner-up or Miss Congeniality or something.

http://www.coastal.edu/philosophy/brochure.html

Often called "queen of the sciences," the discipline of Philosophy has thrived since the days of Plato and Aristotle (c. 350 BC). It has thrived because it continually examines the core issues of human existence.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~physics/seminars/coll_past/abstracts/spring96/randi.html

Is Physics the Queen of the Sciences? or Trouble in the Royal Household

James Randi

http://www.maxwellsociety.net/PhysicsCorner/PhysicsCorner.htm

The Queen of the Sciences

Of all the sciences, physics is perhaps the "most exact." For mathematics is literally the language of physics. Physical theory attempts to establish the mathematical relations among observable quantities and processes.

http://www.gbhap-us.com/CyborgCitizen/chappgs/chap13d.html

To begin, several scientists have made a big thing about Alan Sokal's transition from mathematician (where he was denied tenure) to physicist. Many a mathematician has proudly told me they are not a scientist. They feel especially superior to physicists. Physicists often return the favor, it is the queen of the sciences after all. But if you failed at being a mathematician and then had to become a physicist...

http://www.cfpeople.org/FrRay/13Sun00b.htm

In years past, theology was known as "the queen of the sciences." "Science" in this context means "an organized body of knowledge"-thus it applies to subjects other than biology and the physical sciences, although it includes those as well.

http://www.ducati.onlinehome.de/calvinismus/history.htm

When in the nineteenth and early twentieth century theology was deposed as the "Queen of the Sciences," Calvinism fell with her.

I have to stop; I am having too much fun....

Cheers, Sally

I have the suspicion that the quotation could be a transformation of another previous which was on behalf of mathematics.

Cheers,

Patricio

At 11:41 14/03/03 -0500, you wrote:

Raymond Thaddeus C. Ancog -
    Did you ever find out the source of the quotation that "Paleontology is
the queen of the sciences"? I am referring to your request to Paleonet of
about a year ago.
    I am writing the biography of my college geology (paleontology) mentor,
Lowell Robert Laudon, who taught at the universities of Tulsa, Kansas, and
Wisconsin, and was a world-renowned expert on Paleozoic crinoids. I would
like to make reference to that quotation, but have been unable to run it
down.
    Best regards -- Jim
Jim Parks
159 Wesley Drive, Wilmore KY 40390
jparx@worldnet.att.net 859-858-2669

__
Dr. Patricio DOMINGUEZ-ALONSO Department of Palaeontology The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK patd@nhm.ac.uk patricio@geo.ucm.es padomin@terra.es Tel 0207 942 5335 (internationally 0044 207 942 5335) Fax 0207 942 5546 (internationally 0044 207 942 5546)