In the June 16th edition of Forbes magazine, publisher Rich Karlgaard describes former Microsoft R & D head Nathan Myhrvold’s startup called Intellectual Ventures in a column titled Math Boneheads.
One of Intellectual Ventures’ inventions is a blood filter that catches metastatic cancer cells. The project leader, Lowell Wood, has no medical background. He’s a physicist. Isn’t that a disadvantage? No, quite the opposite, says Wood. “People in biology and medicine don’t do arithmetic.”
bold is mine.
Stop here. What an amazing statement, and deeply disturbing if true. I don’t know about innumerate cancer surgeons–a scary thought–but across American society the failure to apply simple arithmetic to problems is widespread. Adjustable-rate mortgages can go up? Wow. Nobody told me that.
After explaining the miracle of compound interest, Karlgaard proposes a thought experiment:
Thought experiment: How many American K-12 teachers and television talking heads scored higher than 600 on the math portion of their SATs? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Yes, inquiring minds would like to know.
