MadKally

What if the one-armed man on the grassy knoll is just a decoy for a massive conspiracy?

Godot: Ask any conspiracy theorist.

Sorry godot, my mind went stright to the conspiracy theory before I even saw you mention it.

Quetzal

Naturally, it's only because biologists have ever so much more to talk about than physicists. After all, seen one quark, seen 'em all. However, since no two populations (or individual organisms for that matter) are the same, simply discussing the ways in which they differ (or are the same) is waaaayyy cooler than arguing about the color of a non-existent particle.

Wounded King

I reckon that its because Biology is less alien. At least that worst that is likely to happen to you during the study of biology is the realisation that you are first cousin to a slime mold. Think about quantum physics too long and you are liable to start believing that you are only one of an almost infinite number of versions of yourself living in a hyperdimensional multiverse, or possibly that you are a cat in a box, I was never quite sure which.

MadKally

Anatomy and physiology are fascinating subjects. It's amazing how few people know much about their own bodies that they live in their whole lives! In my first day in anatomy, the Professor had a plastic abdomen with different colored organs. He took all the organs out and told us to put them back in the right places. None of us could figure out where everything went. People are always pointing at their small intestine and saying, wow my stomach sure is full. We didn't know anything that night and we started laughing at how smart we used to think we were. I would have been happier if we hadn't had to study DNA and draw punnet (sp) squares, and have so much chemistry involved though. (Maybe that was physiology)

My chemistry professor talked about Quantum mechanics and I still don't get it. I think I was snoozing. It was just too hard to grasp, except in a very small way.

VonEvilstein

As a theoretical physicist/philosopher friend of mine once put it:

"Chemistry is a specialization within physics, and biology within chemistry. In the end, it's all physics, really."

[runs for cover]

MadKally

Is that called VonEvilstein's new law of physics?

Wounded King

While it is true that the undelying processes are governed by the laws of physics, including those we are not yet aware of, it is not helpful.

It certainly doesn't mean that a physicist could explain any aspect of biology by relying simply on the principles of physics, and it would probably be pretty excruciating to see one attempt it.

BioBeing

Go over to www.randi.org and read some posts by Franko. That person has made a whole religion out of TLOP (The Laws Of Physics).... bloody arrogant physicists.

PS - Biochemistry is where it is at.

Abacus

This would be somewhat like understanding the rules for chess, but being clueless regarding the strategies that Grandmasters use.

Feather

Why run for cover? The statement is simple truth.

As regards the OP: I think it's because biology is more "accessible" to the non-mathematically inclined portion of the population. Physics has become so abstract--conceptually and mathematically--that there really is very little for intelligent, critically thinking but mathematically deficient people to comprehend easily.

Whereas in biology, even though the underlying science requires a high degree of mathematical competence, the most complicated concepts are more easily translated into commonly understandable forms.

So, since the vast majority of people aren't mathematically inclined but scientifically interested, they are going to initiate and participate in science topics that are accessible/easily understandable to them. Hence more biology/evolution than physics and chemistry.

(Incidentally, I think this is doubly or triply so for why Xtians attack evolution more than physics--the former as far easier to comprehend as far as manipulation is required--so much so that even unthinking nimrods that comprise the Fundie Bunch focus on it.)