Zombie education reaches its ultimate goal:

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspi...discontin.html
"Tennessee university discontinues physics degree program. Tennessee
State University in Nashville has started pruning its lowest-producing
degree programs - including undergraduate physics, writes Jennifer
Brooks for the Tennessean. Because the university has graduated only
23 physics majors over the past decade, the administration decided to
wrap the physics program into an umbrella math-and-science hybrid
degree within the College of Engineering. "Mathematics and physics
majors take 80% of the same courses," said professor Sandra Scheick,
head of the current mathematics and physics department. Instead of two
or three physics majors and 10 or so math majors, and maybe one
astronomy major every other year or so, Scheick said, there will be
two dozen mathematical science majors. The Tennessee Higher Education
Commission keeps a running tally of the graduates produced by every
degree program at every public institution in the state. To avoid
being classified as "low producing," several schools have been forced
to terminate programs."

http://arc-tv.com/the-crisis-in-physics-and-its-cause/
"However, for the past century, theoretical physicists have been
sending a different message. They have rejected causality in favor of
chance, logic in favor of contradictions, and reality in favor of
fantasy. The science of physics is now riddled with claims that are as
absurd as those of any religious cult."

http://school.maths.uwa.edu.au/~mike/Trouble.doc
Mike Alder: "It is easy to see the consequences of the takeover by the
bureaucrats. Bureaucrats favour uniformity, it simplifies their lives.
They want rules to follow. They prefer the dead to the living. They
have taken over religions, the universities and now they are taking
over Science. And they are killing it in the process. The forms and
rituals remain, but the spirit is dead. The cold frozen corpse is so
much more appealing to the bureaucratic mind-set than the living
spirit of the quest for insight. Bureaucracies put a premium on the
old being in charge, which puts a stop to innovation. Something
perhaps will remain, but it will no longer attract the best minds.
This, essentially, is the Smolin position. He gives details and
examples of the death of Physics, although he, being American, is
optimistic that it can be reversed. I am not. (...) Developing ideas
and applying them is done by a certain kind of temperament in a
certain kind of setting, one where there is a good deal of personal
freedom and a willingness to take risks. No doubt we still have the
people. But the setting is gone and will not come back. Science is a
product of the renaissance and an entrepreneurial spirit. It will not
survive the triumph of bureacracy. Despite having the infrastructure,
China never developed Science. And soon the West won't have it
either."

http://www.wickedlocal.com/pembroke/...lton-Ratcliffe
Hilton Ratcliffe: "Physics is dying, being suffocated by meta-
mathematics, and physics departments at major universities with grand
histories in physical science are closing down for lack of interest.
It is a crisis in my view. (...) If, as in the case of GTR and later
with Big Bang Theory and Black Hole theory, the protagonists have
seductive charisma (which Einstein, Gamow, and Hawking, respectively,
had in abundance) then the theory, though not the least bit
understood, becomes the darling of the media. GTR and Big Bang Theory
are sacrosanct, and it's most certainly not because they make any
sense. In fact, they have become the measure by which we sanctify
nonsense."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20.../22/schools.g2
"But instead of celebrating, physicists are in mourning after a report
showed a dramatic decline in the number of pupils studying physics at
school. The number taking A-level physics has dropped by 38% over the
past 15 years, a catastrophic meltdown that is set to continue over
the next few years. The report warns that a shortage of physics
teachers and a lack of interest from pupils could mean the end of
physics in state schools. Thereafter, physics would be restricted to
only those students who could afford to go to posh schools. Britain
was the home of Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Paul Dirac, and
Brits made world-class contributions to understanding gravity, quantum
physics and electromagnetism - and yet the British physicist is now
facing extinction. But so what? Physicists are not as cuddly as
pandas, so who cares if we disappear?"

http://blog.reycom.org/archives/109
"La crise des vocations est générale dans toutes les sciences dures.
En témoignent les articles récurrents de revues spécialisés telles que
Physics World, l'excellent journal de l'Institute of Physics, ou la
Recherche qui a longtemps conservé un lien fort avec la recherche
publique menée en France. Elles s'en sont émues parce que c'était à
leurs lecteurs potentiels que cette crise s'attaquait... Le tableau
noir des sciences est peut-être entrain de cesser d'accepter des
marques de craie blanche. Il restera simplement noir. Dans ce paysage
accablant, les journalistes scientifiques peuvent toujours continuer
de ramer comme le faisait la reine Rouge de Lewis Carol, qui courait
simplement pour se maintenir sur place... Le courant de la rivière de
la course à la rentabilité risque de se transformer en rapide,
entrainant tous les coureurs, sans exception, vers le trou noir de
l'oubli!"

Pentcho Valev