On Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004, at 12:15 US/Pacific, Jamie wrote:

>> The most surprising thing
>> he had to say about his experience of going from a low
>> amount of testosterone in the blood to a level above
>> that of most men was that after the hormone treatments,
>> physics suddenly made sense.
>>
>> I wonder if there really is something like that at work?
>>
It doesn't matter.  variation with a single sex has to be
almost as large as variation between sexes anyway.  There
are lots of women who don't understand physics.  There are
lots of men who don't understand physics.  The probability
that a particular woman understands physics is not that much
less (if any) than a particular man understanding physics...

That the level of understanding could be affected by hormone
treatments is interesting, though.  I can see the headlines
now: "Ivy league prof admits 'hormone use rampant among top
physicists' in disturbing grand jury testimony."  Although,
thinking back, I don't recall that those men who seemed to
have the most testosterone doing best in physics.  Perhaps
they were just too busy with ... other pursuits.  Or maybe
there is an optimum level; butch women and effeminate men?

Regardless, I don't see what it has to do with "engineering."
Engineering is about making things work whether you understand
them or NOT!

BillW
  :-)

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