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NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 14:25:50 -0500
From: Virgil <ITSnetNOTcom#vir...@COMCAST.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.math,sci.electronics,sci.chem
Subject: Re: Essay On Summers Comments On Women In Science
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Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 13:25:48 -0600
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In article <jJadnYtbDOXai8TfRVn...@comcast.com>,
 Robert Kolker <nowh...@nowhere.com> wrote:


> The lack of female theoretricians in physics and mathematics (say) could 
> be explained in sociological or psychological terms or -maybe-, just 
> -maybe- there is a genetic factor (gasp!).

It could also be explained by variance for women in measures of the 
relevant talents being smaller than the corresponding variance for men. 
This could be the case even if it should transpire that women have on 
average better measurements than men, since it is only in the extreme 
upper tails of these distributions that one expects extreme talents to 
exist.

Those who do not understand the difference between means and variances 
should not pontificate on what they mean.