What's in a name?
So have you ever heard someone calling a physicist as "physician"? I'm sure both sides of the profession are a little bit miffed with that terminology being used. The physicist want to be called as such, while the physician doesn't want someone else to get the "stature" of a medical doctor without undergoing the torture of hours and hours of sleepless shifts. So do you correct the error?
I tend to act "dumb" and say "well, I'm a physicist, not a physician. I'm sorry, I cannot prescribe to you any drugs". Usually, if this is someone I don't know that well, he/she tends to ponder what I just said for several minutes, which is usually enough for me to make a getaway before he/she gathers his/her wits.
I recall several years ago the APS-Physics had a bit of an identity crisis. The APS, which stands for (does it still stand for this?) the American Physical Society, wanted to get ride of the word "Physical". It seems that in many instances, especially when it hosts conferences at various places, people mistaken it for either an organization for doctors (i.e., getting your "physical"), or people into physical therapy or physical education. So they wanted to call the organization the American Physics Society. I seem to recall that there were a lot of negative feedback from members, etc. I didn't see what's wrong with calling it the American Physics Society, but then again, I didn't have any strong feelings one way of the other, the same way I couldn't care less if Pluto is designated a planet or not. It changes nothing. Still, the APS probably didn't care for the name to be an issue and probably dropped the whole thing. Instead, they now call themselves APS - Physics. The word "Physics" appears on almost every logo and name accompanying "APS". Now, hopefully, no one would confuse us attending APS meetings as being physical therapists ("I'm sorry, I'm a physicist, not a physical therapist. So I can't twist your back into a pretzel").
Zz.
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