жизнь повторяет анекдоты (англ.)

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В своей рецензии на книгу Деннета "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" биолог Джон Майнард Смит предался воспоминаниям о биологии в начале 50-х:

...I had particular difficulties with my paper on gaits, which may have been the first genuine “optimization” paper in biology. To find the optimal gait, the one that would minimize energy expenditure at a given speed, I wrote down a differential equation: (dw/dj=o). The editor, offended by this attempt to sully a respectable biological journal with mathematics, asked “Why don’t you cancel the d’s?” I fear that this story will amuse only some readers, but I want to get it on record.