4-17-96. Fint: "When rocket scientists crash out of orbit." Barry Riley essays on the impact of physicists and mathematicians on finance and economics, while reporting on a recent article by three physicists critiquing the shortcomings of the Black-Scholes formula for pricing options. The Bouchaud-Iori-Sornette formula for "real world" options attempts to minimise these residual risks, especially by applying a more sophisticated mathematical treatment to the "tails" of the distribution. If the risks cannot be hedged out, at least they can be reduced via diversification. A bracing cocktail for the recent cpunks bar-slappers on funny-money and unscriving and eye-grit quackers. COQ_tal