I want to focus a little more one one of the *top physics books for 2021* ... mentioned above.
https://www.vox.com/22880089/physics-ra ... red-cosmos
A physicist’s lessons about race, power, and the universe
In her book The Disordered Cosmos, Black queer scientist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein argues that physics can be more universal.
… snip …
She’s now an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire, where she studies dark matter and particle physics. She’s also on the core faculty of the university’s Women’s Studies department — a seemingly unusual combination that hints at the multifaceted approach she brings to her work.
As you'll see, "multifaceted" means an astrophysicist (victim?) who clearly has an agenda …
or three …
or even four ...
In 2021, Prescod-Weinstein published The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred, a wide-ranging book that is both a scientific explainer and an argument that unjust power structures shape the world of physics.
I agree that there's an unjust power structure shaping the world of physics. Just not the one she claims ...
She tells stories of subatomic particles like baryons, which are the building blocks of atoms; she critiques a trend she’s seen, in which writers compare the mystery and invisibility of dark matter to the lived experiences of Black people.
Seriously? This is physics worthy of a top physics book selection in 2021?
And there's a trend where writers are comparing black people to dark matter? Seriously?
In a chapter called “Rape Is Part of This Scientific Story” — a chapter that grew unexpectedly out of her writing on the dark universe, and that she debated including in the book — she writes about how her own experience of sexual assault shaped her understanding of injustices in her field.
Make no mistake … she's got her mind focused like a laser on the physics ... NOT.
[INTERVIEWER:] Early in your book, you write that particle physics continues to teach you that “the universe is always more bizarre and more wonderfully queer than we think.” How do you see queerness in the universe?
Yeah, I think the universe is weird, man! … snip … Queerness is just like that. Queerness is living at that boundary of what is known and unknown. There are certain understandings of queerness that in 2021 seem antiquated. And similarly, there were scientific ideas back in 2000 that we know better than now. We know what the mass of the Higgs [boson] is now. We did not know that in 2000. So I think there’s a real way in which queerness and science track with each other.
Huh? LOL!
[INTERVIEWER:] You write a lot about invisibility — literally, in the case of dark matter, and metaphorically when it comes to the contributions of women, nonbinary folks, and people of color in the field of physics. At one point, you write about physicists who draw a comparison between dark matter and the lived experiences of Black people. Can you talk a bit about that?
I literally have this chapter called “Black People Are Luminous Matter.” I have a very clear agenda there that I wanted to hit home. We’re not magical Negros. We feel pain. We feel pain just as much as white people do, despite a widespread belief from medical students and doctors.
I wanted to look at our physicality, not as a uniform thing but in its breadth. There are a lot of different ways to be Black. But all of them come from baryons, and none of them come from dark matter.
You certainly do have an agenda ... and it's not physics. And it gets worse …
[INTERVIEWER:] How are baryons and dark matter different?
When I say baryons, I mean the stuff that everything we can see is generally made of. When I talk about dark matter, I’m talking about this invisible, transparent thing that seems to dominate galaxy structure. But it’s literally invisible. It doesn’t have a color.
[INTERVIEWER:] Is there a better metaphor to be found in physics?
Yeah, if you really want a cosmic analogy for race and racism, weak gravitational lensing is much more useful.
And worse …
[INTERVIEWER:] You write about the difficulties of joining the field as one of the few Black woman physicists in the country, and the shame you still feel about your B-minus college average. This really spoke to me — I didn’t know cosmology professors have imposter syndrome! How do you keep working through that?
I should say that I don’t actually think I have imposter syndrome. We often tell people that they have imposter syndrome when people are correctly identifying: “Oh, I don’t belong here.” The system is not built for them. And that’s correct. There is some fundamental sense in which you do not belong.
SERIOUSLY? It this the best of the best?
[INTERVIEWER:] Your book ends with a letter to your mother and a section from the Torah. How do your family and your faith fit into your work?
Until I was 10, I thought being Jewish meant you were a labor organizer, because that was the kind of Jewish family I came from. I know it’s super dorky, but it’s also 100 percent what I thought, coming from an organizing family. I think their influences imprinted all over the book. I don’t think I would be a scientist who thinks so deeply about these social questions if I hadn’t been raised to ask all of these questions, and to think expansively about what it means to understand the world. That’s not just a mathematical question. It’s not just a physical question. It is also a social and a political question.
This is what mainstream astrophysics has become???
YES, unfortunately for all of us.
I want to focus a little more one one of the *top physics books for 2021* ... mentioned above.
[url]https://www.vox.com/22880089/physics-race-chanda-prescod-weinstein-disordered-cosmos[/url]
[quote]A physicist’s lessons about race, power, and the universe
In her book [i]The Disordered Cosmos[/i], Black queer scientist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein argues that physics can be more universal.
… snip …
She’s now an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire, where she studies dark matter and particle physics. She’s also on the core faculty of the university’s Women’s Studies department — a seemingly unusual combination that hints at the multifaceted approach she brings to her work.[/quote]
As you'll see, "multifaceted" means an astrophysicist (victim?) who clearly has an agenda … [b]or three[/b] … [b]or even four[/b] ...
[quote]In 2021, Prescod-Weinstein published [i]The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred[/i], a wide-ranging book that is both a scientific explainer and an argument that [b]unjust power structures shape the world of physics[/b].[/quote]
I agree that there's an unjust power structure shaping the world of physics. Just not the one she claims ...
[quote]She tells stories of subatomic particles like baryons, which are the building blocks of atoms; she critiques a trend she’s seen, in which writers compare the mystery and invisibility of dark matter to the lived experiences of Black people.[/quote]
Seriously? This is physics worthy of a top physics book selection in 2021?
And there's a trend where writers are comparing black people to dark matter? Seriously?
[quote]In a chapter called “Rape Is Part of This Scientific Story” — a chapter that grew unexpectedly out of her writing on the dark universe, and that she debated including in the book — she writes about how her own experience of sexual assault shaped her understanding of injustices in her field.[/quote]
Make no mistake … she's got her mind focused like a laser on the physics ... NOT.
[quote][b][INTERVIEWER:] Early in your book, you write that particle physics continues to teach you that “the universe is always more bizarre and more wonderfully queer than we think.” How do you see queerness in the universe?[/b]
Yeah, I think the universe is weird, man! … snip … Queerness is just like that. Queerness is living at that boundary of what is known and unknown. There are certain understandings of queerness that in 2021 seem antiquated. And similarly, there were scientific ideas back in 2000 that we know better than now. We know what the mass of the Higgs [boson] is now. We did not know that in 2000. So I think there’s a real way in which queerness and science track with each other.[/quote]
Huh? LOL!
[quote][b][INTERVIEWER:] You write a lot about invisibility — literally, in the case of dark matter, and metaphorically when it comes to the contributions of women, nonbinary folks, and people of color in the field of physics. At one point, you write about physicists who draw a comparison between dark matter and the lived experiences of Black people. Can you talk a bit about that?[/b]
I literally have this chapter called “Black People Are Luminous Matter.” I have a very clear agenda there that I wanted to hit home. We’re not magical Negros. We feel pain. We feel pain just as much as white people do, despite a widespread belief from medical students and doctors.
I wanted to look at our physicality, not as a uniform thing but in its breadth. There are a lot of different ways to be Black. But all of them come from baryons, and none of them come from dark matter.[/quote]
You certainly do have an agenda ... and it's not physics. And it gets worse …
[quote][b][INTERVIEWER:] How are baryons and dark matter different?[/b]
When I say baryons, I mean the stuff that everything we can see is generally made of. When I talk about dark matter, I’m talking about this invisible, transparent thing that seems to dominate galaxy structure. But it’s literally invisible. It doesn’t have a color.
[b][INTERVIEWER:] Is there a better metaphor to be found in physics?[/b]
Yeah, if you really want a cosmic analogy for race and racism, weak gravitational lensing is much more useful.[/quote]
And worse …
[quote][b][INTERVIEWER:] You write about the difficulties of joining the field as one of the few Black woman physicists in the country, and the shame you still feel about your B-minus college average. This really spoke to me — I didn’t know cosmology professors have imposter syndrome! How do you keep working through that?[/b]
I should say that I don’t actually think I have imposter syndrome. We often tell people that they have imposter syndrome when people are correctly identifying: “Oh, I don’t belong here.” The system is not built for them. And that’s correct. There is some fundamental sense in which you do not belong.[/quote]
SERIOUSLY? It this the best of the best?
[quote][b][INTERVIEWER:] Your book ends with a letter to your mother and a section from the Torah. How do your family and your faith fit into your work?[/b]
Until I was 10, I thought being Jewish meant you were a labor organizer, because that was the kind of Jewish family I came from. I know it’s super dorky, but it’s also 100 percent what I thought, coming from an organizing family. I think their influences imprinted all over the book. I don’t think I would be a scientist who thinks so deeply about these social questions if I hadn’t been raised to ask all of these questions, and to think expansively about what it means to understand the world. That’s not just a mathematical question. It’s not just a physical question. It is also a social and a political question.[/quote]
[b]This is what mainstream astrophysics has become???
[color=#FF0000]YES, unfortunately for all of us.[/color][/b]