On the current state of particle physics & ObG : Physics theories as women

Sabine Hossenfelder had an interesting post last week, commenting – or rather critiquing – the current state of Particle Fields.

She basically goes through the last 40 years and takes under question whether particle physicists are even respecting the scientific methode, as she goes through a catalogue of particles proposed, not found, followed by theory modifications to put the particle weight/energy beyond the available energies in the particle accelerators of the time, until we got more powerful accelerators, followed by those particles not being found. I do like her conclusion at the end. Here is the video

Peter Woit followed up with his own take on the situation. I have grown to enjoy reading Woit’s critical view of much of the most media-friendly-untestable branches of physics research, notably String Theory.

Woit in particular makes thing back often to my won fascination and cult-like following of all things Superstrings when i was still going through my studies in Physics.

And all that reminded me of this ObG¹ Oldie but Goodie, from McSweeney’s, which was one of the funnier – and most apt – lists of theirs.

Physics Theories as Women

BY SIMON DEDEO

• Newton Gravity :
  She is your high-school girlfriend. As your first encounter with physics, she’s amazing. You will never forget Newtonian gravity, even if you’re not in touch very much anymore.
  
• Electrodynamics :
  She is your college girlfriend. Pretty complex, you probably won’t date long enough to really understand her.
  
• Special Relativity :
  She is the girl you meet at the dorm party while you’re dating electrodynamics. You make out. It’s not really cheating because it’s not like you call her back. But you have a sneaking suspicion she knows electrodynamics and told her everything.
  
• Quantum Mechanics :
  She is the girl you meet at the poetry reading. Everyone thinks she’s really interesting and people you don’t know are obsessed about her. You go out. It turns out that she’s pretty complicated and has some issues. Later, after you’ve broken up, you wonder if her aura of mystery is actually just confusion.
  
• General Relativity:
  She is your high-school girlfriend all grown up. Man, she is amazing. You sort of regret not keeping in touch. She hates quantum mechanics for obscure reasons.
  
• Quantum Field Theory:
  She is from overseas, but she doesn’t really have an accent. You fall deeply in love, but she treats you horribly. You are pretty sure she’s fooling around with half of your friends, but you don’t care. You know it will end badly.
  
• Cosmology:
  She is the girl that doesn’t really date, but has lots of hot friends. Some people date cosmology just to hang out with her friends.
  
• Analytical Classical Mechanics:
  She’s a bit older, and knows stuff you don’t.
  
• String Theory:
  She’s off in her own little world. She is either profound or insane. If you start dating, you never see your friends anymore. It’s just string theory, 24/7.

• 1
  Oldie but Goodie