Women like physics just fine; Strumia we could do without.
March 26, 2019 2:55 PM Subscribe
Alessandro Strumia (previously) after being suspended and then fired from CERN due to his sexist comments, has doubled down on his comments in an article in the Sunday Times. Shannon Palus for Slate has annotated the article accordingly.
This is the original article, its behind the Sunday times paywall, and was written by Peter Conradi, who is getting some not so gentle push-back on twitter at the moment.
This is the original article, its behind the Sunday times paywall, and was written by Peter Conradi, who is getting some not so gentle push-back on twitter at the moment.
I believe we had this conversation.
posted by physicsmatt at 3:47 PM on March 26, 2019 [18 favorites]
posted by physicsmatt at 3:47 PM on March 26, 2019 [18 favorites]
Can we just revoke gravity on these two chuckleheads?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:03 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:03 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
HE WASN'T - FIRED DAMMIT.
It was really more of a disCERNing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:04 PM on March 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
It was really more of a disCERNing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:04 PM on March 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
Jeez. It's like an Onion headline come to life: Sexist Physicist Denies, Confirms Physics Field Sexist Towards Women.
posted by mhum at 8:27 PM on March 26, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by mhum at 8:27 PM on March 26, 2019 [12 favorites]
His being Italian is so very relevant to this. Not all Italian men are sexist, obviously, but we have an incredibly strong undercurrent of institutional sexism in schools, universities, and workplaces. He's felt validated for his bullshit opinions all his damn life.
Even the US, where I live now, feels like a breath of fresh air comparatively and that's fucking saying something.
posted by lydhre at 6:35 AM on March 27, 2019 [16 favorites]
Even the US, where I live now, feels like a breath of fresh air comparatively and that's fucking saying something.
posted by lydhre at 6:35 AM on March 27, 2019 [16 favorites]
To me, it seems Strumia is blaming the stagnation of particle physics and the failure of CERN to discover much beyond the Higgs boson, not on the very underpinnings of the universe, which determine ultimately which tools will work well for discovering things, but on: women.
I mean dang. It is honestly super tough to have to acknowledge that your science isn't going to work because of the way that actually the universe just IS. Like, dangit, I can't do a RNA interference because the ding-dang organism doesn't have a Dicer-2. But it hadn't occurred to me that I could try just blaming the problem on something external that annoys me. Hey Strumia! Quit making my RNAi not work!
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:41 AM on March 27, 2019 [9 favorites]
I mean dang. It is honestly super tough to have to acknowledge that your science isn't going to work because of the way that actually the universe just IS. Like, dangit, I can't do a RNA interference because the ding-dang organism doesn't have a Dicer-2. But it hadn't occurred to me that I could try just blaming the problem on something external that annoys me. Hey Strumia! Quit making my RNAi not work!
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:41 AM on March 27, 2019 [9 favorites]
oh my gosh I had forgotten about Lene Hau and her super cold super slow light. HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT LENE HAU?
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:44 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 9:44 AM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Every now and then a physicist goes off the deep end. Still, it's pretty flabbergasting when it's one of your own generation (more or less). The funny thing is, physics colleagues who knew Strumia more personally weren't all that surprised by what he did.
posted by heatherlogan at 12:40 PM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 12:40 PM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by eotvos at 3:07 PM on March 26, 2019 [9 favorites]