Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Physicist skewers self without Twitter: 'Physics built by men - not by invitation'

#1
C C Offline
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45703700

EXCERPT: . . . At a workshop organised by Cern, Prof Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University said that "physics was invented and built by men, it's not by invitation". He said male scientists were being discriminated against because of ideology rather than merit. He was speaking at a workshop in Geneva on gender and high energy physics. Prof Strumia has since defended his comments, saying he was only presenting the facts.

Cern, the European nuclear research centre, described Prof Strumia's presentation as "highly offensive". The centre, which discovered the Higgs Boson in 2012, has removed slides used in the talk from its website "in line with a code of conduct that does not tolerate personal attacks and insults".

Prof Strumia, who regularly works at Cern, presented the results of a study of published research papers from an online library. He told his audience of young, predominantly female physicists that his results "proved" that "physics is not sexist against women. However the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside".

He produced a series of graphs which, he claimed, showed that women were hired over men whose research was cited more by other scientists in their publications, which is an indication of higher quality. He also presented data that he claimed showed that male and female researchers were equally cited at the start of their careers but men scored progressively better as their careers progressed.

Prof Strumia pointed to behavioural research which he suggested may account for the disparity. One study, he told his audience, indicated that "men prefer working with things and women prefer working with people" and another, he claimed, suggested that there was a "difference even in children before any social influence"....

MORE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45703700
Reply
#2
Syne Offline
(Oct 2, 2018 01:53 AM)C C Wrote: He produced a series of graphs which, he claimed, showed that women were hired over men whose research was cited more by other scientists in their publications, which is an indication of higher quality. He also presented data that he claimed showed that male and female researchers were equally cited at the start of their careers but men scored progressively better as their careers progressed.
Yes, hiring that ignores merit is usually political or nepotistic.
Men earn more as their career progresses, likely from taking less time away, and this likely has a similar cumulative effect on quality of research.
Quote:Prof Strumia pointed to behavioural research which he suggested may account for the disparity. One study, he told his audience, indicated that "men prefer working with things and women prefer working with people" and another, he claimed, suggested that there was a "difference even in children before any social influence"....
True story...I've seen the studies.
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Article The true reason why Einstein was history’s greatest physicist? C C 1 55 Feb 17, 2024 08:47 PM
Last Post: Magical Realist
  Article Physicist on climate fallacy: Why everything you know about methane is probably wrong C C 1 98 Dec 20, 2023 06:04 AM
Last Post: stryder
  A science without time: Why isn't it central to physics? C C 9 342 Dec 2, 2022 03:38 AM
Last Post: Secular Sanity
  Young physicist ‘squares the numbers’ on time travel + Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ C C 1 275 Sep 30, 2020 12:11 AM
Last Post: confused2
  A chemical crisis with the sun + Another rebel physicist trying to fix QM C C 0 119 Jun 26, 2020 05:55 AM
Last Post: C C
  What is time? (physicist Carlo Rovelli interview) + Making sense of David Bohm C C 0 347 Jul 30, 2018 04:41 PM
Last Post: C C
  Why Physics Is Not a Discipline: Physics is not just what occurs in Dept of Physics C C 0 869 Apr 23, 2016 05:46 AM
Last Post: C C
  QM found in game theory + Real lightsaber consequences + A physicist's free time C C 0 543 Apr 5, 2016 03:04 AM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)