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Slapping Sabine Hossenfelder isn’t going to solve physics’s problems

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Lost in Math

But the frustration some feel about the situation they are in re gravitational waves tells us a lot.

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, wonders

A few days ago I met a friend on the subway. He tells me he’s been at a conference and someone asked if he knows me. He says yes, and immediately people start complaining about me. One guy, apparently, told him to slap me.

What were they complaining about, you want to know? Well, one complaint came from a particle physicist, who was clearly dismayed that I think building a bigger particle collider is not a good way to invest $40 billion dollars. But it was true when I said it the first time and it is still true: There are better things we can do with this amount money. (Such as, for example, make better climate predictions, which can be done for as “little” as 1 billion dollars.)

Back to my friend on the subway. He told me that besides the grumpy particle physicist there were also several gravitational wave people who have issues with what I have written about the supposed gravitational wave detections by the LIGO collaboration. Most of the time if people have issues with what I’m saying it’s because they do not understand what I’m saying to begin with. So with this video, I hope to clear the situation up.

Sabine Hossenfelder, “Have we really measured gravitational waves?” at BackRe(Action)

Her explanation:

Note: The Uncommon Descent Virtual Coffee Room recommends that persons who wish to slap Sabine Hossenfelder transfer their affections to one of these guys instead:

https://youtu.be/XCeLbk6kq98

When the slap happy types get out of the rehab centre, they will be wiser human beings. That’s at least some consolation for having been such an ass, no?

See also: Sabine Hossenfelder: There is a crisis in physics and it may spread to other sciences

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Comments
As a creationist housewife, I am, of course, in awe of those who can do genuine math formulas. And thus I sympathize when their balloons get popped by a girl physicist pointing out that they're milking the public with dead end theories. But isn't it a bit scuzzy, even in academia, to want to slap a mother of two young children just for speaking the truth?TAMMIE LEE HAYNES
November 12, 2019
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