Slashdot Mirror


Physics Nobel Won By Laser Wizardry -- Laureates Include First Woman in 55 Years (nature.com)

A trio of laser scientists have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work using intense beams to capture superfast processes and to manipulate tiny objects. From a report: The laureates include Donna Strickland, who is the first woman to win the award in 55 years. Strickland, at the University of Waterloo, Canada, will share half the 9 million Swedish krona (US$1 million) prize with her former supervisor, Gerard Mourou, from the Ecole Polytechnique, in Palaiseau, France. The other half of the prize went to Arthur Ashkin, of Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Strickland and Mourou pioneered a way to produce the shortest, most intense pulses of light ever created, which are now used throughout science to unravel processes that previously appeared instantaneous, such as the motion of electrons within atoms, as well as in laser-eye surgery. Ashkin won the prize for his pioneering development of 'optical tweezers', beams of laser light that can grab and control microscopic objects such as viruses and cells.
Further reading: The Guardian.

151 comments

  1. Sadly, in the current climate.... by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    1. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Dan+East · · Score: 2

      Fortunately, California hasn't figured out how to legislate the Nobel Prize yet.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    2. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, and in previous years she wouldn't have known if she wasn't worthy or if it was systemic bias preventing her from recognition.

    3. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by markdavis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >"Fortunately, California hasn't figured out how to legislate the Nobel Prize yet."

      No, but somehow the Nobel Prize committee awarded Obama a peace award for.... well.... nothing? So it does make one question the whole thing, sometimes.

      https://www.businessinsider.co...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    4. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well. One of the Nobel Prize Committees did. The peace price is handled in Norway. The physics prize is by Vetenskapsakademin in Sweden. Quite different bodies and quite independent from each other.

    5. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately, in science you don't have to take anyone's word for it; You can go read her papers and judge for yourself. But I'm guessing you're not really that dedicated to the truth, but maintaining your position in the white-hetropatriarchy.

    6. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah... like the Olympics and the Special Olympics.

    7. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately, in science you don't have to take anyone's word for it; You can go read her papers and judge for yourself. But I'm guessing you're not really that dedicated to the truth, but maintaining your position in the white-hetropatriarchy.

      Jesus Fucking Christ

    8. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, I mean, just look at the distribution of who has gotten Nobel Prizes in the last 50 years!

    9. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

      The Nobel prize for peace is such a joke that it only brings discredit upon the receivers.

      --
      Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
    10. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You people are pathetic.

    11. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by IVomitFatCashews · · Score: 0

      How about Michelle Obama's penis? YouTube removed every single copy of the Joan Rivers interviews where she was calling Michelle a tranny.

    12. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately, in science you don't have to take anyone's word for it; You can go read her papers and judge for yourself. But I'm guessing you're not really that dedicated to the truth, but maintaining your position in the white-hetropatriarchy.

      Get lost you fucking idiot adept of stupid conspiracies. Marie Curie got the Nobel Prize (twice) before you stupid American women even got the "right" to vote.

    13. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, right, one woman out of how many who were denied?

    14. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You passed Victimization Training 101 with flying colors huh?

    15. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Misagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Having been educated in Swedish academia (my alma mater holds the Nobel lectures), I would like to believe that we have progressed farther than that.

      Nobel Prizes are not limited to awarding achievements in the last calendar year. Sometimes the achievements have been made several decades ago. Most laureates are quite old, many having retired from active work.
      Therefore there is an amount of inertia in the system in the diversity of laureates compared to increased diversity among contemporary scientists.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    16. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.

      Like how we’ll never know if you gave your instructor a HJ to pass drivers ed?

    17. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      whoooooosh!

    18. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      No, but somehow the Nobel Prize committee awarded Obama a peace award for.... well.... nothing?

      The Nobel Peace Prize, explicitly, is not for achievement. It's designed to shine attention on what the committee thinks is important. It's supposed to be a political statement.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    19. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by hey! · · Score: 1

      Oh, I call BS. She knows she's worth it.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    20. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Obama is the only peace prize winner to bomb another peace prize winner. Remember when he gave the orders to bomb a doctors without borders hospital? Yup, that happened. And then sent in gunners to murder the fleeing patients and nurses. Someone tell me why he's not being tried for war crimes under the Nurebmurg principles?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    21. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Obama is the only peace prize winner to bomb another peace prize winner.

      Except, you know, he's not. I mean, look at 1994 or 1996.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    22. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She wonders if her work is good enough exactly the same way all the men who already won the prize worry if their work was good enough to compete if women were allowed equal access to the field.

    23. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She knows she's deserving of the Nobel prize because there are metrics. Check the 4677 citations to her paper "Compression of amplified chirped optical pulses." Without her work we wouldn't the new fancy devices that we are only now enjoying:

      Optical Coherence Tomography
      Femtosecond Laser Machining
      Frequency Combs for Astronomy
      Multiphoton Microscopes
      Ultrafast spectroscopy

      Her work as directly led to the creation of at least 5 distinct scientific fields. If that's not deserving of a Nobel prize, I don't know what is. What have you done with your life?

    24. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      Oh, I'm pretty sure she knows she was the person most deeply motivated to solve the problem, likely after a series of interactions with guys involving superfast processes and manipulating tiny objects. Congratulations! I'm sure women everywhere are applauding her work.

    25. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh please, Sweden is the Tumblr of Europe. One only needs to point at Obama's peace prize to show how worthless and political those awards are.

    26. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In physics there have been 3 women in the last 117 years.

      You passed victimization with flying colors didn't you?

    27. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would you rather be an exalted idiot or an overlooked genius?

    28. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Well, whataboutism certainly excuses him! Whew, that's finished and we can stop shouting it from the hilltops.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    29. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I started the conversation with how "peace prizes are aspirational". You brought up Obama as a (implicitly unique) disproving case. I rebutted with other examples. Now you're trying to shift it to "how do you feel about Obama, I still hate him!!" I'm not going to defend Obama because it's being distracted to your goalpost shifting.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    30. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Why hasn't his peace prize been revoked? He spent every single day of his time in office at war.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    31. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *their paper and their work. Your language doesn't give credit to Gérard Mourou, the co-author of the paper, her supervisor, and someone who she herself gives great credit to their shared work.

    32. Re:Sadly, in the current climate.... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I see, you want to debate Barrak Obama. We were talking about the Peace Prize, and the standards of it. But, all you do is talk about how horrendous Obama is.

      It's been almost two years. You might want to get over it.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    33. Re: Sadly, in the current climate.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The peace price is Norwegian.

  2. Gender doesn't matter by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Gender doesn't matter! Everyone is exactly the same as everyone else!"

    Yet we're constantly having "I'm a woman therefore my accomplishments are special!"

    If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?

    --
    In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    1. Re:Gender doesn't matter by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      It's a mixture of virtue signalling, propaganda, and genuine wish to encourage women to participate in really hard work of being a scientist.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    2. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you're an asshole about it and always have been

    3. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you say to yourself everyday in the mirror?

    4. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because we live in a society where men, knowing there's no legitimate reason women cannot contribute equally, feel threatened when they do and are recognized for it. When men feel threatened they often actively seek to mitigate that threat, women contributing in *their* field. And well tough nuts, men dominate every field due to this behavior.

      So normalizing women's successes is not treating them as special, but they are special because they overcame the shitstorm of male fragility.

    5. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you're an asshole about it and always have been

      Hey, tard boy, only 40% of college students on the US are male.

      Why are males being left behind?

    6. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't even find out what "gender" even means anymore. I assume they actually mean "gender identity" which is ambiguously defined as "Correlated with one's sex or something completely different". That "something" seems to be an unbounded set. Instead of calling it "gender identity", just call it "identity". Some people even want their "gender identity" to be mutable and change from moment to moment.

      I can fully appreciate someone not wanting to be treated in a stereotypical way based on their assumed sex, but it's ridiculous for someone to constantly change which gendered pronouns you use in reference to them.

    7. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They will "coodrinate" scientists, impose codes of conduct, that bullshit. No productive work. Called "devs" and "physics scientists" without writing a single line of code or writing a simple matrix. Just look at whats going on in open source.

    8. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because we live in a society where men, knowing there's no legitimate reason women cannot contribute equally, feel threatened when they do and are recognized for it. When men feel threatened they often actively seek to mitigate that threat, women contributing in *their* field. And well tough nuts, men dominate every field due to this behavior.

      So normalizing women's successes is not treating them as special, but they are special because they overcame the shitstorm of male fragility.

      You don't celebrate and publicize a fact that is normal. In fact, that's treating it as special.

      If you want to see fragile, go look in the mirror.

    9. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      If you hand out participation tokens for a group, you're not exactly encouraging the group to work really hard. You encourage them to participate, but they'll expect to get a prize for that already.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      hear that everyone, the nobel prize is a "partitipation trophy"

      meanwhile "Opportunist" has shitposted like 1000 times on slashdot about how hard it is to be a straight white male and has anyone given him a prize? no!

    11. Re:Gender doesn't matter by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Yes. The goals contradict each other

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    12. Re:Gender doesn't matter by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      There should be a moderation flair called "Dumbass" for shitposters like you.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    13. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Junta · · Score: 2

      Here it's because it is such a rarity (1 woman in 55 year period of awarding), so it's noteworthy.

      While it's unreasonable for someone to look at Nobel winners like them before entering the field, in reality people find anecdotes more compelling and it helps data showing it is a viable field for women.

      It's a tough line to walk, to highlight female winner against a backdrop of mostly male winners versus diminishing the achievement by adding a qualifier 'female nobel winner'. It invites a lot of folks to speculate that it's a token gesture and that the committee wanted to give it to a female winner (honestly, given two teams they couldn't decide between, they likely would prefer to have some diversity, but I don't think they would let that factor outweigh the substantive facets of the achievement, they would know how bad that would go if they did).

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    14. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?

      interesting isn't it, that the other two nobel laureates in the description, are almost an afterthought.

    15. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You incels are getting super salty.

    16. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here it's because it is such a rarity (1 woman in 55 year period of awarding), so it's noteworthy.

      Shouldn't the noteworthiness of it depend on why she is the first woman in 55 years? I'll admit that the gap certainly warrants a closer look, but what happens if that closer look turns up no signs of sexism in those 55 years? Is it still noteworthy? Why?

    17. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If he were a man we might. But he is only a straight white male.

    18. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Witty shit post to complete shit post goes over your head.

    19. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      Because of the misogynists still out there even in the 21st Century, as evidenced by Trump

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    20. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      "You don't celebrate and publicize a fact that is normal. In fact, that's treating it as special. If you want to see fragile, go look in the mirror." You are a classic example of why it happens

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    21. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?

      I know, right? Strip clubs are NOTORIOUS for this.

    22. Re: Gender doesn't matter by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Because we live in a society where men, knowing there's no legitimate reason women cannot contribute equally, feel threatened when they do and are recognized for it

      Where the fuck do you live? I've lived and worked in the UK, Germany and the US and in all of those countries men aren't threatened by female competence. They welcome it.

      they are special because they overcame the shitstorm of male fragility

      That's nothing. You should see the barriers the men had to overcome. Men are special too. Lets all be special.

      You're fucking special.

    23. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Cederic · · Score: 1

      In her defence, she seems to be getting put on a pedestal and isn't stepping up there herself. She happily acknowledges that it was a team effort.

      She (and the Nobel prize committee) can't help that there are sexists focussing on only one of the recipients.

    24. Re:Gender doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "only a straight white male"

      So don't be complaining about any white male patriarchy anytime soon.

  3. that's not even applied science, that's technology by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    People do not get that fundamental physics is over (you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).

    I know I am repeating what Lord Kelvin said to his embarrassment just before great discoveries in relativistic physics, quantum physics, etc.

    Nevertheless, that's truth: everything ends, everything has limits, humanity has limits and science has limits.

    The clear indication that we are close to the limit is absence of ANY fundamental discoveries since a long time ago.

    We are gradually shifting towards applied science and mere technology. All of three fields, basic science, applied science and technology are essential for humanity, but the fact is that the first one is almost over or probably over already.

    Call them for what they are: Nobel Prizes in Technology

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  4. Manipulating Tiny Objects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    using intense beams ...[snip]... manipulate tiny objects

    I see what they did there. They sneakily found a way to miniaturize cats.

    1. Re:Manipulating Tiny Objects by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Unless you just want everything to be tossed on the floor, I fail to see the benefit.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Manipulating Tiny Objects by PPH · · Score: 1

      Prior art.

      The Washington Post and New York Times have been manipulating liberals minds for years.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  5. The Obedience Awards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember when they gave Obama a peace prize for.... being black?

    And he went ahead and carried on the bombing for 8 years, and started some new wars because Israel told him to?

  6. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

    People do not get that fundamental physics is over

    Laughable. It's not over until we know everything, and we clearly don't.

    --
    Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
  7. Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it does by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yet we're constantly having "I'm a woman therefore my accomplishments are special!"

    You seem to be mistaking an argument for equality for an argument for preference. Perhaps you would understand if your accomplishments were dismissed as unimportant because of your skin color or age or gender or some other irrelevant bit of your physiology rather than the quality of your ideas. Women aren't arguing for special treatment. They are arguing for EQUAL treatment. It only sounds like a call for "special" treatment to people who are missing the point.

    If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?

    Gender SHOULDN'T matter for topics like this yet It DOES matter because too many people (like yourself) make it matter in the wrong places. Gender is supposed to matter in some circumstances but physics isn't one of them. It is really hard to explain why there hasn't been a single woman worthy of a Nobel prize in Physics in over a half century without invoking some amount of sexism in the explanation. Maybe unintentional sexism but sexism all the same. They don't deserve the award because of their gender but they also shouldn't be excluded from it because of their gender either. Sexism is real and if you think fighting against it is "throwing it in your face" then you are part of the problem.

  8. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People do not get that fundamental physics is over (you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).

    [useless crap deleted]

    LOLWUT!?!?!

    You MIGHT be able to get away with that after gravity is unified with all the other forces.

    When you look at the technology that in a mere century and a half grew out of the unification of just electricity and magnetism, and knowing that there's still a crapload of fundamentals about gravity alone that we still do not know, saying crap such as "fundamental physics is over" is just painting yourself as a pompous, arrogant know-it-all spouting off in ignorance in an attempt to look smarter than everyone else.

    You don't look smart. You look stupid.

    If ignorance is happiness, you're probably the happiest person on Earth.

  9. Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nobel peace prize given to:
    Obama - ordered the killing of thousands with drone strikes
    Al Gore - made a movie
    Yasser Arafat - a terrorist leader

    Nobel peace prize NOT given to:
    Gandhi - advocating peaceful protesting

    Pretty much sums it up

    1. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Allow me to continue this list.

      Henry Kissinger - For ending a war he started
      The EU - For ... well, basically for keeping its members from killing each other for over 60 years, this is indeed impressive considering their history, I give 'em that.
      Al Gore - For producing a lot of hot air that allegedly cools the planet
      Jimmy Carter - For trying. Really hard.
      United Nations - For wrapping the global big players in so much red tape that they can't wage war sensibly anymore.
      David Trimble and John Hume - For not shooting each other anymore. As a side note, anyone available for starting a civil war we could then end? I'm asking for a friend.
      International Campaign to Ban Landmines - For making landmines magically disappear. Except the few that make people disappear instead every year.
      Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat - For bringing peace to the middle east. Just in case anyone was still wondering whether this Prize is a joke.
      Mikhail Gorbachev - Mostly for not being Josef Stalin
      United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces - Basically for being the good natured idiot that gets into the struggle of two bullies, with the express intention that they should kick the idiot instead of each other.
      Lech Wasa - For founding a union, but being considerate enough to do it in a country we do NOT like.
      Mother Teresa - For making poverty and pain something to celebrate
      Menachem Begin and Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat - See Peres/Rabin/Arafat.
      Andrei Sakharov - For pissing off the Commies
      Willy Brandt - For not wanting East Germany back.
      International Labour Organization - Fuck knows why
      Martin Luther King, Jr. - For being the peaceful nig.... Unlike that Malcolm guy we didn't like.
      George C. Marshall - For finding a way to sell US goods and calling it aid
      Carlos Saavedra Lamas - For ending a war nobody gave a fuck about. But find someone else who gave a fuck about peace in 1936
      Carl von Ossietzky - For not being a Nazi

      And a few more I didn't find anything to write about.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never forget the UN Peacekeepers that raped kids in the Congo after paying them in peanut butter. Yay!

    3. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, at least they got peanut butter. Sure beats the blessings and prayers the altar boys got, if that.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Peace Prize has certainly had its controversies and questionable moments (Obama being a notable example). I would argue that there is sometimes a legitimate paradoxical element to peace, which is this: it is frequently the case that the leader of a violent faction is the only individual capable of brokering an effective peace. This was the case with Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, etc.

      The political metaphor for this situation (which extends beyond peace negotiations) is "only Nixon could go to China". Back during the red scare, only hardcore anti-communist Richard Nixon could visit China, recognize the communist government, and normalize trading relations with them. If a liberal president had tried to do the same, they would have been roasted for being "soft on communism".

    5. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your forgot Lester B Pearson who "won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis."
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson

    6. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair Gandhi was racist, it turns out. To be doublefair Yasser Arafat was too.

    7. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Barack Obama is suspiciously missing from your list! But I agree with it, all. Perhaps Gorbatchev is a bit of an odd one. Basically he let the soviets dissolve, I see this as a good thing. They were in collapse anyway.
      I have a terrible memory but that choice of the academy stuck in there. Checked it, it was in 2009.
      Why did you dropped him, I wonder?

    8. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By the standards of this list, I'd easily qualify.

    9. Re:Peace Prize is joke by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Obama is hard to find a good quip for. There are too many, choosing one would've taken too long. It's like avoiding the low hanging fruit because everyone would just accuse you of going for the low hanging fruit. ;)

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Science requires tools by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People do not get that fundamental physics is over

    Yeah yeah, people were making this bullshit argument centuries ago.

    (you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).

    As long as it make predictions that can be empirically tested then of course I would.

    I know I am repeating what Lord Kelvin said to his embarrassment just before great discoveries in relativistic physics, quantum physics, etc.

    And he was just as wrong as you are.

    The clear indication that we are close to the limit is absence of ANY fundamental discoveries since a long time ago.

    What are you babbling about? You are in a scientific golden age for discoveries. Furthermore we have well known holes in our knowledge of fundamental physics. We have no way to reconcile gravity to quantum mechanics. We can't explain large amounts of seemingly missing matter in the universe. Just because we're not rolling out a new theory of special relativity every other week doesn't mean we've explained everything. It was literally centuries between Newton and Einstein but the only reason Einstein's work was such a breakthrough was because of a LOT of important work done in time between the two men.

    Call them for what they are: Nobel Prizes in Technology

    You seem to have a huge misapprehension. Physics only advances when we can built devices to test our theories independent of human senses. Theories are fine but they are meaningless without the tools to verify them. Furthermore we cannot refine our theories without the data from these tools which inform us how the world actually behaves. A theory of gravity waves is meaningless unless you have some tool to test for their existence. Physics isn't just blackboards and chalk.

    1. Re:Science requires tools by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      You are an imbecile

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    2. Re:Science requires tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      show some respect you fool

    3. Re:Science requires tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are an imbecile

      Wow, you're also ignorant of the Law of Holes.

      If fundamental physics is over, you should have no problem explaining the fundamentals of gravity to us all, and how the gravitational force is related to all the other forces.

      We're waiting...

    4. Re:Science requires tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People do not get that fundamental physics is over

      Fundamental physics will be over when we know the answers to every conceivable question about fundamental physics.

      Don't like string theory? Great. What alternative do you find more convincing and why?

      But I assume you're trolling.

    5. Re:Science requires tools by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

      The known unknowns are huge and interesting and confusing and wonderful. But the unknown unknowns are what really should keep us up at night. Or as Neil DeGrasse Tyson puts it, there are questions that we don't even know to ask.

    6. Re:Science requires tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With a well thought out argument like that, I have become convinced!

  11. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by ranton · · Score: 2

    We are gradually shifting towards applied science and mere technology. All of three fields, basic science, applied science and technology are essential for humanity, but the fact is that the first one is almost over or probably over already.

    When you see a shift away from basic science and into applied science / technology, it generally just means our instrumentation is not sufficient for basic science to march forward at an equal pace. Once technology improves enough to enable new methods in basic science, the pendulum swings back.

    We have so much left to learn that we are nowhere near hitting the limits of what science can discover.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  12. Re:What we do know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.

    We do know you are a sexist jerk if you really believe that.

    Funny, "progressives" say that Clarence Thomas would never have been on the Supreme Court if he weren't black.

    Thus actually demonstrating the corrosive nature of "affirmative action" - and why it's a horrible idea.

  13. Nobel Participation Prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone really take this shit seriously anymore? Why? It has all the significance of the Miss America pageant.

  14. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well said

  15. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Gender SHOULDN'T matter for topics like this yet It DOES matter because too many people (like yourself) make it matter in the wrong places.

    How do you expect something to matter LESS when you put MORE emphasis on it? That's the part I don't get.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by swilver · · Score: 1

    It's simply because there are less women working at the highest levels in these fields, which has as an underlying cause that women, in general, are less inclined to put in what it takes to lead such research teams (ie. putting work before family, foregoing socializing, personal hygiene, etc).

    Less women willing to make such sacrifices (or only part-time) means they're competing with more men willing to do so, which naturally leads to men being over represented and thus having increased chances of winning prestigious merit based prices.

    But we can just call all that sexism and pretend that men and women are exactly equal and that millions of years of evolution couldn't possibly have had an impact on how men and women mentally develop, and how that might effect their careers.

  17. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    You can't know everything. Science is about _repeatable_ phenomena. There is vast areas in existing world where they are not repeatable.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  18. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    >We have so much left to learn that we are nowhere near hitting the limits of what science can discover.

    Empty declarations.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  19. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by Junta · · Score: 1

    While we may never know everything, we may be running into the reality that we simply can't conduct experiments/observe enough to solve what we don't know. There is an exponential factor in difficulty of getting new data and we are increasingly stuck being unable to get further.

    Already it seems like it is mostly coming up with new models to describe existing observations, so we are to a large extent stuck with just re-examining the same data over and over again.

    We do occasionally get new observations and it is great, but how much of the field is able to drive getting new observations is relatively smaller.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  20. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    affect

  21. Can people please learn to use the hyphen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    as well as in laser-eye surgery.

    Surgery on eyes made of lasers? Surgery on an eye that shoots laser beams?

  22. I have to wonder if she is diversity hire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or did she earn the job and did the research like everyone else.

    1. Re:I have to wonder if she is diversity hire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or did she earn the job and did the research like everyone else.

      Just read her papers, and you know for sure.

      If you cannot parse what she wrote, you better shut up.

    2. Re:I have to wonder if she is diversity hire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      found the libtard marxist SJW

  23. Re:What we do know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.

    We do know you are a sexist jerk if you really believe that.

    How so? Please, take all the time you need to validate your position.

  24. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Women aren't arguing for special treatment. They are arguing for EQUAL treatment.

    And right there's where your otherwise logical argument falls apart. Look, I'm all for feminists in the original sense. Like in the 60's "women are people too" sense. Lately feminists are just not that anymore. If you can't see the difference between being color or gender-blind and playing favorites in any way, then there's nothing I can say that will change your mind.

    Playing favorites in any way is not equal opportunity.

    Arguing for equal treatment is like skipping to the end of the novel and demanding it ends the way you want it to. I'm never going to win a Nobel Prize. That's fine with me as my self esteem does not depend on being famous. It does not mean that I'm going to work any less diligently on my goals and cry foul if I don't get what I want. Life isn't fair, no matter how much you want it to be, and all of these machinations result in little more than shifting the unfairness around.

    In any case, congratulations to all for finding ways to get paid to play with lasers.

  25. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fewer women, not less women

  26. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    It's simply because there are less women working at the highest levels in these fields, which has as an underlying cause that women, in general, are less inclined to put in what it takes to lead such research teams (ie. putting work before family, foregoing socializing, personal hygiene, etc).

    Whoa their Sparky! Could you drag out a few more memes there? I've worked with a lot of physicists and scientists, and the ladies had perfectly acceptable hygiene. And you might be surprised at how many even played sports. Hell - I'm into Ice Hockey, and shower twice a day, and many buds are into sports like handball and running. I mixed genders in that group.

    Now, discarding the memes, There is a particular mindset and way of thinking required of a physicist. There is almost certainly a thought process difference - in generalization - that goes along gender lines.

    Point is, my wife, who is exceptionally brilliant, simply does not think in the same way as I do. I on the other hand, am likewise not too bad at what I do.

    And here is the takeaway. Rather than engage in some battle over who is "better" - and the answer is neither - we use our respective differences as synergy, not some age old misogynist/misandrist shitfest. Its like we serve as each other's mentat.

    Less women willing to make such sacrifices (or only part-time) means they're competing with more men willing to do so, which naturally leads to men being over represented and thus having increased chances of winning prestigious merit based prices.

    But we can just call all that sexism and pretend that men and women are exactly equal and that millions of years of evolution couldn't possibly have had an impact on how men and women mentally develop, and how that might effect their careers.

    Now you are back on track.

    If a woman wants to be a physicist, nothing will stop her. If she doesn't, no one can make her.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  27. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps you would understand if your accomplishments were dismissed as unimportant because of your skin color or age or gender or some other irrelevant bit of your physiology rather than the quality of your ideas.

    Actually I have experienced that. But I'm a cis white male so of course my experiences don't matter to you.

  28. Phew Mixed Feelings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Normally my white cis male misogyny self can't stand to see women succeed in science. But FREAKEN LASERS man!

    1. Re:Phew Mixed Feelings by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      Normally my white cis male misogyny self can't stand to see women succeed in science. But FREAKEN LASERS man!

      I know you're trolling, but I think you missed an opportunity. You left out sharks. You can't have "FREAKEN LASERS" [sic] without sharks. You're the type who'd be okay with using something stupid, like mutant sea bass, to try and make a point.

  29. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > If a woman wants to be a physicist, nothing will stop her. If she doesn't, no one can make her.

    That's just incredibly naive.

  30. I think the real question we need to ask by rsilvergun · · Score: 1
    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  31. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

    You don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Modern Science has a laundry list of fundamental problems:

    * Problems with the Standard Model
    * Problems with Big Bang
    * Unsolved Problems in Physics

    E.g. The SI system is a clusterfuck of 7 "fundamental units" but more then half of them are *dependent* on others.

    *facepalm*

    E.g. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that Energy can not be created nor destroyed, only transformed. Ergo, the universe has always existed (in some form.)

    * Where did this energy come from?
    * Where did the all the Laws of Physics come from???

    Furthermore, Scientists are completely clueless about:

    * The composition of Consciousness -- everyone admits it exists but there is no way to measure it,
    * Conscious is the foundation of reality -- NOT matter. That is, higher dimensions are proven to exist with the shared OBE (Out-of-Body-Experience),
    * Consciousness can be transferred,
    * The majority of life in the universe are on planets with 2 suns
    * The majority of extraterrestrials are bipedal, with 4 digits
    * White holes at the center of galaxies,
    * The 2 missing fundamental forces: Strong and Weak intergalactic forces,
    * The link between (macro) teleportation and time travel, due to space-time being relative
    * Death, namely Life before Life and Life after Death
    * Darwinism is Junk Science (there are ZERO accidents)
    * Creationism is Junk Faith (humans were genetically engineered)

    I could go on about how ignorant man is about reality

    e.g. Science is a male, linear, approach to (intellectual) knowledge. Scientists don't even know about the other female, nonlinear system of (experiential) knowledge.

    but the point is:

    There will ALWAYS be something to discover.

    Lastly, when First Contact starts to happen ~2029 it will be the catalyst for people to start realizing just how clueless our species is and has been.

  32. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pretty sure the brand new shiny law in california saying all publically owned companies with HQ in cally must have women on the board of directors is... "special treatment"

  33. Laser Wizardry by hey! · · Score: 1

    Did MST3K do that one?

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  34. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    > If a woman wants to be a physicist, nothing will stop her. If she doesn't, no one can make her.

    That's just incredibly naive.

    Your statement is bullshit. You apparently believe thatr men are pushed along, with nary a cloudy day, their road to physics paved with gold.

    When the fact is - it's not easy. This is not a fraternity. Today, there are sexists on both sides. There are large scale disagreements.

    But here's the truth coward. This is not a field for the easily dissuaded. If you have a theory, there are going to be those who oppose it. Either because of belief, or even devil's advocate. I've sat in rooms where my ideas are called bullshit. I've been called an asshole. (so what's new)The lady physicists and scientists get no free pass, nor do they want one. The opposition is part of the process.

    But here's the kicker.

    I don't care. Neither do they. They are in this because this is what they want to do with their life. This is not a world where certain groups are above criticism.

    Naive? What is naive is the concept that anyone, male or female will sit down one day and say "I think my passion is to be a physicist! At least until someone anyone opposes me, then I'm nothing and it is their fault."

    Sorry cowardly entity, but if you want to be a physicist, you must have passion - real passion, not one that you get from a career day in 3rd grade, but one you know you have. And real passion is a white hot pillar of flame that drags you along with it. The men and women who I made careers with had it. Interestingly enough, the biggest skeptics of today's modus were those same women.

    Today, some folks are attempting to redefine passion as a mild interest. In truth, so few people have real passion.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  35. so? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I support equality. I care about as much a woman getting the prize as a man. Fact is, Obama got the peace prize for murdering civilians and starting multiple wars. Am I supposed to care what this prize means all of the sudden?

  36. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps you would understand if your accomplishments were dismissed as unimportant because of your skin color or age or gender or some other irrelevant bit of your physiology rather than the quality of your ideas.

    They are. People fighting for "equality" dismiss accomplishments because of privilege or some unspecified, unprovable systemic bias.

  37. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    None of the problems you mentioned have a clear experimental path to verifiability

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  38. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Natural language is an art, not a science. You can't take what was said literally. He's just saying that if someone is determined enough, they will become a physicists short of a gun to their head. Anecdotally, I was the bottom of my class and told that college would be a waste of time. My entire life everything I did made people believe that I was not very smart, but I knew differently. Even as a young child, I had a "fck them" level of acceptance of what they thought. No one could tell me otherwise, I knew what I wanted to be and I became one of the best at what I do in spite of the overwhelming discouragement.

    If you don't believe in yourself even when no one else believes in you, it probably wasn't meant to be.

  39. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because the scales are already weighted heavily in the side of the male gender, so you need to add more to the female side in order for the two sides to balance out.

  40. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And the male side sees stuff being added to the female side without anything being added to their own, so feel hard done by. Ignoring what has already been placed on their side in the past.

  41. Did she earn it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or did someone just decide a woman needed to win to balance some sort of imaginary scales? Sadly, thanks to feminists, we'll never know...

  42. Why only one "diversity token" in 55 years, if so? by rbrander · · Score: 1

    "55 years" is practically identical with the time that "women's liberation" first became a common term. If it takes 55 years of pressure to get ONE Nobel awarded, it's not a very big effect.

    She might be a "token" of course, in the Jackie Robinson sense: if there's a pervasive tendency to dismiss a group, that dismissal is highlighted when a particularly un-dismissable talent comes along, and you kind of have to recognize them, however late.

    If there was a Nobel in Physics awarded to a woman every five years, when less than 20% of physicists are women, that would be a strong indicator. (17% of Cornell physics grad students are women). This is pretty much the opposite, being way under 17% of the recent Nobels.

    It's cool to see this news come out today, when even Canadian Conservatives are reluctantly admitting admiration for Chrystia Freeland and her calm, don't-get-insulted renegotiations of NAFTA. She did indeed give up some concessions to Mr. Trump's horrors of the Canadian Dairy Industry. Under NAFTA, they were allowed access to only 3.25% of the Canadian dairy market. Under the new agreement, they will have access to a bigly 3.6%. No wonder Mr. Trump has hailed it as "historic".

  43. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    but the scales are already over balanced on the male side hence they are trying to bring both sides into balance. Its just the whining misogynists who don't get it.

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  44. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    aawwww.. your misogyny betrays you

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  45. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. You are just being a total dick today.

  46. Re: that's not even applied science, that's techno by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1
    Yes and no. Yes it's in technology but the technology itself leads to more advancements in science. From the press release:

    Advanced precision instruments are opening up unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications. . . Strickland and Mourouâ(TM)s newly invented technique, called chirped pulse amplification, CPA, soon became standard for subsequent high-intensity lasers . . . The innumerable areas of application have not yet been completely explored.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  47. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by HeckRuler · · Score: 2

    Why are there 4 fundamental forces (wait, 5?) instead of 2 or 3? Why the three dimensions (plus time)? Why is space expanding? Will it expand forever? Why does the fabric of space wobble? Are gravitons a thing? And I still don't get how black-holes can be singularities, but retain rotational momentum, and be a donut... but also still a singularity. Aren't we still confused about how quantum mechanics jive with... gravity and electromagnetism? We've still only got interpretations of just whateverthefuck is going on in the dual slit experiment. Copenhagen is winning, I guess? Wooo popularity contests.

    There's plenty of fundamental physics we don't know. I dunno if we'll ever get around to answering them, but you can't say "it's done".

  48. numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FYI, The techniques she helped develop have resulted in truly astonishingly powerful lasers with intensities on the order of 10^24 Watts/cm^2. That's like focusing all the sun light hitting the earth onto one square centimeter and multiplying it 10 trillion trillion times.

  49. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, just say the truth, are you offended when women do nice things?

  50. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Women aren't arguing for special treatment. They are arguing for EQUAL treatment. It only sounds like a call for "special" treatment to people who are missing the point.

    Some are asking for equal treatment and mean it. Some are asking for equal treatment, but its actually preferential treatment. Some are straight up asking for preferential treatment.

    The message is fragmented. It's why a noteworthy amount women will NOT call themselves feminists.

    Sounds like you heard something that made you feel good, applied it en masse, and that was that.

    Sexism is real and if you think fighting against it is "throwing it in your face" then you are part of the problem.

    Dont disagree with you, but your... presentation alludes to a common character deficiency. Right for the wrong reasons, as it were.

  51. I'm reminded of Candace Pert by seoras · · Score: 1

    Worth reading Candace Pert's book Molecules of Emotion as wikipedia's entry on her states:
    "...an eye-opener into the intellectual warfare of modern scientific discovery – the gamesmanship, the sly purloining of others’ results – but also into the round-the-clock work, the exhilaration of a shared breakthrough, and the slow, painful rise of women in the scientific professions. "

    The most memorable thing about her book was that her boss Solomon H. Snyder, who headed the lab, was the one who got the Albert Lasker Award for her discovery of the opioid receptor. What made it worse was he'd told her to stop working on it, that it was going no where. She ignored him and continued in secret.

    Pert was told to shut up and accept it as that was how things where done in academia and standard protocol. Threats were made and later carried out after she wrote to the foundation that awards the prize to protest at being excluded. The 3 men who got the Lasker never got the Nobel and academia turned on her for breaking rank.

    So whenever I see a Nobel being awarded today my first thought is "I wonder who really discovered it?"

    1. Re:I'm reminded of Candace Pert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you seen the joke; "class, who can tell me what Watson and Crick discovered?"
      Smartass in the back of the room; "Rosalind Franklin's lab notes"

    2. Re:I'm reminded of Candace Pert by seoras · · Score: 1

      There's a long list. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin who completed her studies at Cambridge University but they did "not awarded a degree because of her sex; Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948."
      Left England for the USA and Harvard to write her PhD. "Stellar Atmospheres, A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars". Astronomers Otto Struve and Velta Zeberg called it "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy".
      And yet now the 21st century we still have tossers at CERN who claim Psychics is the domain of men only.

  52. A woman? Impossible... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone knows that women have been extinct for thousands of years.

  53. You're in for a surprise Friday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. and I don't mean to say Trump will win it but if he does (and possibly if he does not) guess who he will share it with!

  54. Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real question is, were sharks involved? And if not then how the f- did this get a Nobel? More like Ignobel!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INFavIUmhcE

    "What do I pay you people for??"

  55. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are you talking about?

    52.2% of the PhD and 59% of master degrees are awarded to female. And you still complain about discrimination? If I were to imitate pseudo-feminist, I will certainly call you a sexist pig!

  56. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The issue is there are plenty of people who are woke to the fact that gender and race don't wholly matter and view and treat everyone as individuals. They acknowledge differences in culture and ideas as being true diversity, not skin color or genitalia, and welcomes the sharing of ideas and culture with open arms.

    These people are shocked and appalled every time when a loosely affiliated tribe claiming to be the morally superior culture in all things identity politics constantly draws attention to both race and gender. These people try point out to this tribe that they are acting like Zack Morris, but instead of listening, this tribe projects their own sexist and racist ideals on these people, give them a lecture that wasn't needed and proceeds to call them names.

    All these people can do is roll their eyes and hope that some day this tribe will finally get it.

  57. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by mikaere · · Score: 2

    And yet there hasn't been a female Nobel Prize for Physics will in over 50 years. No matter how you cut it, at least *some* of the reason for such a long gap between awards has to be driven by sexism.

    --
    It's good luck to be superstitious
  58. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Where? Who by? How?

    Sorry but 'it must be sexism' is a fucking weak argument.

    Women get more scholarships than men, the education system was changed to give them better educational outcomes, more women get top grades at school, more women go to university, more women graduate, more women get post graduate qualifications, hiring in academic positions favours women.

    I see plenty of sexism but it sure as fuck doesn't explain the Nobel award for physics.

  59. Re: Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aawwww.. your fucktardedness betrays you.

  60. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37578899

    Average age of Nobel physics price ~59 years (1901-2011) and there is a clear tendency to award the price later in life now.

    Average female awarded a Master 23-24, a PhD under 30 years old. And mostly not in physics or mathematics...

    Don't you see some explanation?

    >No matter how you cut it, at least *some* of the reason for
    >such a long gap between awards has to be driven by sexism.

    NO! I really do not see how you can reach this conclusion.

    When the vast majority of diploma are awarded to female and there is still complain about the only small domain male are doing better (whatever the reason), no matter how you cut it, at least *some* of the reason for such disparity and asymmetry has to be driven by sexism.

    I predict that soon (20 years at most) not a single male will receive a price in biology, medicine. And nobody will care.

  61. Re:Gender shouldn't matter in physics... but it do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But I'm a cis white male"

    Don't label yourself, even in jest. That's their game in labeling you. Tell them to go fuck themselves instead.

  62. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scientists are also completely clueless about TIME CUBE!

  63. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What, I still have to wait 11 years for First Contact? I don't want to die a virgin.

  64. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    You do not know what science is. Science is not to answer ANY questions.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  65. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    Science answers all sorts of questions. Even some philosophical questions like "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?". The answer is that the egg arose way earlier in evolution than chickens and chickens immediate predecessor also laid eggs. So some Velociraptor-like thing laid an egg which hatched a more chicken-like thing. But the egg came first. It also answered "If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?" Which I always thought sounded like bullshit, of course it makes a sound. But the answer turns out to be if "no one" means really anything and you can isolate the forest from the rest of the universe, then it exists in a state of super-position occupying every possible state (Copenhagen interpretation) including fallen and not fallen. Until something interacts with it and collapses it's waveform, it doesn't even really exist except in a background book-keeping sort of way. This makes philosophers grumble about "missing points" and "seeing the bigger picture" because they don't actually like solving problems or answering questions. Because they are useless wankers that need to go get a real job. But anyway, if you want to get pedantic science is process of figuring out all this shit while scientific knowledge is stuff we've figured out, at least partially. Honestly the term has really just encapsulated the later by this point. But you're forgetting the most important detail of calling out a No True Scotsman. You have to stress what's missing. Otherwise you've got the Internet equivalent of a ding-dong-ditch.

  66. Re:that's not even applied science, that's technol by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    * Consciousness can be transferred,

    There's a pretty clear experimental path to verifying that.

    "Hey Bob, the code word is spaghetti" *CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER NOISES* "So, completely different body, sack of meat, or computer that wasn't Bob before, what's the code word?"

    You could say that's just memory, but it'd be one hell of a big step and it'd likely earn you a nobel prize. Or at least a copy of you would earn it. This is where things get messy. But with enough personality tests they could see what the side-effects were. If something has all your memories and all your personality... that's you. It has at least as much "you"-ness as you do before and after you go to sleep.