3 ms·

Do you have any context on who Dr. Hossenfelder is or why their "debunking" is meaningful?

• mrtranscendence 5y ago
  She's a German physicist who has made a name for herself, I think, arguing that mathematical beauty should not be a factor when constructing solutions to problems in theoretical physics. I think construing her video as a "debunking" does it a disservice, for what it's worth. It's a call for journalists and laypeople to be cautious when interpreting lab results. She doesn't "dunk on" fusion power or say that it's not worth investigating.
  • willis936 5y ago
    For a physicist she claims to know strikingly little about fusion energy research while still offering up opinions. Why did the good doctor fail to mention triple product? Why did the good doctor conflate ICF machines and MCF machines? Why did the good doctor imply that research progress is tied to Q (which is a metric that only progresses in times of large funding/when nuclear machines are being built)? It seems the good doctor has smoke to blow, rather than truth to spread.
    • mrtranscendence 5y ago
      For one, her channel is firmly oriented towards a lay audience; she explains topics in physics in relatively simple terminology. That limits the level of discourse. Second, she's not a fusion researcher, she's a theoretical physicist. It's possible that she made an error (though I can't speak to whether that's actually the case, as I know next to nothing about physics generally). Third, I don't think she really implied that research progress is entirely tied to Q. But YMMV.