6 ms·

Another one? It's getting old. She needs a new shtick.

Pet_Ant 4y ago
Felt bad that I couldn’t stand one of the only female hard science YouTubers. Then I found Dr Becky: https://m.youtube.com/@DrBecky https://m.youtube.com/@DrBecky Seems to know her shit and doesn’t seem to hate it.
- was_a_dev 4y ago
  This is essentially my thoughts. Dr Becky is a fantastic science communicator that is clearly very passionate and optimistic about her field
- jackmott 4y ago
  [dead]
- maegul 4y ago
  Agree. Also, from what I've gathered, she's relatively junior, in that she only recently completed her PhD and is a postdoc now (thus, I suspect, the "Dr" in the handle?). Which is a good thing! You're getting the perspective, energy, excitement, and focus of someone actually "on the ground" and still pumped about their field. One of the take aways I've got from what I've seen of academia (whether this applies to Sabine or not) is that you'd be surprised how disconnected a senior academic is from the current state of their field. Not that they're ignorant of the latest findings (though, again, you'd be surprised how little time they have actually read papers unless they have to), but they're often not doing actual research at all, not reading the latest papers as widely as a good postdoc would be, and see the field through older often outdated (though sometimes still valuable) lenses, and can be very distracted by their other responsibilities. A young excited researcher is genuinely looking out for the future of their field, and, IMO, I think you can see that Dr Becky
- k2xl 4y ago
  I actually love both Sabine and Dr Becky. I think they both do a great job with different styles.
- sho_hn 4y ago
  I find Hossenfelder's style to be very entertaining, it's lovely content. With some of the more opinionated videos I often wish I'd find another similar creator offering a rebuttal or context to help me sort in her take. Of course if you follow this to its logical conclusion you eventually hit "become a scientist, work with the material, form your own opinion", but well, a little bit more aggregation and summary would be of service to me. I guess what Hossenfelder offers me is content above the quality bar of most science journalism, on that spectrum.
  - Retric 4y ago
    Hossenfelder can be entertaining, but even as a non specialist I’ve noticed either oversimplification or errors in her videos. So, I think she needs better collaboration with specialists when operating outside her specialty. The one that comes to mind is when talking about fusion she said the output energy of the reaction * efficiency must be > input energy which seems perfectly logical. Except the input energy doesn’t all disappear much of it ends up in the plasma which in a steady state is then converted at some efficiency to electricity again. This is why Q is considered independently of the total power used by the facility which goes on to invalidate much of the rest of the video. I don’t know if that was intentional oversimplification or a mistake on her part, but it makes me question the accuracy of her videos on other topics.
    - sho_hn 4y ago
      I've noticed a few things like this as well. I vaguely recall not liking a calculation in a nuclear energy video she did because she omitted thorium from the topic - I'm no expert, but I was awaiting her to address it next to her discussion of uranium reserves and was confused by its absence.
- davrosthedalek 4y ago
  There is also "My Journey as a Physicist". Haven't listened to it yet, but I hear good things from my colleagues. [1] https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/phy480905/home?pli=1 https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/phy480905/home?pli=1
Y_Y 4y ago
To be fair, high energy experiments are still taking up a lot of money and effort. If you agree with her arguments then maybe it's a horse worth beating. I have some concerns about the dark matter point but I think she is more or less right and I think it sucks to be competing for funding with work that's not well-directed.
- davrosthedalek 4y ago
  Well, it's pretty clear that she wants to be funded, but funding decisions in research are mostly consensus -- the field decides what's funded, and I guess she couldn't convince enough people to get funded. But how else should be? In a regime with limited funds, after it has been decided how much money to give to HEP, isn't it the best if the HEP community decides how to spend it? Of course, she thinks spending on other work is not well directed, but others think spending it on her work is not well directed. While I think that maybe we just fund all (because really, it's not that much money -- for her group, we probably talk about a couple of shot-down balloon kind of money [Sidewinder is >300k], for several years worth of research), we do not live in that world. I want to note, though, that this "controversy", is very important for her book sales. I am not convinced that these books actually bring the field forward.
  - jackmott 4y ago
    [dead]
  - lll-o-lll 4y ago
    Ahh yes, why engage with the arguments when it’s so much easier to just attack the person? https://twitter.com/skdh/status/1624398748410421248?s=20&t=IolRa2L1hLRyBMbULILeSw https://twitter.com/skdh/status/1624398748410421248?s=20&t=I... Maybe address one or two of her actual points and try to refute them?
  - naasking 4y ago
    > But how else should be? In a regime with limited funds, after it has been decided how much money to give to HEP, isn't it the best if the HEP community decides how to spend it? No, because the vested interests have blinders on because they're invested in current paradigms. They could get stuck trying to find a local optimum rather than the global optimum we actually want. External objective assessments are sometimes needed, and Sabine is making a good case that particle physicists need a wake up call to get out of their rut. She won't convince the currently entrenched interests, but hopefully she's convincing graduate students that will start gaining influence over the next decade.
k2xl 4y ago
Care to elaborate? I'm no physicist but the video seemed rational? What is your issue with her arguments?
- SiempreViernes 4y ago
  One issue is that it's just (essentially) repeating things that she has said before: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-lhc-may-spell-end-of-particle.html http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-lhc-may-spell-e... But the bigger issue is that all she's saying is that there is a problem (which everyone in the field knows) but doesn't offer any solution. Note for example the bit about how there are many possible choices for what thing to test next, but only a finite amount of resources to do the tests which makes how one chooses what to try next a very important factor. What modification does she propose to ensure it is done better? None! She just says "do it better", possibly thinking that is helpful advice? So in summary these days Hossenfelder is being _exactly_ as helpful as the college that rolls in to your office, and, while filming for tiktok, glances at your screen and tells you to fix that stubborn segfault you have been struggling to debug for the last three hours.
  - sander27home 4y ago
    Watch the video again. She offered solution. Look into papersthat expound necessary to current model not keep on making science so complicated. If any of tbose papers are real and correct, they would discovered something. As of now...that records stand at ZERO. It burns away useful research grants that would be better put into useful paper research but alas, big names in particle physics dictate more money need to fund their hypothesis because around the corner they will make the discovery....if not....who cares.
  - naasking 4y ago
    > But the bigger issue is that all she's saying is that there is a problem (which everyone in the field knows) but doesn't offer any solution. The solution is to stop pretending there's a problem to solve when there isn't. That's literally what she's saying. The obvious corollary is, "work on real problems instead of pseudo problems and stop trying to take funding away from people working on real problems". It seems perfectly obvious that we've passed the point of diminishing returns and it's time to focus on other things until we have a compelling reason to revisit this.
nosianu 4y ago
I will never understand comments like this, where the author had to actively click on one of a large number of headlines to even get there, and than make a deliberate decision to spend even more effort on writing a comment. You don't provide any information for evaluation, all we know is that you think you heard it too often. And why make a disparaging comment about her on top of that, without any substance added? I would not have added a comment if I didn't find it disturbing how much attention your mean comment gets. Another person even saying they cannot "stand her" - of course also without anything of substance added. I hate adding my own comment along this mean-spirited, substance-free and OT thread, but I don't want to say nothing either. If you dislike the topic, just don't click. Easy. Or, provide some real meat for the discussion, not an expression of personal dislike, especially not of the person, unless they actually did something despicable worthy of such dislike.
- karpierz 4y ago
  I think GP's disappointment isn't that there's another video complaining about particle physics. I think they're complaining about Sabine making another video where she repeats the same unsubstantiated complaints. And they were disappointed because they are interested in novel critique of particle physics, and were let down.
  - astrange 4y ago
    Can't be any novel critiques of particle physics if the physicists themselves never do anything novel to be criticized for.
  - naasking 4y ago
    > I think they're complaining about Sabine making another video where she repeats the same unsubstantiated complaints. What a weird comment. They're not substantiated at all, the whole video is literally substantiating her position, and does it quite well IMO.
  - sho_hn 4y ago
    > unsubstantiated complaints In what way? Her line of reasoning was easy to follow and she gave some specific examples. Given the length and medium I felt it was substantial, certainly enough for a rebuttal. What's missing?
chongli 4y ago
This is the only ‘shtick’ she has left. She’s already burned all her bridges with her field. She’s now become a professional gadfly. This happens to anyone who goes into a highly specialized, close-knit academic field; has a private disagreement with their field; and subsequently goes public.
jodrellblank 4y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Felt bad that I couldn’t stand one of the only female hard science YouTubers. Then I found Dr Becky: https://m.youtube.com/@DrBecky https://m.youtube.com/@DrBecky Seems to know her shit and doesn’t seem to hate it.

was_a_dev 4y ago
This is essentially my thoughts. Dr Becky is a fantastic science communicator that is clearly very passionate and optimistic about her field
jackmott 4y ago
[dead]
maegul 4y ago
Agree. Also, from what I've gathered, she's relatively junior, in that she only recently completed her PhD and is a postdoc now (thus, I suspect, the "Dr" in the handle?). Which is a good thing! You're getting the perspective, energy, excitement, and focus of someone actually "on the ground" and still pumped about their field. One of the take aways I've got from what I've seen of academia (whether this applies to Sabine or not) is that you'd be surprised how disconnected a senior academic is from the current state of their field. Not that they're ignorant of the latest findings (though, again, you'd be surprised how little time they have actually read papers unless they have to), but they're often not doing actual research at all, not reading the latest papers as widely as a good postdoc would be, and see the field through older often outdated (though sometimes still valuable) lenses, and can be very distracted by their other responsibilities. A young excited researcher is genuinely looking out for the future of their field, and, IMO, I think you can see that Dr Becky
k2xl 4y ago
I actually love both Sabine and Dr Becky. I think they both do a great job with different styles.
sho_hn 4y ago
I find Hossenfelder's style to be very entertaining, it's lovely content. With some of the more opinionated videos I often wish I'd find another similar creator offering a rebuttal or context to help me sort in her take. Of course if you follow this to its logical conclusion you eventually hit "become a scientist, work with the material, form your own opinion", but well, a little bit more aggregation and summary would be of service to me. I guess what Hossenfelder offers me is content above the quality bar of most science journalism, on that spectrum.
- Retric 4y ago
  Hossenfelder can be entertaining, but even as a non specialist I’ve noticed either oversimplification or errors in her videos. So, I think she needs better collaboration with specialists when operating outside her specialty. The one that comes to mind is when talking about fusion she said the output energy of the reaction * efficiency must be > input energy which seems perfectly logical. Except the input energy doesn’t all disappear much of it ends up in the plasma which in a steady state is then converted at some efficiency to electricity again. This is why Q is considered independently of the total power used by the facility which goes on to invalidate much of the rest of the video. I don’t know if that was intentional oversimplification or a mistake on her part, but it makes me question the accuracy of her videos on other topics.
  - sho_hn 4y ago
    I've noticed a few things like this as well. I vaguely recall not liking a calculation in a nuclear energy video she did because she omitted thorium from the topic - I'm no expert, but I was awaiting her to address it next to her discussion of uranium reserves and was confused by its absence.
davrosthedalek 4y ago
There is also "My Journey as a Physicist". Haven't listened to it yet, but I hear good things from my colleagues. [1] https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/phy480905/home?pli=1 https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/phy480905/home?pli=1

Y_Y 4y ago

To be fair, high energy experiments are still taking up a lot of money and effort. If you agree with her arguments then maybe it's a horse worth beating. I have some concerns about the dark matter point but I think she is more or less right and I think it sucks to be competing for funding with work that's not well-directed.

davrosthedalek 4y ago
Well, it's pretty clear that she wants to be funded, but funding decisions in research are mostly consensus -- the field decides what's funded, and I guess she couldn't convince enough people to get funded. But how else should be? In a regime with limited funds, after it has been decided how much money to give to HEP, isn't it the best if the HEP community decides how to spend it? Of course, she thinks spending on other work is not well directed, but others think spending it on her work is not well directed. While I think that maybe we just fund all (because really, it's not that much money -- for her group, we probably talk about a couple of shot-down balloon kind of money [Sidewinder is >300k], for several years worth of research), we do not live in that world. I want to note, though, that this "controversy", is very important for her book sales. I am not convinced that these books actually bring the field forward.
- jackmott 4y ago
  [dead]
- lll-o-lll 4y ago
  Ahh yes, why engage with the arguments when it’s so much easier to just attack the person? https://twitter.com/skdh/status/1624398748410421248?s=20&t=IolRa2L1hLRyBMbULILeSw https://twitter.com/skdh/status/1624398748410421248?s=20&t=I... Maybe address one or two of her actual points and try to refute them?
- naasking 4y ago
  > But how else should be? In a regime with limited funds, after it has been decided how much money to give to HEP, isn't it the best if the HEP community decides how to spend it? No, because the vested interests have blinders on because they're invested in current paradigms. They could get stuck trying to find a local optimum rather than the global optimum we actually want. External objective assessments are sometimes needed, and Sabine is making a good case that particle physicists need a wake up call to get out of their rut. She won't convince the currently entrenched interests, but hopefully she's convincing graduate students that will start gaining influence over the next decade.

k2xl 4y ago

Care to elaborate? I'm no physicist but the video seemed rational? What is your issue with her arguments?

SiempreViernes 4y ago
One issue is that it's just (essentially) repeating things that she has said before: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-lhc-may-spell-end-of-particle.html http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-lhc-may-spell-e... But the bigger issue is that all she's saying is that there is a problem (which everyone in the field knows) but doesn't offer any solution. Note for example the bit about how there are many possible choices for what thing to test next, but only a finite amount of resources to do the tests which makes how one chooses what to try next a very important factor. What modification does she propose to ensure it is done better? None! She just says "do it better", possibly thinking that is helpful advice? So in summary these days Hossenfelder is being _exactly_ as helpful as the college that rolls in to your office, and, while filming for tiktok, glances at your screen and tells you to fix that stubborn segfault you have been struggling to debug for the last three hours.
- sander27home 4y ago
  Watch the video again. She offered solution. Look into papersthat expound necessary to current model not keep on making science so complicated. If any of tbose papers are real and correct, they would discovered something. As of now...that records stand at ZERO. It burns away useful research grants that would be better put into useful paper research but alas, big names in particle physics dictate more money need to fund their hypothesis because around the corner they will make the discovery....if not....who cares.
- naasking 4y ago
  > But the bigger issue is that all she's saying is that there is a problem (which everyone in the field knows) but doesn't offer any solution. The solution is to stop pretending there's a problem to solve when there isn't. That's literally what she's saying. The obvious corollary is, "work on real problems instead of pseudo problems and stop trying to take funding away from people working on real problems". It seems perfectly obvious that we've passed the point of diminishing returns and it's time to focus on other things until we have a compelling reason to revisit this.

nosianu 4y ago

I will never understand comments like this, where the author had to actively click on one of a large number of headlines to even get there, and than make a deliberate decision to spend even more effort on writing a comment. You don't provide any information for evaluation, all we know is that you think you heard it too often. And why make a disparaging comment about her on top of that, without any substance added? I would not have added a comment if I didn't find it disturbing how much attention your mean comment gets. Another person even saying they cannot "stand her" - of course also without anything of substance added. I hate adding my own comment along this mean-spirited, substance-free and OT thread, but I don't want to say nothing either. If you dislike the topic, just don't click. Easy. Or, provide some real meat for the discussion, not an expression of personal dislike, especially not of the person, unless they actually did something despicable worthy of such dislike.

karpierz 4y ago
I think GP's disappointment isn't that there's another video complaining about particle physics. I think they're complaining about Sabine making another video where she repeats the same unsubstantiated complaints. And they were disappointed because they are interested in novel critique of particle physics, and were let down.
- astrange 4y ago
  Can't be any novel critiques of particle physics if the physicists themselves never do anything novel to be criticized for.
- naasking 4y ago
  > I think they're complaining about Sabine making another video where she repeats the same unsubstantiated complaints. What a weird comment. They're not substantiated at all, the whole video is literally substantiating her position, and does it quite well IMO.
- sho_hn 4y ago
  > unsubstantiated complaints In what way? Her line of reasoning was easy to follow and she gave some specific examples. Given the length and medium I felt it was substantial, certainly enough for a rebuttal. What's missing?

chongli 4y ago

This is the only ‘shtick’ she has left. She’s already burned all her bridges with her field. She’s now become a professional gadfly. This happens to anyone who goes into a highly specialized, close-knit academic field; has a private disagreement with their field; and subsequently goes public.

jodrellblank 4y ago

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html