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Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-

Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?

dan-g 2y ago
The author teaches physics at a college, so I’m not sure why you say this is unrelated? The article is largely about her career path and how she ended up as an author and teacher.
brnt 2y ago
HR, outreach and/or recruitment departments organise those sorts of things and you may just be selected because you are photogenic. Also, serious scientists are not above self promotion; it's arguably their most important skill.
soneca 2y ago
I think it was there to show she is a teacher, rather than a scientist. The legend says so. The image itself is of a very typical teacher. It didn’t bother me in any form. It not even looked as “high-brow” to me (a serious picture of her looking to the horizon or a typical “writer pose” looking into the camera would look more highbrow to me)
constantcrying 2y ago
Yes. They obviously aren't what you would find in any university class, where you do things like derivations and don't just write random formulas on the blackboard. So it is a staged picture just trying to show off to people who don't know any better.
KineticLensman 2y ago
> Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations The central equation on the whiteboard is actually the Drake equation [0] which as per TFA is the subject of her next book. So it at least is directly relevant. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
itishappy 2y ago
She teaches physics at a community college. These are community-college-level physics equations. It's a staged picture, but most hero shots are. I'd say this is worse than most, but not by much. Check out the rest from the series: https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=career-q-and-a https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=career-q-and-a Also, pretty sure she's leaning into the "Mrs. Frizzle" vibes.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
gus_massa 2y ago
Yes and no. The photographer needs a nice photo, she needs the article to sell books and not get traped again in the ivory tower. Eveyone is happy. It's part of the job. Like politician using a suit and smiling. (Aparently smiling people with suits don't steal or start random wars.) I looked at the equations, they look correct but so unrelated that made me chuckle. I imagine she was chuckling while writing them. I'm not sure if there were one or two persons writing that, probably one (but two persons writing random (correct) equations is more fun). The equations have a nice flow, the space/kerning and vertical aligment are correct. It looks like whoever wrote them understand the equations. [1] It's not a proof that she is a genius, but it's small bonus point for me. The last "2" in a^2+b^2=c^2 is too low, it looks like she made a mistake guessing the space necesary to write the equation and had to make a emergency correction. It happens to the best. Anyway, it's horriblely unrelated to the other equations [chuckling], almost trolling. If I have to guess, she first wrote the Drake equations as a sibling comment says, it's in the center and very well written. The photographer asked for more equations, so she added the gravitational force equation. Then another and another. And then some equations in between. It's very difficult to write something meaningful on the spot. I'd need like 15 mitutes to thing what to write and perhaps another 15 to write it. So a random wall of equations is silly but difficult to avoid. [1] A few years ago we had two exams that were identical. One of them had a similar good flow, but the other had the same numbers/symbols in almost the same position, but they were horrible aligned, like if someone just copy the number/symbols without understanding anything at all.
- tzs 2y ago
  Anyone recognize all the equations? I only recognize a few specifically and can sort of guess the general area of some of the rest. From left to right then top to bottom: 1. No idea. Based on the E sub λ, the use of Planck's and Boltzmann's constants, and the e^(hc/λkt)-1 I'd guess its the energy of something at wavelength λ and temperature t. I don't recall ever seeing energy have a factor of 1/λ^5 before college was over 40 years ago so I might have forgotten. 2. Momentum change required to change the speed of a mass by Δv? 3. No idea on the one for dt/dλ. Nothing from the left appears explicitly on the right. On to the second row. 4. Pythagorean theorem. 5. No idea. Next row 6. The Drake equation. 7. Definition of average velocity. Next row. 8. Position of free falling object in a 1 g uniform gravitational field in a vacuum. Next row. 9. Something thermodynamic. 10. Newton's law of gravity. 11. Looks like half of this is blocked by her head, but given that it is next to Newton's law of gravity, and has 8 Pi G in it which also appears in general relativity a lot, and that it has on the right side the ratio of jerk to acceleration (assuming a is acceleration), I'm going to guess something to do with relativistic gravity. Next row. 12. No idea. 13. The most famous equation in the world. 14. Newton's second law. 15. Too much is cut off. Final row. 16. Seems to be calculating the ratio of successive terms of some sequence. Partly cut off but can see Planck and Boltzmann constants so guessing we are back at thermodynamics. I'll go out on a limb and guess it has something do with entropy. 16. Too much is cut off.
tzs 2y ago
> Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that? She was probably asked to, knew that the photographer probably has a much better idea of what the publication wanted than she did, and so did what was asked. She would not have worried about it making it hard to take her seriously because she almost certainly knows that everyone who she needs to have take her seriously has seen hundreds of similar articles with their accompanying similar photos and know how that works. Many have probably themselves been in "whiteboard of equations" shots or the also popular "in front of overstuffed bookshelf" shots.
- gus_massa 2y ago
  I've seen a lot of "overstuffed bookshelf" in the wild, from offices in the university to homes, they are probably real. (It's difficult to transport and order so many books.) (I think that lawyers like to buy fake books, but scientist have real books.)

dan-g 2y ago

The author teaches physics at a college, so I’m not sure why you say this is unrelated? The article is largely about her career path and how she ended up as an author and teacher.

brnt 2y ago

HR, outreach and/or recruitment departments organise those sorts of things and you may just be selected because you are photogenic. Also, serious scientists are not above self promotion; it's arguably their most important skill.

soneca 2y ago

I think it was there to show she is a teacher, rather than a scientist. The legend says so. The image itself is of a very typical teacher. It didn’t bother me in any form. It not even looked as “high-brow” to me (a serious picture of her looking to the horizon or a typical “writer pose” looking into the camera would look more highbrow to me)

constantcrying 2y ago

Yes. They obviously aren't what you would find in any university class, where you do things like derivations and don't just write random formulas on the blackboard. So it is a staged picture just trying to show off to people who don't know any better.

KineticLensman 2y ago

> Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations The central equation on the whiteboard is actually the Drake equation [0] which as per TFA is the subject of her next book. So it at least is directly relevant. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

itishappy 2y ago

She teaches physics at a community college. These are community-college-level physics equations. It's a staged picture, but most hero shots are. I'd say this is worse than most, but not by much. Check out the rest from the series: https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=career-q-and-a https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=career-q-and-a Also, pretty sure she's leaning into the "Mrs. Frizzle" vibes.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

gus_massa 2y ago

Yes and no. The photographer needs a nice photo, she needs the article to sell books and not get traped again in the ivory tower. Eveyone is happy. It's part of the job. Like politician using a suit and smiling. (Aparently smiling people with suits don't steal or start random wars.) I looked at the equations, they look correct but so unrelated that made me chuckle. I imagine she was chuckling while writing them. I'm not sure if there were one or two persons writing that, probably one (but two persons writing random (correct) equations is more fun). The equations have a nice flow, the space/kerning and vertical aligment are correct. It looks like whoever wrote them understand the equations. [1] It's not a proof that she is a genius, but it's small bonus point for me. The last "2" in a^2+b^2=c^2 is too low, it looks like she made a mistake guessing the space necesary to write the equation and had to make a emergency correction. It happens to the best. Anyway, it's horriblely unrelated to the other equations [chuckling], almost trolling. If I have to guess, she first wrote the Drake equations as a sibling comment says, it's in the center and very well written. The photographer asked for more equations, so she added the gravitational force equation. Then another and another. And then some equations in between. It's very difficult to write something meaningful on the spot. I'd need like 15 mitutes to thing what to write and perhaps another 15 to write it. So a random wall of equations is silly but difficult to avoid. [1] A few years ago we had two exams that were identical. One of them had a similar good flow, but the other had the same numbers/symbols in almost the same position, but they were horrible aligned, like if someone just copy the number/symbols without understanding anything at all.

tzs 2y ago
Anyone recognize all the equations? I only recognize a few specifically and can sort of guess the general area of some of the rest. From left to right then top to bottom: 1. No idea. Based on the E sub λ, the use of Planck's and Boltzmann's constants, and the e^(hc/λkt)-1 I'd guess its the energy of something at wavelength λ and temperature t. I don't recall ever seeing energy have a factor of 1/λ^5 before college was over 40 years ago so I might have forgotten. 2. Momentum change required to change the speed of a mass by Δv? 3. No idea on the one for dt/dλ. Nothing from the left appears explicitly on the right. On to the second row. 4. Pythagorean theorem. 5. No idea. Next row 6. The Drake equation. 7. Definition of average velocity. Next row. 8. Position of free falling object in a 1 g uniform gravitational field in a vacuum. Next row. 9. Something thermodynamic. 10. Newton's law of gravity. 11. Looks like half of this is blocked by her head, but given that it is next to Newton's law of gravity, and has 8 Pi G in it which also appears in general relativity a lot, and that it has on the right side the ratio of jerk to acceleration (assuming a is acceleration), I'm going to guess something to do with relativistic gravity. Next row. 12. No idea. 13. The most famous equation in the world. 14. Newton's second law. 15. Too much is cut off. Final row. 16. Seems to be calculating the ratio of successive terms of some sequence. Partly cut off but can see Planck and Boltzmann constants so guessing we are back at thermodynamics. I'll go out on a limb and guess it has something do with entropy. 16. Too much is cut off.

tzs 2y ago

> Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that? She was probably asked to, knew that the photographer probably has a much better idea of what the publication wanted than she did, and so did what was asked. She would not have worried about it making it hard to take her seriously because she almost certainly knows that everyone who she needs to have take her seriously has seen hundreds of similar articles with their accompanying similar photos and know how that works. Many have probably themselves been in "whiteboard of equations" shots or the also popular "in front of overstuffed bookshelf" shots.

gus_massa 2y ago
I've seen a lot of "overstuffed bookshelf" in the wild, from offices in the university to homes, they are probably real. (It's difficult to transport and order so many books.) (I think that lawyers like to buy fake books, but scientist have real books.)