For anyone who has ever wondered what the phrase "too true" means, the BBC has a story which may throw some light on the issue.
A senior scientist who said physics "was invented and built by men" has been suspended with immediate effect from working with Cern.
Prof Alessandro Strumia, of Pisa University, made the comments during a presentation organised by the European nuclear research centre.
Cern issued a statement on Monday suspending Prof Strumia pending an investigation.
It stated that his presentation was "unacceptable".
As Prof Strumia's presentation was unacceptable rather than false it may have been "too true" in the sense that neat gin is too strong for some tastes. For these people gin has to be diluted with tonic and by analogy truth has to be diluted with some palatable falsehoods.
In which case, although physics was almost entirely built by men, Prof Strumia should have diluted his presentation to make it more palatable for delicate stomachs. After all we can't have scientists being rigidly truthful - where would that leave climate science?
4 comments:
The worrying thing is that the kind of bellend who would suspend an academic for stating a fact might be put in charge of something dangerous - like an elastic band . . .
I second what The Jannie said. Just think of the wasted time and talent involved in thought-policing talented scientists.
Another depressing aspect of this for me is that the BBC report contains a link to "7 trailblazing women in science". I only recognised one name: Marie Curie. The others seemed to be very minor indeed. I wonder if the BBC has an active "Thought Crime Rebuttal Unit" on stand-by. I also wonder whether they actually believe we are such hopeless mugs as to not understand what is going on here.
Here's hoping for an almighty backlash.
A clue here from a female at the seminar "He was claiming that some of the positions women were getting, they're getting positions with fewer (journal) citations than men," she said. "I'm not so sure his thesis was supported by the data"
Not so sure? Probably means he is absolutely right. I hope he sues their cojones off.
Jannie - it is worrying although it seems to be more and more common. Even elastic bands may be a problem if they were invented by men.
Sam - if the thing is pushed too hard there may well be a backlash but another alternative is that countries infected with this kind of thing will simply decline - or worse.
geebeetwo - from what I read his thesis was supported by the data, or at least by the data he presented. As you say he was probably right - but that isn't enough.
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