Michio Kaku: A Brief History of Sexism in Science | Big Think
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- Michio Kaku: A Brief History of Sexism in Science
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What’s the "women in science" problem, again? From the grad student whose thesis advisor stole her Nobel-winning ideas to the once-ridiculed theorist of dark matter, female scientific excellence has long been snubbed.
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MICHIO KAKU:
Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study as well as New York University (NYU).
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: Will we discover a “theory of everything” by 2050?
Michio Kaku: My work is in String Theory. In fact, I'm the co-founder of String Field Theory, which allows you to summarize all of the laws of String Theory into an equation about one inch long. Well, that's my equation. I helped to write that with Professor Kikowa of Japan, and in fact, you can even buy a T-shirt which has my equation on it. However, my equation is not the final word because first of all, there are five different string theories. So, there are five different one-inch equations for each of the different String Theories. And now we have something called M-theory, a theory of membranes vibrating in 11 dimensions and we are clueless, absolutely clueless about getting that one-inch equation that will allow us to understand M-theory, Membrane Theory.
So, we are, in some sense, going back to square one in terms of the mathematics, but in terms of the theory itself, we hope to match String Theory with the results of the Large Hadron Collider.
First of all, dark matter. We now realize that most of the matter in the universe is dark, invisible matter. If I had dark matter in my hand right now, it would be invisible. In fact, it would literally dissolve its way right through my fingers, go right to the center of the earth, would go right to China, back to the center of the earth and back up into my hand, and then it would simply oscillate between China and my hand forever. That's dark matter. And you know, it means that every single chemistry book and science book on earth is wrong. Every book of science says that the universe is mainly made out of atoms, hydrogen, helium, going up to uranium. Wrong. We know realize that most of the matter in the universe is dark matter. And most of the energy of the universe is dark energy. An invisible energy that permeates the vacuum of space and time. In fact, 73% of the energy of the universe is dark energy. And we're clueless about what is the nature of dark energy.
Twenty-three percent of the matter energy of the universe is dark matter. And we hope to create dark matter with the Large Hadron Collider. Well, where do we fit into this? Stars made out of hydrogen and helium make up 4% of the universe. But what about us? What about oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, what about us? We make .03% of the universe. Let me repeat that again. The atoms that are familiar to us, the higher elements make up .03% of the universe. We are the odd balls. We are the exception. Most of the universe is made out of dark energy and dark matter and we hope to create dark matter with the Large Hadron Collider.
The leading theory of dark matter is that it is caused by sparticles. Sparticles are super particles higher vibrations of the string. So, we represent perhaps the lowest octave of the string. Everything you see around us is nothing but the lowest vibration of the string. But the Large Hadron Collider would be powerful enough to excite the next set of vibrations, super particles, sparticles, that may makeup dark matter.
But there's another theory about the nature of dark matter. If our universe co-exists with a parallel universe, and there is a galaxy in this parallel universe, it would be invisible because light would move behind, underneath this parallel galaxy, but gravity seeps between galaxies, therefore you would feel this gravitational effect, but it would be invisible. Now, what is invisible, but has gravity? Dark matter.
So, ironically, maybe we have already discovered dark matter, already dark matter exists in a parallel universe whose gravity...
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/a-brief-h... - Наука та технологія
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Ok this is much more a history of dark matter than of sexism.
"what did u learn?
well, if u discover something, tell it to me first"
hahahaha
that sarcasm was funny
Michio Kaku makes up 96.72 percent of scientific PR.
I totally love this guy!!! I could listen to him for hours about science!
That is how you make science interesting!
I hope she eventually got primary credit for her discovery .
In other words: even with all the enormous difficulties and betrayals, women discovered DARK MATTER and PULSARS! Thanks Vera Rubin and Jocelyn Bell!
"Tell me first" I outwardly went "HA!" in the middle of the night waking the whole household up.
Awesome stuff.
Poom poom ☺
I want a shirt with Kaku's equation on it!!
the ending made me laugh.
That's really sad... :(
Doesn't surprise me that women in science have been laughed at, ridiculed, and their work not recognized, but stolen. This attitude towards women still prevails to this day. I always find it funny when someone's idea gets ridiculed, laughed at, or ignored, and then later the idea is proven to be correct. This happens all the time with humanity because of arrogance and a closed mind. Love listening to this guy teach. He makes physics interesting.
so did they fix it? I mean nobel prize should be awarded just and fair, If they find out it is wrong person, they should fix it and not just leting it go, her supervisor didn't find it, she did right?
No, they didn't.
She to date has received about 10 awards and honors, some as high as Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (2nd class order, honorary knighthood included) (vs 5 Hewish), about twenty honorary degrees (vs 6 Hewish), and went on to have a high profile career. She never publicly criticized the Nobel prize committee decision. In fact, in 1977 she said: _There are several comments that I would like to make on this: First, demarcation disputes between supervisor and student are always difficult, probably impossible to resolve. Secondly, it is the supervisor who has the final responsibility for the success or failure of the project. We hear of cases where a supervisor blames his student for a failure, but we know that it is largely the fault of the supervisor. It seems only fair to me that he should benefit from the successes, too. Thirdly, I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them. Finally, I am not myself upset about it -- after all, I am in good company, am I not!_
Wow thats kind of inspiring
To label it sexism because it involves women isn't a good argument for sexism. A thesis advisor took credit for the discovery of pulsars found by his student. That makes him a liar, but to say he is sexist is to assume he wouldn't have lied if his student was a man.
People have also dismissed, doubted, or ignored theories put forth by scientists that were men. To claim it is sexism because a female scientist's theory was dismissed, doubted, or ignored is to again claim sexism based solely on the fact that it is a woman being doubted or dismissed.
It's just criticism, doubt, and dismissal when a man. It's all those things, plus sexism, when it's a woman.
XISCify How many really, truly thinks that?
The very few that do, I can guarantee possess far more idiotic beliefs than that.
XISCify
The majority of men and women are about the same intelligence, average. But they have shown that there are more male geniuses as well as more male idiots, than female. Which would explain why there might be more men in science. Because there are more male geniuses than female ones.
It could also explain why more men are homeless or doing lower education jobs, because there are also more male idiots, than female ones.
WolfIce88 I think a better example he could have used is when scientists like Lisa Meitner had to work in the a the basement because she was a woman.
Well yes, the thesis advisor would definitely have taken the credit for the amazing discovery if it was a young, unknown male student as well, it had nothing to do with the fact that she happend to be a female, the man was simply greedy and egoistic.
Let's not forget the historical discrimination of science & math against women! Sadly, many a woman have been barred from pursuit of math & science throughout history by fellow male scientists, i.e. Lady Hypathia!
If i ever became a physicist, and discovered something amazing, i will share it with Dr.Kaku first :D
Did you really became a scientist?
1:53 the way he says "Wrong." is just so perfect. I love this man.
This isn't just in science, women have always been treated as being less then men. All over the world and in many religions. It's getting better but, we aren't viewed as equal yet.
cesar leon thank you 😊
+Bryanna O not in Native American culture
Carter Gordon Unfortunately I don't know much about native American culture. But if that's true atleast some people have a head on their shoulders :)
+Bryanna O what was in the video was not examples of sexism. It was just examples of some girls being ripped off. It happens to men as well.
Bryanna O you're privileged way above men so stop
"Men being innately better at STEM" isn't something we can prove until society changes as a whole, until gender stereotypes break down. Until we start teaching our young boys that it's okay to be emotional, expressive with language and encourage them into social sciences, child care and primary teaching. That's it's okay for little girls to want to build robots, or play with bacteria in a lab or work with numbers all day. When we have equality, we can define our biological differences.
Indian girls can do math. & so, can Arab girls. & Persians, too. They all also do engineering, medical science, & IT; all math & logic-based. So, it's definitely a culture thing in the west, going back to lady Hypathia of Greece.
And when we make that discovery, we will hear a voice say, "I am Sparticles!"
May you please state your source for this information? I'd like to read more about it :]
What did he say at the silent bit at 0:26 ?
In fact you can even get a t-shirt with my equation on it
"Now what is invisible but has gravity?"
Air.
Nobel prize, please xD
Although I tend to agree that sexism is ingrained in academia, I don't think this example (as it was described here at least) provides any evidence of sexism. It is common for established researchers to take the main credit for findings made by inexperienced and unknown students, regardless of the gender.
One might speculate that Michio Kaku was fully aware that it provides no evidence when he said it...
u show woman as victim ,thts how u become popular
it's about the lack of female role models. nothing else
Yes, even graciously accepting Nobel Prizes in their stead.
What he's talking about here, happened and HAPPENS systematically in the academic and scientific world. Particularly in computer science women have made seminal discoveries which have been usurped by supervisors, colleagues, managers etc. It's shame to see them passed up on the recognition that they deserve and for people to deny that it even happens.
Hahaha, love your sense of humour too! Yeah, I wish I would make an astounding discovery and you, Dr. Kaku, would be the first physicist to get the news first hand !
Yesterday I woke up on Mars :O
ooops, can you teach me how to do that? better yet, can you teach me how to get back first?
Sparticles :}
Thank you for telling us of other brilliant people that havn't being truely credited for the hard work! =]
That was some smooth sarcasm at the end there
I can't tell if he was joking at the end about stealing the credit for himself or not..
Agreed :D
half joking-half serious maybe and a sarcasm to reality lol
I love and respect women, however let's be honest about it, most of then have a lower brain computing power as most men. This can be seen in chess for instance, where top ELOs are around 3k2 IIRC while the top woman has 2k6 (and she's exceptional) while other women top around 2k2. Nevertheless, they don't deserve being fooled and stripped of their discoveries and ideas by ambitious scientists.
As if chess is a good way to measure intelligence. Go back to your cave. You're the reason we need feminism.
And i'm a man.
Mad Ness
It may not be, however mankind was very satisfied when it became capable of building sufficiently powerful computers (and being able to teach them) to beat itself at chess.
Other than that, if you were less closed-minded, you would have noticed you're the only one using the term intelligence - I only mentioned brain computing power, as a raw measure of how many logic operations per second you are able to calculate.
Mad Ness
I would even extrapolate so far as to compare brains to CPUs: a higher frequency doesn't necessarily mean a better chip, it simply means it is faster on single-threaded operations.
To compare brains on their ability to solve chess problems or CPU power is ridiculous. We aren't binary systems, nor are we programmed for chess.
Let me extrapolate something and say you have huge mommy issues.
Mad Ness
Science is the ability of applying logic, therefore men will outperform women at STEM for a while still. Read the comment I linked.
Other than that, you're mentioning my mother, although I don't understand how she is involved in this debate.
Jocelyn Bell has just been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. I have uploaded a short video about Jocelyn Bell and her role in the discovery of pulsars. You can watch the video here: ua-cam.com/video/b5W91AkrGkM/v-deo.html
Nice one there Professor ! :D
@Ragnarockalypse I never learned Latin, but I find it surprisingly easy to understand Latin at times, especially when learning Binomial Nomenclature
@GeneralBlackNorway also, how can you not relate (cycles/second) to (distance/time) where to perform a cycle is to vibrate(movement) which in effect is movement which is creating distance and where a second directly relates to time.
Gandhi once said "There are two types of people in the world, those who do all the work, and those who take all the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there"
quick question,when universes split to create a parallel universe,with more dark matter,is this what causes the universe to expand at an ever increasing rate?...are all probabilities,continuing to split, creating more probabilities in paralell universes?
so how do i contact you?
Yeah, and the Greeks noticed that too. It's just, they phrased it as "when you sleep, you wake up less tired and wounds heal faster".
where can i buy this t shirt that he is talking about!?
Yeah. He's a great teacher. I wish more of my teachers in high school could have taught like him. I might actually have enjoyed high school a lot more.
I follow Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman which is very interesting but it blows my mind how complex the concepts, technology and the universe are.
I cant post any links here but just seach for michio Kaku on amazon and you will find them.
They are most popular-scientific but still awesome.
i have an idea about the revolution of the planets to the center of the solar system or to the galaxy for that matter but how can i contact Mr. Kaku?
@DeinosDinos That is one of the ways that words are invented. Latin words may sound fancy and scientific, but they are often equally simple once you translate them.
I'm a guy and I think you're right. Sexism exist even today but not as bold and stupid as it was before.
Although I believe that a small degree of sexism must exist; I mean, beating up a woman is not fun just because she gave you a furious look... that only happens to men because we are complete idiots.
Things we know: Rubin's reasons for proposing dark matter were based on sound scientific reasons. The majority of theories are responded to with disagreement not ridicule. Rubin fought sexism among her peers in the Cosmo Club. She was flatly informed by Princeton Uni that women were not accepted on their graduate programmes. These are good reasons to think Rubin faced sexism, and to believe that she did in light of these facts does not make a person a sexist, as you have quite absurdly claimed.
A question strikes me as he related normal matter, as a higher spectrum of mater, made me think of visible light spectrum. So if thats the case, are we high or low on the spectrum? Is there matter types that are below our "interactable spectrum". (Or would dark matter be below us?) then which case what about higher on the spectrum.
With out the whole extra dimensional debate coming up, such as matter in other universes.
Exsisting within our space/time but as outside our interactable spectrum
where to get tshirt m8
How many different string possible, how these string combine, what is nature of these string
You're right. It's the attitudes and beliefs that we have that strongly influence our children's choices of career and what they believe is possible for them.
@sieyk Still vibration does not move anywhere, so how can it practically have anything to do with light? And btw, You do know the theory of general and special relativity right?
Vera Rubin made these discoveries in an era when the Cosmos Club barred female members, something she battled against throughout her career.
The scientific establishment at the time didn't need to explicitly say they laughed at her ideas because of her sex when they wouldn't allow her to be a member of the Cosmos 'boys club' because she was female.
Being dismissive of the struggles women have had to overcome is itself part of sexism. I'm glad Michio Kaku sees that, even if you do not.
He ends this video discribing what every graduate student anywhere should expect.
@GeneralBlackNorway it was just a suggestion, either way to vibrate is to move no matter how you look at it, they are labelled differently due to the types of movements they are enacting
Yes I think you're right. I did a bit of reading and apparently Vera Rubin supports the MOND which tries to express gravity by modifing Newtonian equations/physics and most of Vera's works were in the late 60s and early 70s. Neither dark matter or dark energy has any connections with Vera.
-This is string theory... this is dark matter!
-Matter... THIS IS SPARTACLES!
The first 4 minutes were about how women might already have discovered some of those theories he talked about, but a women did, so it never became known to anyone else except the woman herself.
I like when he said " If you ever find a big discovery... COME TELL ME! I'M A NICE GUY..."
(after telling the small story about the stolen noble price ) LOL!
What was the name of the woman who did the discovery?
i actually tried to turn in an assignment in engish about that but the teacher said it was too vague..... my luck was bad
Is absolute velocity measurable?
first 4 minutes had nothing to do with the title, i was getting concerned hahahaha
Wait, what? So Michio Kaku is admitting that he'll take credit for your work just cause he's famous? Why would he say that?
I believe Michio Kaku has a demonstrated a very fine sarcasm.
So beautiful, thank you!! :))
The Greeks probably knew that livers can grow back. They were the sort of people to know gory things like that.
"Fire" is not an element, it's a chemical reaction. We can control many reactions, and induce many more.
Lastly, Greek myths don't count as poetry. Greek myths are a bunch of things that a bunch of people believed about how the world works, based on actual observations that they made. Poetry is made primarily for aesthetic purposes, or expressive purposes: not explanatory.
You're so right that in general brilliance is often ignored or ridiculed. Sometimes sexism is a part of it and sometimes it isn't.
Thanks for the link. On another page of NASA, it says Fritz Zwicky (30s) was the first to coin the term dark matter and Oort (30s) was the first to find evidence that dark matter existed; Rubin (70s) helped confirm dark matter's existence.
1:10 You're literally scaring the shit outa me Dr. Kaku
1:59 OMG ...Now I know what is fueling the crazy feminazibots.
@nomercyevolution perfect example of what I'm talking about, thanks for that.
I'm super confused with the ending I thought he was like I;m going to help you get your name first and then he switched
It was a joke
He really likes to point out that dark matter doesn't interact with regular matter and would fall through the earth and come back....
the title doesn´t match the question you see in the beginning that why.
Sheldon: "Was that sarcasm?".
It's not his fault. The video title is misleading. The question shown at the start is "Will we discover a 'theory of everything' by 2050?" Ironically, it seems that Kaku is the one taking the initiative to talk about the problem of sexism in science.
Love the ending. :D
@lukepink
Dark matter is "simply" the gravitational effect from matter in a parallel universe if I understood it correctly. So for the guys in the parallel universe, -we- are dark matter and invisible, though our gravitational presence is still detectable. I hope that answered your question but don't assume I know anything.
"I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them." Bell's words. Still though, she should have gotten a little more credit, no matter which phase of life she was in.
Even today when women are given the choice to be a scientist if they wish, it is not the most popular pick by any means. Women tend to pick other jobs that also generally pay less than the jobs men pick more often.
Scientists have done that for about 70 years.
It happens in every nuclear reactor. Its called nuclear physics, not alchemy...
Thats really sad she didnt get the credit for her work....Dr.Michi Kaku is a very good person..and my favourite theoritical physicist
Fortuntely all classical physics and stuff on atoms in obviously very useful in practise.The day that we might actually see stuff about dark matter as well as quantum and relativistic physics used will b an interesting one.
I hope he was being sarcastic about that last part about "Big named scientists come first"
Of course he is. It's fairly obvious.
black holes are invisible because in order for us to see something you need light to bounce off the object and enter your eyes/telescope. As black holes so freaking massive and their gravity is so strong light, once entered the event horizon, cannot escape it and thus we cannot see a thing.
They have a lack of interest in providing high quality education to all Americans. That is the real issue. Those with wealth and power (including the government) are mostly just interested in having more money and power. They aren't really interested in giving and service. They are mostly interested in what they can GET. The growing inequality in the world caused by selfishness and greed is holding back progress and well-being for humanity.
I like this guy, you can tell he isn’t dogmatic about his science.
When I said both genders are equally valuable, I meant their potential is equal. But I wouldn't say they are equally skilled and accomplished at the moment because of our history of abuse and discrimination against women. Women are catching up rapidly, and some say that if what is happening continues they will surpass men in a short while. Hopefully our education, work and family system will bring out the best in both without any bias or preferential treatment on either side.
I wanna sit down and have a cup of tea with this guy. It would be so amazing.
@chicagoloop1992 because it is what holds our universe together so it in essence is required or else the universe would fly apart. So basiclly a calculation of matter in the universe was done and filled in with the requiered amount of dark matter to sustain the universe at an equiliberium. but this is a mere calculation this does does include its origins or nature in the universe.
I love hokey, lovable scientist humor. It just makes scientists...more lovable.
4:30 *Thinking* that'll be funny if he was like and that was it lol
4:52 *also thinking* Cuz the'r dead lmao
I wish I could learn physics from him... My physics teacher was a slob, he is probably the reason I hated physics back in high school. Dr. Kaku I could listen to you talking about physics all day long. This is how teachers should be like... And sure If I discover something important I am sure to let you know first :D
Lol, the ending made me fall out of my chair.
I feel sorry for Bell... she should be the one who earn that nobel prize.
I would give him credit for my discovery but there is a 99 percent chance I wont remember his super complicated name.
I've done two things that would get me a cookie more or less out of sympathy. I came up with my own set of primes, and I found a way to chart numbers in my special triangle. I'm still working on that one. I found the thought after reading a book by Linus Pauling. He didn't highlight it, but I think he was thinking of it when he wrote down other findings. I'm not very smart. I'm 30 and as intelligent as a high school senior.
How can it be "excessive" if we haven't defined a minimal or general value to that emotion? A quick look at Oxford dict mentions that the term "Pride" is a standard value:
"A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired."
Now, despite the emotions invoked, Pride is Neutral in connotation. "Confidence" is positive, and "arrogance" is negative.
for some weird reason I love it when he just says 'wrong.' ... haha
I can hear the head scientist in CERN kicking the accelerator and announcing:
"THIS... IS... SPARTICLE !!!"
@7CellarDoors I think you're right about many cases, if not most, but we do have a tradition of sexism in science. Of course, the type of incidents he describes happen to men as well, famous physicists taking more credit than they should and new, strange results being ridiculed, but it seems that this happens more often to women than men.
Naysayer: This science! This is madness!
Michio Kaku: Madness? THIS IS SPARTICLES!
*Michio Kaku kicks naysayer into a pit*