I ran across this story and it tripped my trigger.

As you know, I have an intense interest in academia (both my parents were astrophysicists, and I taught political philosophy at the college level for a number of years). And because I grew up around scientists, I follow debates and research in physics and astronomy.

So I was intrigued when I read about an astronomer at Colorado College who was both an artist and an astronomer. That describes my father, whose 2nd career was as a published photographer, and dovetails with my own interest in photography and science (You can view my works here on Flickr).

So imagine my disappointment when I read the article about Natalie Gosnell, a professor of physics at Colorado College. I can easily imagine opportunities to integrate art into the teaching of science without dispensing with rigor. Many people find physics too abstract and mathematical to immediate grasp, and they give up before they should. Astronomy can easily capture the imagination already, tapping into our wonder more easily than drier subjects.

But in the end it is physics which many people find intimidating, so if an artist can integrate her work into her teaching, I am all for it.

So how well does Dr. Gosnell do it? Well, if her explanation of her approach is any indication, not so well.

“Both artists and scientists are just observing things about the world, making interpretations about those observations, and then sharing their interpretation,” says Gosnell.

Despite the strong ties she feels between art and science, she’s had to work for years in a society divided. Gosnell sees this division rooted in the systemic racism and sexism that the physics institution has been born into, which limits what physics could be and limits the people who feel welcome practicing it.

“As an astrophysicist, I’m a product of institutions that are steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy,” Gosnell says. “The tenants of white supremacy that show up [in physics] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it’s either-or thinking, and there’s no subtlety, there’s no gray area. All of this manifests in the way that we think about our research, and what counts as good research, what counts as important research?”

Most of Gosnell’s career has been dictated by the hyper-masculine world of astrophysics. Now, she is deciding that she doesn’t have to fit into that mold — she is changing the ways she teaches physics, and the way she professionally shares it.

Why?

Why why why? It needn’t have gone this way. But of course it did, because woke.

I looked into Dr. Gosnell and she is appears to be a genuine scientist. She has published in scientific journals on scientific matters, although he latest publication was of course on “inclusiveness” in science. And I have to assume she is very intelligent, as physicists are typically the highest IQ cohort in academia (interesting to note that classical language specialists are about equally intelligent). Her work focuses on the transfer of mass between binary stars, which I cannot imagine is deeply effected by race in any way.

Why bring White Supremacy into the mix? Wouldn’t that actually push people of color out of the field, not attract people into it?

Unfortunately the woke mind virus has become deeply embedded into the hardest of the hard sciences. Not that this should shock us, but it is extremely disappointing.

We are doomed.