I just happened to see that my DVR recorded a new Nova special, Nova: Black Hole Apocalypse. It's hosted by Janna Levin, a physicist who is recently pursuing outreach via books and hosting panels and such.
The early part talks a bit about LIGO's discovery, and then transitions with the non-astounding line "Today we know more about black holes than ever." Good to know that we've not gone backwards!
I'm wondering what's the apocalypse? Falling into the black hole? So what's new? I just don't get the title.
And I get that making an effort to showcase female scientists is worthwhile because it makes sense to (i) work a systematic bias, and (ii) show young folks that physics need not be a dominantly male enterprise. But I've seen only two males versus at least six females so far. I just checked the "Participants" tab in the first link above and I guess things get more evened out later in the show.
More generally, I wish these shows gave a little info about why these particular scientists were chosen to speak on the show. In other words, why don't they tell us what each researches (even if just a couple sentences and no more than maybe ten seconds)?
Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to finish the show, but I'm generally a big fan of Nova shows.
2 comments:
I sure hope one of the contributors was that greatest of TV physicists Michio Kaku!
Uggh! I didn't see him on the list (and still haven't finished watching it).
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