The title of this column is in quotation marks because it is borrowed from Sabine Hossenfelder, who utters the phrase in a recent video on your channel on YouTube. Quotation marks and credits given, let's get to the context. Hossenfelder is a German physicist and content creator, the more erudite term for a YouTuber, as well as a writer. As a physicist, she dedicates herself, now with much less intensity, to a range of complex subjects, from cosmology to particle physics, including the foundations of quantum mechanics. As a writer, she has published two popular science books, which are, at the same time, a critique of some practices in science.[1]. As a content creator, she has the YouTube channel, “Ciência com Sabine”[2], with 1,5 million and a half subscribers and more than 220 million views. In other words, it is a “an influencer” of science.
The oldest video is from 13 years ago, but she has dedicated herself more intensely to this, now her main activity, since the COVID-19 pandemic. She currently posts up to five videos a week. Hossenfelder has a unique humor and sarcasm, typically German, that I enjoy. As she says on her science communication channel in a provocative tone: “[I try to explain in the] simplest way possible, but not simpler than that, updates and summaries of science and technology. Without exaggeration, without beating around the bush, without walking on eggshells about inconvenient truths.” One of her videos, which has more than three million views, is advertised on the channel as “I failed (because academia sucks),” but with a slightly more restrained title: “My dream died and now I’m here.”[3]. It's worth watching. She doesn't beat around the bush when talking about gender discrimination, the illusions sold to aspiring academics, the emergence of flaws in research funding mechanisms, and possible biases in research agendas.
Regarding this last item, he constantly talks about speculations “that do not contradict current principles of physics”[4], but for which there is no evidence and continue to engage communities of scientists in sophisticated mathematical exercises as an end in itself, without real progress for decades in relation to what they intend to demonstrate. Be it an alternative explanation for the universe, such as the existence of several universes and not just ours[5], be a theory that explains everything, the so-called string theory[6], which requires extra dimensions of spacetime, totaling 10 to 26 dimensions, depending on the version of the theory.
The scientific community around these topics is significant and continually funded. Soon, Hossenfelder’s criticisms, who participate in several roundtables about theoretical speculations and the lack of evidence, arouse the ire of many. In the background, we have the uncomfortable question of how a scientist can criticize science and academia. Let’s therefore take a look at another YouTube channel, “Professor Dave Explains”[7] with over 3 million subscribers. The channel is dedicated to scientific dissemination in general and to the debunking of scientific denialism in particular. Professor Dave posted a video (date in the link)[8], in the category of such unmasking, about Sabine Hossenfelder, recognizing her qualities as a science communicator, but criticizing her “anti-establishment” stance and her “pessimism” towards institutions and stating that, therefore, some of her videos would provide ammunition to science deniers.
The German physicist's response came quickly on his channel[9], a video that Hossenfelder called “another episode of the ‘Sabine complaining about something’ series”. It is in this episode that she says the phrase that gives this column its title. The researcher summarizes her previous criticisms of academia (or part of it) and states that ignoring problems does not make them go away and that science deniers are aware of this. Therefore, she is not a cheerleader because she simply likes and respects science. The criticism of German physics and her reply are almost tied, with more than 600 thousand views and more than 12 thousand comments each. I imagine that other videos will still come. This is a debate that reaches repercussions (read the comments on each video) on YouTube channels and not in the academic space.
How does controversy play out in traditional scientific circles? For example, some researchers are beginning to question whether the ever-increasing number of articles published could be detrimental to science itself: the flood of articles could drown out truly important advances. Updating a column written three years ago[10], I found a slightly more recent scientific article, entitled “Articles and patents have become less disruptive over time”[11].
In their conclusions, the authors of the article suggest abandoning the “publish or perish” mantra, offering longer sabbaticals for researchers, and changing the focus of research funding. However, the debate is also taking place in this traditional academic space: scientific articles. Just look through the more than 500 citations, according to Google Scholar. The problems of science as an object of study of science, but without leading to actions for the changes announced as necessary.
The article in Nature mentioned, is in line with the series “Sabine complaining about something”. These complaints correlate with a question, which also faces resistance in the centrality of traditional academic spheres, despite the multiplication of testimonies, comments and localized studies: is the academic environment toxic? This toxicity is probably one of the reasons for the decrease in interest in an academic career (in addition to the value of scholarships and salaries), the worsening of the mental health of those in this environment and the consequences on the results obtained, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. A representative, but obviously not exhaustive, search brings up titles in the academic literature, such as “The sick academy needs a cultural change”[12], “A mental health crisis is gripping science – toxic culture is to blame”[13] or in the general press, “Universities need to review toxic work culture for academic researchers”[14].
The magic word is cultural change. However, the texts are still vague about what to actually do to change this culture. On the other hand, “Insider Higher Education” suggests a “ten-point plan to end the toxic workplace in higher education”[15]. Some of these points (promoting diversity, equity and inclusion) have shown significant progress in relation to undergraduate students, but in the case of other areas, not so much. One of the tips is to combat a mantra that many profess: “do more with less”. The obvious is needed, do less with less. Despite the comments, testimonies and research on the subject, the movement for change is still timid and shy.
Fan leaders often limit themselves to cursing their opponents, blaming the referee, the goal-scoring midfielder, the center forward who missed the goal. It's worth it, after all I'm a fan, even if I'm disorganized. But as fans we know that sometimes it's necessary to rethink the club itself, from the relationship with the fans and members, to the actions and guidelines of the directors, and even the teams themselves... to avoid relegation.
This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Unicamp.
[1] The most recent one was translated by me and published here: “Does science have all the answers?”, published by Contexto.
[2] https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder/featured
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiBlGDfRU8
[4] A phase that she repeats for several cases in her book “Does science have all the answers?”
[5] https://www.nationalgeographicbrasil.com/ciencia/2022/05/o-que-e-o-multiverso-e-ha-alguma-evidencia-de-sua-existencia
[6] https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teoria_das_cordas
[7] https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorDaveExplains/featured
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70vYj1KPyT4
[9] The crisis in physics is real: Science is failing – YouTube
[10] https://unicamp.br/unicamp/ju/artigos/peter-schulz/ciencia-um-crescente-mal-estar-e-necessidade-das-mudancas/
[11] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05543-x
[12] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.345.6199.885-b
[13] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01708-4
[14] Universities must overhaul the toxic working culture for academic researchers | Anton Muscatelli | The Guardian
[15] Advice for how colleges can avoid or end toxic work cultures (opinion)
