Listening to one of the Radio 4 programmes yesterday about the Large Hadron Collider I began to understand for the first time the sheer scale of the data analysis involved. If they are to find the higgs bosun they will have to be able to pick it out of heaven knows how many particle observations (excuse me if my jargon is awry)
So how can we lesser mortals believe it if they say they have found it? It sounds to me as if it will be hard to be sure they have not just misinterpreted an error term
Then I remembered this:
Particle physicists construct their own detectors, tinker with them constantly, adjust them & even rebuild them for new experiments. Hence it is exceptionally difficult to check the results of an experiment, & there is no alternative to judgement in determining how much faith to place in any particular report
Theodore Porter: Trust in Numbers
Ultimately, none of us can do other than rely on trust of course
But it strikes me that trust could be an important part of the reason why it is so difficult for a woman to reach the top in academic physics, if she wants also to have a family
A young woman who is just reaching the post doc stage was talking about this on Womans Hour yesterday
There is the obvious difficulty at that stage of short term contracts & needing to move a lot
Plus, should you decide to try a career break, you risk getting out of touch with a fast moving field
But you also put a rupture in all those connections - of personal contact, working with others, publication etc - which form the bonds of trust
A young woman who is just reaching the post doc stage was talking about this on Womans Hour yesterday
There is the obvious difficulty at that stage of short term contracts & needing to move a lot
Plus, should you decide to try a career break, you risk getting out of touch with a fast moving field
But you also put a rupture in all those connections - of personal contact, working with others, publication etc - which form the bonds of trust
