The most misleading stereotypes about physics

[Moonbear]

I always thought physicists worked with bubbly chemicals too when i was a kid.

That's probably the most pervasive misconception...all scientists look alike. They're male, wear a white lab coat, Coke-bottle glasses, their hair sticks up always looking like they're overdue for a haircut, they wear plaid pants that are a bit too short, and a red bowtie with a white shirt. Phew! Good thing us biologists missed that memo! At least Hollywood makes us look sexy once in a while, even if we're usually destroying the planet with some plague unleashed from a lab.

 

[Pengwuino]

I never imagined them with a bowtie

 

[Beeza]

Reveal me your astonishing way of life, oh master
:

Roll your eyes all you want. I choose to spend my spare time being healthy instead of eating chocolate and sitting on my butt:zzz: . Maybe being healthy isn't for everyone, but as for me, I most definitely will not fit into the stereotype, and will reach both my academic and fitness goals.

And here's my not-so-astonishing way of life, but my own individual passion that isn't for everyone.

Me on stage at 18 years old in my first teen bodybuilding competition, and then 2 years later and 30lbs heavier.

 

[Pengwuino]

Good luck spending 14 hours a day doing research while you're lifting weights for 14 hours a day.

 

[franznietzsche]

Good luck spending 14 hours a day doing research while you're lifting weights for 14 hours a day.

And to top it off there's the problem of general laziness! Between work, the gym and slacking off, I just don't have enough to fit everything it.

 

[Pengwuino]

And to top it off there's the problem of general laziness! Between work, the gym and slacking off, I just don't have enough to fit everything it.

Maybe you should stop going to work.

 

[Moonbear]

Me on stage at 18 years old in my first teen bodybuilding competition, and then 2 years later and 30lbs heavier.

And Woolie thought the sisterhood was weakening! With guys like you around, we should have no problem recruiting new members!

 

[heartless]

Roll your eyes all you want. I choose to spend my spare time being healthy instead of eating chocolate and sitting on my butt:zzz: . Maybe being healthy isn't for everyone, but as for me, I most definitely will not fit into the stereotype, and will reach both my academic and fitness goals.

And here's my not-so-astonishing way of life, but my own individual passion that isn't for everyone.

Me on stage at 18 years old in my first teen bodybuilding competition, and then 2 years later and 30lbs heavier.

Oh boy, too much stereotype and movies. Almost everyone does some kind of sports no matter whether you study physics or mathematics or are a geek, a nerd or whatever. I play soccer and do biking everyday, some other people do basketball or weightlifting, after all, healthy life style is important. Being healthy lowers the risk of experiencing pain, something that everyone should rather avoid. If you're healthy, you possibly live longer, and if you live longer you can devote yourself more to reasearch and further studies. It's good to do sports, but I wouldn't rather make them the way of one's life. There's so much to discover, learn and experience here in the world, that indifference to science, may prevent you from getting them all, just my 7 cents.

//edit

wow, how long have you been practicing/doing weighlifting?

 

[franznietzsche]

Maybe you should stop going to work.

Thats the sad part, I don't even have to go anywhere. incidently, you are distracting me from it right now. I've got a paper sitting in front of me I need to read, and here I am replying to you. Its all your fault. Clearly.

 

[Pengwuino]

Thats the sad part, I don't even have to go anywhere. incidently, you are distracting me from it right now. I've got a paper sitting in front of me I need to read, and here I am replying to you. Its all your fault. Clearly.

That's what i do

 

[franznietzsche]

That's what i do

Jerk .

 

[SimplySolitary_]

That they're all guys.

Blah. I hate "Physics? But you're a girl, why would you go to school for Physics?" Or "More power to ya, sister!"
What the hell? Come on, now...

 

[Pengwuino]

My friend got that from her friends. She is the absolute antithesis of the stereotypical physics major. She's a high school dropout, she does drugs, she's smarter then pretty much everyone at her level in the department, she's hot by absolutely any standard, and she plans on getting her phd. None of us are really sure what's going on...

 

[Gokul43201]

Chemists do were white lab coats, universally.

Another misleading stereotype.

 

[Rach3]

Another misleading stereotype.

How so? Lab coats are a standard of safety - chemical spills you know. The majority of chemists I know wear them when doing research. What's misleading?

 

[Gokul43201]

Perhaps you've interacted only with a certain specific group of chemists. I've spent hundreds of hours in Chemistry labs and found that on average hardly about 20% of the folks are lab-coated. Lab coats are almost universal, however, in Industry (as opposed to Academia).

 

[Mk]

Lab coats are almost universal, however, in Industry

Another misconception. I thought you lived in India?

 

[Gokul43201]

Not for the last 5 years.

First person to 10 misconception wins!

 

[Curious3141]

I can tell you that proper Clinical Microbiology labs absolutely demand long white lab coats with full sleeves and a narrow cuff while working. It's a safety issue.

 

[kaos]

All physicists have einstein's hair. Or that most phycisists work in cosmology.

 

[neutrino]

Newton discovered gravity.

 

[Chi Meson]

I think one of them is the scientific method. That every scientist uses scientific method to test out his idea and do the experiment. Another one is that there is no gravity in space <- this one I heard personally from my history teacher.

Even the people at NASA keep referring to gravity in orbit as "microgravity." One astronaut interviewed a couple of years ago said that "the Earth's gravitational field is weakened to almost nothing out in orbit." (Obvious question would be: how did it stay in orbit?)

 

[Astronuc]

You're too optimistic. The general public isn't aware of the personalities, theories, observations, achievements, or goals of physics. We'd be lucky to even have a stereotype for our field...

There are those who when they hear the term physics think of E=mc² and relativity, and the fact that they really don't understand it.

When I informed people whom I met for the first time that I was studying nuclear/astrophysics, I would invariably receive a response like - "Oooh! You must be smart." And then I would be asked to explain the latest theory on topics like Warp Drive, FTL, . . . . I suppose these days it's String Theory.

 

[Alkatran]

Newton discovered gravity.

I remember being confused as a child as to why people didn't know they fell down until Newton told them.

Then I found out, in university (finally), that the real break-through was the idea that stuff in space was ALSO falling in the same way. He combined the two.

 

[Moonbear]

I can tell you that proper Clinical Microbiology labs absolutely demand long white lab coats with full sleeves and a narrow cuff while working. It's a safety issue.

That's true...and the best way to tell a PhD from an MD is that the PhDs don't wear their lab coats to the cafeteria. Lab coats are for lab safety, not for showing off your status in the cafeteria. They are only worn when working with hazardous materials (biological, chemical or radiological) to protect against spills, and are taken off as soon as you're done so you don't transfer anything that got onto the labcoat to someplace else outside the lab. Another difference between PhDs and MDs in the cafeteria are the MDs have pagers while the PhDs (and grad students) have timers clipped to their belts.

 

[neutrino]

I remember being confused as a child as to why people didn't know they fell down until Newton told them.

Then I found out, in university (finally), that the real break-through was the idea that stuff in space was ALSO falling in the same way. He combined the two.

I especially dislike those TV commercials (at least the ones I've seen) where a guy with long hair is sitting under a tree, an apple falls on his head and he exclaims gravity! (as if he discovered the phenomenon itself).

There's a joke that does the rounds in this part of the world (India).

Q. Why didn't an Indian discover gravity?
A. It's most likely that a coconut fell on his head.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Einstein's e=mc² lead to the creation of the atomic bomb.

 

[Pengwuino]

There are those who when they hear the term physics think of E=mc² and relativity, and the fact that they really don't understand it.

When I informed people whom I met for the first time that I was studying nuclear/astrophysics, I would invariably receive a response like - "Oooh! You must be smart." And then I would be asked to explain the latest theory on topics like Warp Drive, FTL, . . . . I suppose these days it's String Theory.

I get that crap too, what's with people I wonder how people feel when i tell them i have no idea. What's even worse is when i do know a decent amount about something like that but i know any explanation is going to be over their head from the very beginning.

 

[Moonbear]

What's even worse is when i do know a decent amount about something like that but i know any explanation is going to be over their head from the very beginning.

I tell my students that that's probably the most difficult skill to learn as a scientist. It's easy to talk to other scientists about what you do, because they understand the terminology and have the background so you can omit things and they'll still keep up, but to explain what you do to a non-scientist in a way that does not confuse them and does not misinform them and does not patronize, that's really very challenging to learn to do. It's certainly something to practice though, because you will have to do it.

 

[Pengwuino]

I've learned one thing: Don't assume anything. Don't assume they know the most basic, simple, common facts about life. I was doing some presentation last semester at my university and what i realized in the end was that... not many people know atoms exist... even at a university level. I mean, i hated biology in high school but i would be embarassed if i didn't know the fundamentals from back then in biology. Is physics that much of a turn off?