Seven Annoying Things in Modern Science

The Standard Model (Photo credit: Ochre Jelly)

Seven things that annoy me about science these days.

1. The hypes. Yes, we discovered the Higgs boson. It is a particle that was predicted long ago and was an integral part of the Standard Model. Not finding it would amount to throwing the Standard Model out of the window. But we found it, so nothing changed. It was the most disappointing scenario. Did it really deserve all that media attention?
2. The Standard Model. Some theories are beautiful but wrong. Some are ugly and wrong. The Standard Model is probably the ugliest piece of physics ever made, so full of patches it basically seems like patchwork. And it is never wrong. Ever. It is the most frustrating experience. You have this theory which cannot be right for a number of reasons – it conflicts with General Relativity, for one – and it get every single prediction right. So it doesn’t give us a clue on how to replace it. Could it be any more annoying?
3. The arguments about the interpretations of quantum mechanics. I mean, how many interpretations are there? And critics from each side think the others are a bunch of crackpots who don’t even understand what science is. Also, there seem to be countless arguments on what decoherence does and does not entail, with some people saying it endorses many-worlds, others the Copenhagen interpretation and others none at all. Can’t we just settle it once and for all? It’s been fifty years, guys!
4. People who don’t understand science but who talk like they do. I am tired of hearing things like “yeah, but science is an act of faith” or “quantum mechanics proves consciousness and matter are related.” No it’s not and no it doesn’t. Science does not require faith but assumptions which, unlike faith, can be dropped. Quantum mechanics says nothing whatsoever about consciousness, especially if you endorse the many-worlds interpretation. Which I do, but I don’t want to argue about it. Gosh I annoy myself sometimes.
5. The black hole firewall wars. Not because of the wars themselves, but because I find myself absolutely unable to follow. People
   

   An example of simulated data modelled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Here, following a collision of two protons, a is produced which decays into two jets of hadrons and two electrons. The lines represent the possible paths of particles produced by the proton-proton collision in the detector while the energy these particles deposit is shown in blue. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   keep publishing articles for and against firewalls and all I can do is stare, dumbfounded. Have we found a new fundamental truth about gravity and quantum mechanics? Or are all just really confused? I have no idea because I don’t understand most of the arguments being put forward. Or maybe I understand a little but definitely not enough to take a side. And that annoys the crap out of me.

6. The E8 theory of everything by that surfer guy. It’s the theory that nobody but the press seems to take seriously. Sure, the guy surfs and he’s a physicist. And that’s cool, I guess. Doesn’t mean he has a clue!
7. Science journals. Well, not all of them, just the ones who charge outrageous subscription fees. In the age of arxiv, I really don’t see why anyone should bother with them any more. We want to push science forward? Let’s make all articles available to anyone in the world! This way, a woodcutter in Bhutan with an interest will be able to achieve a grasp of theoretical physics to dwarf any undergraduate, for free.

I’m sure I haven’t been exhaustive and probably I haven’t been fair. What annoys you most about science these days?