Revenge of the woke physicists

The inquisition that has been launched by woke physicists against a physics professor for expressing some heretical ideas at Cern about why women are under-represented in the field is truly shocking. You would think physicists, of all people, would be wary of inquisitions.

Following his presentation, Professor Strumia has now been suspended by Cern, where he’s regularly employed, and is under investigation by the university of Pisa, where he holds a chair in physics, for ethics violations. I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses both positions.

In the BBC report, his headline sin is reported to be claiming that ‘physics was invented and built by men’. That’s not 100 per cent accurate — some women, such as Marie Curie, have made critical contributions to the field — but is it ‘offensive’, as some feminists have claimed?

The reason his presentation caused an uproar is that he challenged the orthodox view that the reason women are under-represented in physics is because of implicit bias, stereotype threat and sexual discrimination.