A century ago, it was possible for a physicist to know almost everything there was to know about physics. Now, this is far from the case. It isn’t that the physicists of today are less competent. The problem is that humans simply know so much about the inner workings of the universe that it is impossible for someone to be deeply familiar with all of it. As a result, today’s tendency is to produce specialists.
For example, I trained initially as a relativist: general relativity and quantum extensions of it, applied to cosmology, were my specialist areas of physics. Eventually, I shifted to working in particle cosmology, connecting particle physics with fundamental questions about the history of space-time. When it comes to research, I have done nothing else for 22 years.
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As a PhD advisor, I understand the need for budding scientists to focus on developing expertise in a specialist subject. But this can represent a problem down the line. When we continue to use the same tools and ideas over and over again, there is a risk that we stop thinking outside the proverbial box. And there is no expectation that professional physicists will do any kind of continuing education to maintain their general knowledge or develop familiarity with other areas.
The last time I did research outside the area of cosmology was the summer I spent building lasers in an atomic physics lab. I ended up in the role after performing highly in my second quantum mechanics class, taught by (the only woman professor I ever had as a student). In that class, we learned that certain types of particles, bosons, could collapse into a single state where they behave collectively like one superparticle. This condition of matter is called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), and while I was at university, three of the scientists who led the labs where the first BECs were formed won the Nobel prize. I was hooked and asked Professor Hau for a job in the lab where she was doing related research.
Though I eventually chose to stick with cosmology, I never lost my adoration for atomic physics. This paid off when I stumbled into the area of research I am best known for: BEC dark matter, dark matter that can form these superparticle states. I pursued the project specifically because it allowed me to draw on atomic physics and particle cosmology at the same time.
Attending a meeting where people were talking science far afield from what I do was an intellectual challenge
This work has taken me many places, figuratively and literally. Not only did it put me on the path to professorship and tenure, but at the end of August, it took me to Australia. The trip was one of firsts: my first time to Australia and my first time at a workshop focused on atomic physics. Part of working on BEC dark matter involves translating ideas from atomic physics, and in the process I had spent years trying to understand the work of at the University of Queensland. When Davis reached out to me because he had read my , I had a fangirl moment via email and we jumped on Zoom to talk science. A year later, he invited me to give a workshop lecture.
Attending a meeting where people were talking science that is far afield from what I do was an intellectual challenge. I took notes on every talk, and frequently those notes were just lists of words and concepts that I would need to look up later. It was a good reminder of what it’s like to be a beginner.
A lesson I learned at – Finite Temperature Non-Equilibrium Superfluid Systems – is that my understanding of what physicists do has been too narrow. I thought particle physicists, cosmologists, quantum gravity theorists and astrophysicists had cornered the market on asking esoteric fundamental questions about the basic nature of the universe. Atomic physicists worried more about practical matters, right? But at FINESS, what I witnessed was a community that was putting quantum matter in a variety of different conditions in the lab, just to see what happened. People were trying atomic physics calculations, just to see what came out. They were exploring the fundamental nature of matter, at different scales than I am used to.
The workshop was a dream, really. My entire career I have wanted to be in rooms where people are focused on curiosity, where people cheer each other on (every question began with a compliment about the talk) and where there are lots of unresolved scientific questions. FINESS was my first real experience with that – 25 years after I began university. Besides gathering a few ideas to try out in my dark matter research, I also came away with a new perspective on why physics remains a vibrant area of research.
I also found myself wondering: what if physicists had time to do occasional intensive continuing education where we learn about science well beyond our own? The results could be amazing.
Chanda’s week
What I’m reading
Readers who are curious about atomic physics should check out Felix Flicker’s The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the fantastical phenomena of everyday life.
What I’m watching
Right now, I’m completely obsessed with the TV show Snowpiercer.
What I’m working on
Sadly, I spent part of my Australia trip working on a grant.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an associate professor of physics and astronomy, and a core faculty member in women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her most recent book is The Disordered Cosmos: A journey into dark matter, spacetime, and dreams deferred
