I heard last week that the physics teacher of the daughter of one of my colleagues told the daughter that girls who do their nails don’t do physics. Sigh.
So, here are the nails of an internationally leading particle physics professor. My nails.
Don’t believe the gatekeepers! #womeninSTEM
@freyablekman yeah, there’s definitely no physics applied to nails at all… 🙄
@freyablekman Marvelous! How did you do it???
@freyablekman amazing. I was hoping such stories were only from last millennium... Keep posting as I am afraid we're sliding back atm.
(As a white male I also have and had a vested interested in the benefits of equality and diversity, now even more as my daughters are almost going to college)
@jeroen interesting enough ther is some research that says college (if you mean college as 18+, I realise it changes per culture) is too late and the brainwashing happens much much earlier (12-14 ish). I hope your daughters get to do what sparks their interests and are not discouraged by stereotyping teachers !
@freyablekman Sigh. He's so misguided and so mistaken. What I am telling my daughters is that it always must be your choice (to do the nails, to have earrings, …) and you should be comfortable with your choice.
@freyablekman
Love the cat-eye.
Sincerely,
Another physics girl who paints her nails.
And they are BEAUTIFUL!
@freyablekman Ooh is that magic nagnetic nail polish?
@freyablekman ex STEM girlie here, im very jelly of your nails.
@freyablekman How did my Mastodon algorithm know I am back on my way from CERN? 🧐
@meta_blum Lovely helmets! I hope you also got to visit the prettiest detector at the LHC, CMS? 🛑 ❤️
@freyablekman I did Synchrozyklotron, Atlas, Antimatter and Käsefondue (I love that combination 😇). The rest will follow another time
@meta_blum Toll!, in zwei wochen ist es CMS week+ Käsefondue für alle in meine Arbeitsgruppe 🫕
@freyablekman Wunderbar. Ich finde, das Käsefondue führt die Teilchen wieder sehr schön zusammen :-))
@freyablekman oh my goooooooosh! i love the color changing! pretty cool way to show off electromagnetism!
@freyablekman that's heartbreaking
@freyablekman this. I was told ‘girls like me’ don’t do computer science- by my high school guidance counsellor no less! Costly.
@freyablekman Wow, that's a cool color!
@freyablekman
I'm not a painted nails person myself, but damn those are beautiful!
@freyablekman This looks awesome and I want it on my toe nails 💅
Let's hope I can still remain to be a male farmer then 😵💫
@farmous I think you can definitely remain a male farmer. I'm a big fan of dark nail polish as I am clumsy and hit my toes all the time :)
@freyablekman computer scientist with painted nails here!
(I'm not a woman, but an enby and lived most of my life thinking I'm a girl/woman and already painted my nails back then so I'm well aware of all those shitty assumptions and comments :-/)
Those magnetic/cat eye nail polishes are also really interesting from a physics standpoint!
(Although that obviously isn't necessary, nail polish is allowed to be just pretty and still isn't a contradiction with being interested in (and good at) STEM)
@Larymir I love the green glitter on the dark background!
@freyablekman There's some proper applied physics right there in the nails!
@twobiscuits Yep, they involve magnets and Fabry-Perot interference. Good times!
@freyablekman
My sister is starting to study physics and she loves doing nail art ! I hope she keeps it up ! 🤗
@freyablekman 🤩 voll hübsch!
@freyablekman beautiful 😍.
Like Galaxis.
And what a dump teacher.
@freyablekman
Wait! I am in meteorology (aka atmospheric physics), specialising in cloud microphysics!
My nails are not as shiny as yours, but hey - with polish 😁
(And I am "only" assistant professor, so still have time to ramp up my nail polishing skills before I become a full professor!)
@wiebiwetter you're on track! Love the colours!
@freyablekman The teacher mentioned a correlation, you’re suggesting causation, which wasn’t claimed. The teacher said "girls" and obviously meant "many girls among his students", which you misunderstandood as "all female persons anywhere". As a leading scientist you should know better.
@wolfram_roesler I'm not suggesting, I'm just showing my nails!! But I can read between the lines as I'm on social media long enough. What are YOU suggesting?
@freyablekman That the teacher might not be totally wrong, and that this has nothing to do with your nails.
@wolfram_roesler And WHY should that stop me showing my nails? Sorry I just don't understand. Maybe it's my woman brain? Or my years of experience of microagressions? I DEMAND an explanation why YOU can read what is inside a teacher's brain and I cannot?
@freyablekman pretty nice colors
@freyablekman As a cis-man, I don't even undrstand how you can achieve such a level of greatness (and I neither imagine how much time it can take).
These are really incredible.
@Riduidel well someone made these, and it wasn't me. Nail tech is a real job. And they can make some nails for you as well - even as a cis man
@freyablekman find me jealous of those shiny nails 😍
@freyablekman
Holy guacamole, those nails are awesome! 🤩
@freyablekman, woah, these are amazing nails! @dcoderlt
I hate this "you can be beautiful or clever, not both" trope ...
“Girls? In my field of study?” It's more likely than you think!
I have just followed you entirely because of your fingernails. I don’t understand or follow any of that lefty science crap…
<sarcasm alert> 😊🤣🤣
@freyablekman Oh, that SLAAAPS!!
You can certainly have bright red nails and help me replace my starter motor!
@freyablekman Magnets made them look even better. Science!
@freyablekman As a dad of a 9yo who would love to learn more about STEM (I'm a CS grad, software developer by trade, trying my best to teach her stuff whilst giving her room to grow and do her own stuff):
how do you get nails like this?! they are so freakin' cool!!!
my kid would **absolutely love** this!! (and frankly, so would I!)
@freyablekman I can attest to an oil engineer who surprised the helicopter crew taking her out to the platform by appearing with painted fingernails.
@freyablekman cool nails! Would also fit an astronomer.
@freyablekman so glad my high school physics teacher was a woman and I didn't have to deal with that bullshit.
@freyablekman Gorgeous! I see that you applied that physics knowledge by using magnetic polish to great effect. I’m a chemist, and I also do my nails ❤️
@freyablekman Pfft gatekeepers. I'm a compsci girl who plays handball and wears nail polish and weird old school clothes. fuck those normative bullcrap.
also: love the polarised particle nail polish! Incredibly beautiful and well done <3
@freyablekman the only reasonable response to that is "bitch, i contain multitudes"
@freyablekman my god they’re full of stars
@freyablekman where can I get this?! 😲
@freyablekman but you obviously don't do elementary physics :)
@bonkers lol yeah. check out deez nails. Can't be possible.
@freyablekman Being a logical, rational person, I'm sure the physics teacher changed their view in light of this new evidence.
@freyablekman I hope the young lady gave him an ear full
@Giliell not sure. But she's been made aware of this thread.
@freyablekman That is awesome. I wonder how much it would cost to paint my car with nail polish, and how long it will last…
@su_liam I think the first nail polish in the 1920s was car paint, supposedly. So we'd be full circle :)
@freyablekman Goodness gracious. Those nails are beautiful.
@freyablekman nice finish! Looks a lot like the one my partner got at this place in St Genis 💅🏻
@freyablekman
Any chance you wanna share how you achieved that effect? Looks absolutely amazing!!
@LisaLobmeyer a web search for magnet cat eye would do the trick. You need special polish (that comes with a magnet) These are relatively simple, people do a lot fancier things by now. There are of course also youtube tutorials.
@freyablekman Han i want something like that on mine !!
@freyablekman The pictures of all those spectacular nail polishs in this thread are intriguing 
If you don't mind the question, what keywords would I be looking for if I was looking for polish with this effect?
@ysegrim magnet cat eye would do the trick. These are relatively simple, people do a lot fancier things by now. There are of course also youtube tutorials.
1. Studying physics (at university) means the students are adults, thus women, not girls.
2. He prefers his students to not care for their bodies?!?? Yuck!
3. Sometimes functional nails need backup/support, e.g. for playing guitar. Applied physics 101: torsion/shear forces vs plastic deformation limit.
4. Why limit physics to girls? Men and the spectrum in between are also interested!
(studied physics, high energy laser applications. male, though)
@vampirdaddy this was a high school teacher saying this to one of his pupils, btw. But to be fair it would be just as bad if a university lecturer did it.
@freyablekman jeez. Nice nails. Radioactive??!!!
@poetaster lol. Nope. I am trained to work with radioactivity. So, obviously: not on my nails
@freyablekman not that I know anything about it, but those are some shiny nails!
In CompSci we would say that pretty nails and physics skill are orthogonal dimensions. By which we mean that they don't affect each other.
@freyablekman the nails of a programmer with 20 years on the job <3
@danielaKay Oh I love that petrol metallic. Wonderful! My compliments
@freyablekman they are amazing! And the story with the picture made two ladies smile over here.
@freyablekman is that the magnetic nail polish that they align with a magnet? i used to get my nails done all fancy and i loved that so much! that and chrome powder nails.
@piebob yeah exactly, it's that one!
@freyablekman omg that nail polish is awesome what brand is it?
@Lunaphied if you search for magnet cat eye nails I'm sure you'll find something similar. These are relatively simple, people do a lot fancier things by now. There are, of course, also YouTube tutorials.
@freyablekman there's so many nice nail art options involving science (magnetism!!)
@freyablekman Besides this statement of the teacher being obviously nonsense, I would like to hear how he explains all this effects without physics...
Gorgeous nails, btw.
Sounds like he meant: "I don't think you can concentrate in my class if you're doing your nails at the same time."
Which must sound like a scientific challenge to the whole class (boys also - nowadays they do nails!).
What it signifies is: The physics teacher is weak in pedagogical skills and needs training.
If they have such a hard time in a modern society, send them back to school! That's what was meant with "life-long learning"!
;-)
@freyablekman
I wonder if it's the nails or the woman he disapproves of. 🙄
@freyablekman I just gotta say.
Nice nails.
@freyablekman Like a pocket universe on each finger!
@freyablekman Like a pocket universes on each finger!
@freyablekman Obviously the teacher is a sexist. Yet, I don’t do my nails anymore, for environmental reasons. And because I find it superfluous and rather time-consuming. Nails can be beautiful without any artificial chemical additives. I use natural oils, e.g. coconut oil for handcare, for instance. #ForNature #sustainability
@freyablekman my wife had to fight to get into physics classes. Some things have sadly not changed.
@freyablekman
Those look gorgeous! When I put nailpolish on, they look a bit more messy. I keep telling myself it is because I have ADHD and can't keep my hands still...
@freyablekman very nice, with _a lot_ of particles.
Yes, don't let them tell garbage.
I wonder what this "teacher" tells boys who do their nails? Object to stupidity!
@freyablekman My son, who wears nail polish, is greeting the teacher and saying, if the teacher had focused more on physics and less on gender stereotypes, they might perhaps have achieved more than Lehramtsstudium. 😜
@walsonde this is when mastodon needs all the old twitter burn memes! So true 🔥
@freyablekman im am Idiot. I meant to write that my son is wearing nail polish while studying physics.
@walsonde don't worry, I got the spirit!
@freyablekman I watch a YouTube channel called Sarah N Tuned. She has long, painted nails & rebuilds cars.
It doesn’t stop someone doing anything.
@OverclockedAndy @freyablekman I still don't know how Dolly Parton plays guitar with those super done up nails on both hands. I mean, long nails on the picking hand is nice, it's like having finger picks. But she's got those mini-daggers on her fretting hand she can still play chords. The moment I have ANY nail above the quick on my left, if I want to play remotely worth a damn, I have to trim them. But she adapted with open tunings and barre and and low string fretting. Amazing!
@lerxst @OverclockedAndy Dolly is a magician !
@freyablekman very pretty.
@freyablekman @jcdvore Very nice.
Any teacher who says "girls don't…" is not qualified to be a teacher.
@freyablekman my PhD is in chemistry, but I work in photonics (physics! lasers!) and these were my nails I got done for the last conference I attended
@psistarpsiii oooh I love those! particularly the cute little diffraction spikes 🌟
@freyablekman at one point I painted my nails, wrote equations across them with gel pen and then painted clear polish over that. Doubt I can find a pic now but it worked !
@RadtkeJCJ there is a senior lecturer at the university of York who is known for her nails. Pic blatantly stolen from Kate Lancaster - check out some of her other #scicomm here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd19WvC9yqUd1zkyFJZD4nrZfLOtQaqUM&si=qRgrX9LttMUeZJHu
@freyablekman those are great! :)
@RadtkeJCJ @freyablekman I have always craved antitoxic culture. Please start a company and hire me. I will paint my nails for the interview (and I will do a shitty job).
That teacher's comment irks me so much.
On of the women in my high school Chemistry class went on to be a Chemistry professor. There were only two women in a class of 25.
@freyablekman Those are very pretty nails.
@freyablekman I'm qualified to talk about neither physics nor nails but I am impressed.
@freyablekman
Stupid men with a degree. 🤦
And I 💚 your nails!
@ElpasYou_2 stupid, with a degree AND allowed near kids
@ElpasYou_2 yep. That was my first response too.
@freyablekman
Stupid men with a degree. 🤦
@freyablekman Hear hear. I have a PhD in high energy physics, and I have done my nails a lot too. I don't do it so much these days because my nails rip very easily. Anyway, I particularly love the magnetic nail polish where you can use a magnet to create field lines as they dry. If that's not for physicists, then who!?
@veronica @freyablekman Oh, where can I get that???
@wiebiwetter @veronica They're magnet cat's eye design. Most nail salons know how to do them. Many combos of base colour and multicolor pigments possible, of course :)
@freyablekman @veronica Ahh, okay!
So far, I've always done my nails myself, so that would definitely be the next step... My new gold standard are your iridescent nails anyways... 😆 Like iridescent clouds ☁️😍
@veronica exactly!
I'm thinking of getting CMS experiment nail decals made for the CERN shop. I think they will be a winner.
@freyablekman Great idea. I was there in September and there was a lot less fun stuff than there used to be when I worked at CERN (I worked on Hi-Lumi LHC some years ago).
@freyablekman as you can see I am working very hard today
You have to break out the two parts to mathematics: applied and theoretical
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @afewbugs or the ten kinds of physics... haha, it's academia, everyone claims they're a singular diamond that created a new sub-sub-subdiscipline. If only because that's how you get funding .
@afewbugs @freyablekman I remember a day in my physics lab where I wore nail polish and had to clean something with acetone. Not a great combination, but I survived!
My physics PhD involved a fair amount of acetone and isopropanol (for cleaning traces of oils off of things that needed to go in ultrahigh vacuum), so not sure about the right-hand blue/yellow boundary there.
@only_ohm true it depends on the sub-field, and the kind of work. At points of my career during experimental construction I have also worked with various fluids that would not be kind to nail varnish. But I would say that UV cured gel polish is much more robust :)
@afewbugs hehe so true. No nasty solvents for me. But I do have a fancy particle collider :)
I'm a biologist and wear nail polish but I keep my nails short, so it doesn't add to material-under-nails risk.
@freyablekman @afewbugs was about to ask - not that it matters for the point - whether you are theoretician, lab-rat or administrator
anyway1: gorgeous!!!
anyway2: don't forget the "philosophers" variations and replace philosophers with "gender-/queerstudies" ;)
@freyablekman @afewbugs so no pauli-effect (lab equipment stops working when theoreticians are nearby) around you.
p.s.: a messuring-nailpolish-collection (magnetic fields, dosimeterpolish for ionizing radiation, younameit) … when?
@freyablekman @afewbugs 😲
And that doesn't mess with nails?
@nachtet @freyablekman @afewbugs someone design a nail polish that changes color when you bombard it with neutrons
@cinebox @nachtet @freyablekman I mean do we know for sure that regular nail polish doesn't change colour when you bombard it with neutrinos? Has anyone ever tried?
@afewbugs @cinebox @nachtet every nail gets constantly bombarded with millions of neutrinos. So I'd say we're safe. (neutrons, on the other hand, only a few. but they would get stuck on top)
But nail polish with ground up/liquid scintillator in it would totally get me interested. And should not be *that* difficult. Probably biggest issue would be making it cosmetics-safe
@freyablekman The nails of someone who can explain the cool optical phenomena going on with said nails, too!
@c_dan4th "wanna know more about Fabry-Perot interference? Then check out my nails!!!"
What did the physics teacher say when you showed them?
@Energetic_Nova not my physics teacher, sadly. I would have showed them all corners of the room. Verbally, of course :) Still not OK.
@freyablekman girls who do their nails with magnet effect polish are doing practical physics while doing their nails.
@freyablekman
Of ourse these are a physics professor's nails, they have particles in it!
@slowtiger and even polarised particles!!!
@freyablekman #alt4you A hand rotates to demonstrate iridescence in black-enameled nails, looking for all the world as if a magenta, gold, and green aurora were somehow captured in varnish.
@cwicseolfor thanks, I thought I had added alt text but my scheduler seems to have eaten it. Yours is much nicer so i've edited it in :)
@freyablekman It’s coincidentally a great example of applied physics. Pigments and reflective/ refractive materials are some of the prettiest physics available!
@cwicseolfor yep and this specific varnish with magnetisable nano-glitter is a great example of Fabry-Perot interference. Good times :)
@freyablekman They apparently don't use power tools and want to study forensics either
That just made me think about this conference in Thailand which had a dresscode for one part of the conference. Which made people rage so much that even I heard about it (I am not in high energy physics...).
How hard can it be to not judge people on their looks🙄
I found their requirements in this blog post:
https://telescoper.blog/2022/05/02/a-dress-code-for-physics/
@jonasgraphie I happen to know quite a lot about that event so here are the facts:
- that conference was not in high energy physics.
- And the dress code was for a onehour protocol event separate to the entire week of science , where the Thai royal family was there.
- And the event was not obligatory and had no science content.
- so people who didn’t want to dress up didn’t have to attend , didn’t need to attend, and no harm was done if they did not attend.
- to summarise, in my book the people who complain about that are the same people who whine that they cannot visit a church in Italy when dressed like a slob in a tank top
@freyablekman
Thank you very much for pointing that out. Yes, I was aware that this event was not part of the scientific program and part of some protocol.
And yes, I am pretty sure that I was falling for the public outrage, and intuitively would have followed the dresscode if I had been there. Still I feel like there is some clash of two "cultures".
Honestly I think I will delete me first toot. After your comments I find it inappropriate, especially in the context of your great initial toot.
@jonasgraphie I see your point.
@jonasgraphie that’s right. If you are at a visit of the president of your country you also need to follow the dress code. And the dress code changes per country.
Also, my physics awesomeness is not stored in my nails. So physics is also totally doable for people without fancy nails. OBVIOUSLY.
@freyablekman thank you for the clarification 😁
@freyablekman here I were hoping for a silverbullet
@MxSpoon sneak peak behind the scenes - this image is slightly outdated, by now my nails are silver! like bullets!
@freyablekman Oh dear...
I do wish you hadn't added this..
Until then I had a perfect reason for my inadequacy in physics at shool and beyond ;-)))
@freyablekman
There is physics in everything, so this guy is just a misogynist supremacist, thinks he’s a “serious man” but he’s profoundly unserious, and doesn’t even know it.
@freyablekman Boys who put gel in their hair also don't do physics right?
Also: absolutely love your nails!
@freyablekman
i would see it as a good deal, doing one's nails and being a good physicist in return. 😅
