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A review by nhnabass
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
5.0
"To borrow a word from the Indigenous communities that my Black ancestors probably come from, I am a griot of the universe-- a storyteller. And although I am the first Black woman to hold a tenure-track faculty position in theoretical cosmology, I am certainly not the first Black woman to be a griot of the universe." (Chapter 4)
I will begin, as others have, making it clear I am not an science person by any means, yet I would argue that this book was still written for someone like me-- who wonders about the night sky passionately and often. As others have mentioned, the first few chapters are challenging but do know Dr. Prescod-Weinstein explains it all in bite size knowledge chunks that make it easier to digest, even for someone who had only heard of "quarks" in high school physics.
Near the beginning of the book, a striking quote sat with me, "some of us wonder about where we belong more than others." Dr. Prescod-Weinstein takes great care to explain the fascinating magic of particle physics and astrophysics while emphasizing that her journey into science is unmistakably shaped by her identity as a Queer Black Woman. This book is an important one, highlighting the importance and scale of the anti-racist work left to do in STEM fields while also elevating one of the only Black femme voices in this field in this part-memoir format. The chapter, "Dark Matter Isn't Dark" was especially eye-opening and highlighted how even in such a commonly known name, racial biases persist when things are only ever "found" and named by white men.
The author does a careful job illustrating the many ways science and society are entangled with capitalism and colonialism-- and that western science has proved a lot but is certainly not the first to do so. The author provided much needed historical context behind commonly known physics discoveries and I found myself learning a lot more than I expected to. I feel as though through this book I have peaked behind the scenes of theoretical sciences and I am interested and excited to look and learn more. Overall, this was a challenging but fascinating read and I am glad I picked it up.
I will begin, as others have, making it clear I am not an science person by any means, yet I would argue that this book was still written for someone like me-- who wonders about the night sky passionately and often. As others have mentioned, the first few chapters are challenging but do know Dr. Prescod-Weinstein explains it all in bite size knowledge chunks that make it easier to digest, even for someone who had only heard of "quarks" in high school physics.
Near the beginning of the book, a striking quote sat with me, "some of us wonder about where we belong more than others." Dr. Prescod-Weinstein takes great care to explain the fascinating magic of particle physics and astrophysics while emphasizing that her journey into science is unmistakably shaped by her identity as a Queer Black Woman. This book is an important one, highlighting the importance and scale of the anti-racist work left to do in STEM fields while also elevating one of the only Black femme voices in this field in this part-memoir format. The chapter, "Dark Matter Isn't Dark" was especially eye-opening and highlighted how even in such a commonly known name, racial biases persist when things are only ever "found" and named by white men.
The author does a careful job illustrating the many ways science and society are entangled with capitalism and colonialism-- and that western science has proved a lot but is certainly not the first to do so. The author provided much needed historical context behind commonly known physics discoveries and I found myself learning a lot more than I expected to. I feel as though through this book I have peaked behind the scenes of theoretical sciences and I am interested and excited to look and learn more. Overall, this was a challenging but fascinating read and I am glad I picked it up.