{"id":2815,"date":"2019-04-11T14:08:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T13:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empathygap.uk\/?p=2815"},"modified":"2021-07-30T16:13:25","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T15:13:25","slug":"woman-takes-first-picture-of-a-black-hole-apparently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empathygap.uk\/?p=2815","title":{"rendered":"Woman Takes First Picture of a Black Hole (apparently)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you are not actually living in a black hole yourself, and hence out of contact with the rest of the universe, you will know by now that astronomers have just reported the first picture of a black hole, specifically the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87. (To be pedantic, it\u2019s the first picture of stuff falling into a black hole, the black hole itself being, well, black. Actually, it isn\u2019t, quite, but never mind). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One is used to experts interviewed on the BBC about anything scientific (well, anything at all really) being women on every occasion it proves possible. This was no exception, local women astronomers being pressed into service yesterday to comment on the achievement. Annoyingly obvious propaganda. One groans and moves on. But press articles have appeared such as the BBC\u2019s \u201cKatie Bouman: The woman behind the first black hole image<\/a>\u201d and the Mail\u2019s ‘An amazing accomplishment… take your seat in history’: Ivanka Trump and AOC lead the plaudits for humble MIT graduate, 29, who created the algorithm that captured the first EVER direct image of a black hole\u2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A whole bunch a female celebs (not noted for knowing anything about science, and caring less) flooded social media to \u201cclaim the black hole for woman-kind\u201d. My sarcastic words, sorry, but really that\u2019s a fairly accurate description of the tweets, e.g., \u201cLet\u2019s holla for women in STEM!!\u201d, and \u201cKatie Bouman proved women in STEM don\u2019t just make the impossible, possible, but make history while doing it\u201d, etc. You get the picture. One person \u2013 obviously a vile misogynistic troll -complained that they were unnecessarily making a purely scientific achievement a matter of gender. Well, they were. Indisputably. The twitterati didn’t see it that way. Surprise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that this was a large international collaboration, I expected that the team involved would be very large. It is often the case in these situations that the leader of the collaboration acts as a figurehead to take the credit (and who then will invariably emphasise that it was a team effort). But that wouldn\u2019t do. The Director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, Shep Doeleman, is a bloke. That wouldn\u2019t do at all. Somewhere along line the media lighted upon a suitable female candidate for glory. As leader of the image algorithm team, Katie Bouman was a suitable choice. She, in best tradition, immediately deflected the credit to her team of computer scientists. Quite right too. But the media, and social media, are determined to make her their hero of choice, whether she likes it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who has worked in teams knows that there tends to be one or two people who are the linchpins. Is Katie such a person, or was it members of her team that better fit that description? Outsiders will never know, and nor does it much matter \u2013 to outsiders. Those in the know, know. But even if we knew who were the key players in the algorithm team, that leaves\u2026.everyone else. And how many people are there in the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration? Rather a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the scientific papers themselves,\nshould we? Six papers were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on\nthe 10th<\/sup> April 2019. They were,<\/p>\n\n\n\n