The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

Since I started reading this book, I've been trying to figure out how I could write a review of it. But I knew that I wanted to finish the book first, because it deserves it. And now that I'm here and just finished it, I still have no idea how to write about it. I could write 20 different reviews and they would all be glowing, and none of them would be enough. Dr. Prescod Weinstein has absolutely blown my mind with a book that is at times awe-inspiring, at times heart-breaking, but always beautifully written with such a powerful sense of soul behind it that it still takes my breath away to think back on.I started reading it digitally (as I read almost everything, these days), but after the first chapter I ordered another copy in hardcover. Not because I wanted to read it in hardcover - there's no way I could have put it down, even for the couple of days shipping would take. But because I honestly can't wait for my daughters to be old enough that I can hand it to them. To be inspired by Dr. Prescod Weinstein's love of physics and the universe, but also to be inspired by her courage in giving us all this deeply intimate view into her struggles and her dreams for humanity.I have spent the last week waxing poetic about the universe and subatomic particles, and also reframing how I look at the social structures around me and what my own dreams for the future might be. And that might be the highest praise I can give it. I can't recommend it enough.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein opens with a section discussing the particle physics and cosmology on which she works. It is written in a way that makes the ideas wonderfully accessible and enjoyable to those of us for whom they are new, and the section glows with love and excitement for what she does.She writes about being captivated by the way spacetime and matter influence each other. This idea echoes through the rest of the book, in which she discusses how who she is - a Black, Jewish, agender woman with chronic pain - changes the shape of her experience in the sciences and how that changed shape in turn affects how she is able to move through that space.The story of her experience with the sciences swings through enlightening, infuriating, inspiring, and enraging. Some of it is hard to read, but it is always incredibly moving and thought-provoking.This is a wonderful book. Every page is stuffed with fascinating ideas about how we understand our universe and how we can better interact with it and with each other. It changed my thinking and opened my understanding to new and different ways of knowing our world.

In “The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred,” Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein describes her work and the field studying dark matter as well as the ways in which science reproduces the white supremacist hererocispatriarchal ableist capitalist values of Euro-American society and how that imposes limitations both on the field of science and on a society that stipulates who is allowed to dream. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein draws upon the literature of both astrophysics as well as historians of science and Indigenous and BIPOC scholars in her work, forging a monograph that both surveys the nature of dark matter research and the ways in which the practice of science must change and grow in order to benefit more than the colonialist governments who currently fund it.Discussing the theory of quantum gravity and its importance beyond the sciences, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein describes how it did not necessarily matter in 1910, but is now absolutely essential for GPS and other technologies. She continues, “I tend to find that each person, whether they are a scientist or not, gets excited about spacetime and the fact that it’s curved for different reasons… So maybe it matters for humanity because we are the total weirdos who would care” (pg. 65). The major theme of “The Disordered Cosmos,” however, is the interplay between society and the sciences.To this end, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein writes, “Part of science… involves writing a dominant group’s social politics into the building blocks of a universe that exists far beyond and with little reference to our small planet and the apes that are responsible for melting its polar ice caps” (pgs. 22-23). Examining the need to break down the white, Euro-centric views in science, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein continues, “What I really wanted everyone to understand is that Black thoughts, like Black lives, matter” (pg. 110). She also discusses how popular culture offers an ideal of what may be even as it highlights issues within our society. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein writes, “I’m not the only Black scientist who identified with Shuri when the film <i>Black Panther</i> came out – so many of us spent our whole childhoods dreaming of becoming her, only to realize that in a white supremacist society, it feels impossible. Shuri is what happens when Indigenous intellectual curiosity is not stifled. America is what happens when it is” (pg. 111). As Dr. Prescod-Weinstein summarizes, “Science is inextricably tied to power” (pg. 197). Furthermore, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein writes, “There is a strange contradiction among scientists: science is supposedly about asking questions, except about scientists and how science is done” (pg. 222). She therefore concludes, “I understand why other scientists don’t want to be confronted with the fact that science is inextricably tied to everyday, human, social phenomena” (pg. 236).Dr. Prescod-Weinstein sums up the issues at the heart of academia: “Academia is still a capitalist nightmare that takes the life out of people who are conscious of its problems” (pg. 140). Further, “Our academic and economic structures are set up with capitalist incentives to keep it to yourself when you realize something is wrong and to favor quick, superficial work over work that requires deep, plodding thought. Those who get a little power within these structures are rewarded for their silence” (pg. 159). She continues, “It is never going to get much better until there is significant structural change in the power dynamics that dominate North American society – and global society. Until there is a reckoning with the reality of the world in which science is done, only a small elite will be able to succeed economically. And only a few will be able to spend their days at colleges and universities, supposedly doing science” (pg. 246). Writing of the larger implications for society, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein concludes, “Now that the inevitably of progress has been proven a lie, it is time to confront the colonialism and anti-Blackness and xenophobia that are foundational to what America is and why it exists. Now is the time to confront the history of gender and misogyny and how enforcing a gender binary in an essentialist manner was part of the violent colonial project” (pg. 252).“The Disordered Cosmos” is a must-read for any historian of science and particularly for those in the sciences or who are committed to the cause of social justice.

Many of the reviews of this book are evidently from people who didn't read it.If you are at all conversant (as in, "I regularly read the science section of a reasonably decent newspaper") with modern cosmology and particle science, you aren't going to find much new here in terms of the science.You will find some writing about the sense of wonder that the author feels about the cosmos and what science has discovered about the cosmos, which is very personal and refreshing. Her urging for lightless nights to allow more people to see the Milky Way is spot on. Seeing the night sky in its glory could go a long way to helping people understand their place in the universe (and maybe reduce some of the excessive egoism of the current age).You will also find a sometimes nuanced, sometimes excessive discussion of the whole range of ugly biases (racism, sexism, anti-LGBTG+) that enabled much of what we consider modern science and that still sadly pervade its practice and our society in general.And finally, you will find a book that really needed an editor to rein in the author's excesses, particularly in the later chapters. The book doesn't go off the rails, but it could have really benefited from a cold, hard editorial review.

What a treat it is to read this beautiful book. definitely excites me to learn more about physics and decolonizing my existence.Great book, arrived quickly. A total treat, if you haven't read it yet then get yourself a copy and dive right in, you will not be sorry.

Just finished. What a stunning book. Thank you to Dr. Prescod-Weinstein for sharing all of that with us. I'm inspired and heartbroken and hopeful and furious all at once. So much joy in this book. I could feel her love of science vibrating through the pages. I have literally never read a book like this and I've never read someone who could pull together a universal way of thinking of the world that both works at the quark and axion level and addresses historical and current realities of white supremacy and colonizer mindsets. A rare mind, a rarer book.

Sur les 10-12 chapitres du livre, a peine 3 relèvent de la matière noire, et le reste est une diatribe pénible sur la discriminations de toutes sortes (couleur, gendre etc..)Most of the book has nothing to do with cosmos, and all to do about ramblings on gender and race discrimination

Not for me, over hyped psycho babble.

The book attempts to explore physics while incorporating discussions of racial biases and social issues. However, this blending results in a confusing and inaccessible read that fails to provide an amateur-friendly read to the subject, which is what I, perhaps wrongly, was expecting the book to provide. The constant interweaving of complex scientific concepts with historical and political perspectives only serves to further complicate the book's narrative. For readers seeking a straightforward and comprehensive exploration of physics, this book falls short of expectations.Nonetheless, if this blend is what you are seeking, it might be the book for you.