Earlier this week, computers analyzing data from eight different radio telescopes produced a picture of the gas and debris that surround the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy called M87. In the center of that ring was a dark region that astronomers usually call the "shadow" of a black hole, since the actual black hole itself is a phenomenon with gravity so powerful not even light can escape.
Naturally, most news stories left out some of the important details and said that the scientists had taken a picture of a black hole. As that news sped around the internet, many people dubbed themselves unimpressed by the image, which is not very clear, offers little sense of scale and could be bettered by photo-imaging software on your average desktop. Some writers decided to make a little fun of both the hoopla from the scientists as well as the blasé attitude of those shrugging at the discovery, but at least one found herself stepping on her keyboard as her article required two corrections of some pretty basic facts about M87.
The "face" of the project quickly became Dr. Katie Bouman, who posted a picture of her own delight when the image was finally revealed. Dr. Bouman was one of a team of 200 or so people who worked on the algorithms that collated and interpreted the immense amounts of data required to produce the image. She also posted pictures of a larger part of her team and made clear just how many people actually worked on the project, from facilities all over the world.
But Dr. Bouman is a young and attractive person whose sheer Christmas-morning glee at the success of this project was tailor made for a widely-shared photo. A number of political figures, who seem to know even less about this project than did all the headline writers, seized upon her presence to highlight the Very Important Role a woman scientist played in this historic event, apparently believing she either did it all herself or was in charge of the project. In their defense, news outlets like The Washington Post and The New York Times did much the same.
These possibly well-meaning but not very smart folks placed Dr. Bouman in the line of fire of people who were happy to point out that she was a part of a team, but also claim this was another example of a woman being given more credit than she deserved in order to satisfy some feminist standard. These not well-meaning and not very smart folks didn't take the time to learn that she had not claimed credit for the whole project.
As far as I can tell, nearly everyone involved with the coverage of this event is awful and should make a public commitment to reading things more carefully -- and by more carefully, I mean, "More than the headline, dopes." The only person I really like, after reading what she's said about the project, is Dr. Bouman. She got married in September, helped develop and reveal an image of a black hole shadow and landed a job as an assistant professor which will start in the fall. And she won't be 30 until next month.
May your good fortune continue, Doctor.
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