Posted on 05/03/2026 12:52:13 PM PDT by Red Badger
I still remember fondly the time I got an A- on my 8th grade earth science paper. It was one of my proudest moments as a student.
Meanwhile, as MIT boasts, some folks are, well, a bit beyond that.
Physics is riddled with paradoxes: Think of how information leaks from supposedly inescapable black holes or how the conventional laws of physics break down at the quantum scale. Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski '13 believes that within these apparent contradictions, new discoveries await.
Ah yes, "how the conventional laws of physics break down at the quantum scale." I think about that often!
Well, apparently Ms. Pasterski thinks about it quite a bit. In fact, her entire life story seems to be just one long exercise of thinking.
Born in Chicago, some of Pasterski's earliest accomplishments include:
Building her own Zenith aircraft starting from age 12.
Attending the prestigious Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Holding an internship at the space tech company Blue Origin at age 16.
Working as an aeronautical engineer at Boeing Phantom Works by 18.
Not a bad rap sheet for someone under 20!
She subsequently attended MIT, during which she did work at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (no biggie). She eventually graduated from the prestigious institution with "a 5.0 grade point average." (I was not aware GPAs went that high.)
These days Pasterski's engaged in a little light research, nothing too strenuous:
She and her colleagues are working to unite general relativity, which describes gravity and the macroscopic world, with quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of subatomic particles. It's a field of physics research known as quantum gravity.
If Pasterski helps solve this problem that has vexed scientists for decades, the result will be the holy grail of physics: a fundamental theory of nature that characterizes pretty much everything. One day there may be engineering applications. "If you understand how things work," she says, "you can do things with that knowledge." But she's in this to solve an existential puzzle — to reveal what she calls "the source code of the universe."
If all of this makes you feel rather small, don't worry: Pasterski "estimates there are probably only a couple of thousand people in the world with whom she can meaningfully converse about her work in physics." It's a small club!
She has pushed back against the moniker of "the New Einstein," however, stating that in her hunt for the universal source code she is just "happy to be a part of this legacy that our field is building."
Okay but we're still gonna call you Einstein, lady!
Let’s hand out trophies before accomplishment again.
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Yep…. “New Einsteins” are a dime a dozen based upon the stories that are written by enchanted reviewers. This is just one of the latest in the series.
Of course there are no REAL, ACTUAL accomplishments made by them.
And a pan-galactic gargleblaster for you!
Someone thinks she’s hot. Somewhat impressive. Certainly smarter than I, and an early bloomer....but another Einstein? Not yet....
And it's still good, a continuing disappointment to those who learned the old European resentment of being itself, for which one now-dead fool proposed "No Exit." So then it was asserted, "L'enfer, c'est les autres."
I'll stick with "אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה"
He was 26 years old, the same age as Isaac Newton, Kepler, Rieman, Orson Wells, Mary Shelley, John Keats, Mozart, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Napoleon, Nietzsche, Michael Jordon, Jerry Rice, Babe Ruth, Steffi Graf, Tiger Woods, Heidi Fleiss, Melinda Trump, at their professional peaks. There's a pattern going on here. Let's not mention about the following year 27 Club.
Many physicists seem to go nuts. All models and theories are wrong, a very small number are useful, sometimes. Attempts to unify wrong models is a sure sign someone has lost their marbles.
What was the jersey number of the first Black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era, breaking the color barrier on April 15, 1947, with the Brooklyn Dodgers?
42
There was a little bit more to in a comedic sense in the book, but the question was: “ Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”.
“אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה”
Another example of wysiwyg.
It’s truly the simple meaning. None of that duplicitous, fake holy persona stuff designed to engender trust, for whatever personal agenda lurks behind a well-Established facade.
“You want out of this parking lot? Okay...” ~ Elwood Blues
A 5.0 grade point average only happens with straight A’s all in advanced studies
I’m lucky to remember my area code let a lone the code of the universe.
Okay, here i go. Starting to think. Hmmm… Any minute now.
Nope, nothing is happening. I’ll leave this to Einstina.
Shouldn’t somebody make a major new breakthrough in physics before being branded “the next Einstein”? She’s clearly very smart and was a child prodigy, but Einstein didn’t get his renown just for being a smart child prodigy, his reputation is built on theories that changed our understanding of basic physics at high velocities and accelerations. The world is full of clever child prodigies who contribute little to nothing of lasting significance.
He also didn't start speaking until he was 6 years old.
Meantime, he was probably thinking, "I really don't know where to begin with these dumbasses."
“But he’s still ‘The Math God’ and still consults at Harvard.”
“Doesn’t look like she’s published anything.”
You didn’t look.
74 published papers.
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