I heard last week that the physics teacher of the daughter of one of my colleagues told the daughter that girls who do their nails don’t do physics.

[cinebox@masto.hackers.town]

@nachtet @freyablekman @afewbugs someone design a nail polish that changes color when you bombard it with neutrons

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@nachtet @freyablekman my most consistent period of nail polish wearing was about six months after I smacked my thumb with a mallet while putting up a tent, producing a horrible purply-green bruise under the nail. It was less effort to keep painting my nails than it was to keep answering the question "OMG what happened to your thumb?"

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@cinebox @nachtet @freyablekman I mean do we know for sure that regular nail polish doesn't change colour when you bombard it with neutrinos? Has anyone ever tried?

[nachtet@norden.social]

@afewbugs @freyablekman Autschn, though! ‍

[mlanger@mastodon.world]

@freyablekman @jcdvore Very nice.

Any teacher who says "girls don't…" is not qualified to be a teacher.

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@RadtkeJCJ there is a senior lecturer at the university of York who is known for her nails. Pic blatantly stolen from Kate Lancaster - check out some of her other #scicomm here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd19WvC9yqUd1zkyFJZD4nrZfLOtQaqUM&si=qRgrX9LttMUeZJHu

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@ElpasYou_2 yep. That was my first response too.

[only_ohm@mas.to]

@afewbugs @freyablekman

My physics PhD involved a fair amount of acetone and isopropanol (for cleaning traces of oils off of things that needed to go in ultrahigh vacuum), so not sure about the right-hand blue/yellow boundary there.

[netux@mastodon.sdf.org]

@freyablekman very pretty.

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@only_ohm true it depends on the sub-field, and the kind of work. At points of my career during experimental construction I have also worked with various fluids that would not be kind to nail varnish. But I would say that UV cured gel polish is much more robust

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@mlanger @jcdvore Yeah I was also baffled when I heard. Can't believe that still happens in 2026

[overclockedandy@mastodon.social]

@freyablekman I watch a YouTube channel called Sarah N Tuned. She has long, painted nails & rebuilds cars.
It doesn’t stop someone doing anything.

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@afewbugs @cinebox @nachtet every nail gets constantly bombarded with millions of neutrinos. So I'd say we're safe. (neutrons, on the other hand, only a few. but they would get stuck on top)

But nail polish with ground up/liquid scintillator in it would totally get me interested. And should not be *that* difficult. Probably biggest issue would be making it cosmetics-safe

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@psistarpsiii oooh I love those! particularly the cute little diffraction spikes

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@freyablekman @afewbugs @cinebox @nachtet

Future headline:
"Dark matter particles finally detected by researcher's nail polish"

[freyablekman@fediscience.org]

@catselbow @afewbugs @cinebox @nachtet come to think of it, such a layer would make it possible to make 50-100 micron thick scintillators. There might be applications

[walsonde@antifa.style]

@freyablekman My son, who wears nail polish, is greeting the teacher and saying, if the teacher had focused more on physics and less on gender stereotypes, they might perhaps have achieved more than Lehramtsstudium.

[jdarnold@indieweb.social]

@freyablekman Beautiful! I always ask my girls to tell me the name of the nail color they get applied. Usually a pretty clever pun!

[mr_gharice@mastodon.social]

@freyablekman
i would see it as a good deal, doing one's nails and being a good physicist in return.

[psistarpsiii@tacobelllabs.net]

@freyablekman she did an amazing job and they lasted 6 weeks! Fanciest nails I’ve ever had done