Today's episode features one of our favourite philosophers of physics, Dr Sophie Ritson. Sophie's research focuses on the way contemporary physicists – of both the experimental and theoretical kind – work together to develop reliable knowledge and find creative ways to expand our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Sophie is unafraid to dig in where others fear to tread. She began her career examining the string theory controversy and, more recently, has studied first-hand the high stakes  experimental particle physics happening at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.

In this week’s episode, Sophie discusses her fascinating research on these topics, as well as on the larger question of ‘how do large scale research collaboration’s generate knowledge?’

A transcript of the episode can be found here: https://www.hpsunimelb.org/post/s3-ep-7-sophie-ritson-transcript

Further links:

• Website: Sophie Ritson | Philosopher of Physics
• Profile Article: Philosophy at the Large Hadron Collider: An Interview with Sophie Ritson | Forum
• PhD Thesis: The Many Dimensions of the String Theory Wars | Sophie Ritson | PhilSci-Archive
• Journal Article: ‘Crackpots’ and ‘active researchers’: The controversy over links between arXiv and the scientific blogosphere | Sophie Ritson, 2016

Thanks for listening to The HPS Podcast with your current hosts, Samara Greenwood and Carmelina Contarino. You can find more about us on our blog, website, bluesky, twitter, instagram and facebook feeds. This podcast would not be possible without the support of School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. www.hpsunimelb.org