Ergodicity is the condition wherein a sample is representative of the whole vis-a-vis some statistical parameter. An ergodic system is one that visits all possible states of its existence as it evolves. Axiomatically, a non-ergodic…
An article in KurzweilAI begins, Plants could soon provide our electricity. Why would anyone take this seriously? More than excitement, this line rouses a discerning reader to suspicion. It is bound to be centred on…
In response to my Twitter thread against Tom Sheldon’s anti-preprints article in Nature, I received more responses in support of Sheldon’s view than I expected. So I wrote an extended takedown for my blog and,…
Anyone who writes about physics research must have a part of their headspace currently taken up by assessing a new and potentially groundbreaking claim out of the IISc: the discovery of superconductivity at ambient pressure…
I am thoroughly dispirited. I had wanted to write today about how it is fascinating that we have validated Einstein’s theory of general relativity for the first time in an extreme environment: in the neighbourhood…
Tom Sheldon, a senior press manager at the Science Media Centre (SMC), London, had an interesting proposition – at least at first – published in Nature on July 24. The journal’s Twitter handle had tweeted…
I went to the most terrifying place in the world today: the dental clinic. I’d woken up this morning with a sharp pain under my right lower jaw and, soon enough, I realised it was…
Coconut crabs can attack, kill and eat birds. Also a worm that eats fish by pulling them underground into their burrows. Scishow's latest video features some really metal creatures. Nature is Lovecraftian. https://t.co/C9E2L6EIoa — Thomas…
I watched Black Panther again today. Two things came to mind. First: When by the end of the film T’Challa and Wakanda realise that they can’t keep their technology a secret anymore, it is –…
A wide swath of fundamental physics and chemistry is defined by the pursuit of the ground state. Since we began elucidating the structure of the atom in the 1910s, much of what we know about…
(I can speak only for myself here) I certainly seem to be needing a monthly reminder that to focus on pure science as a journalist is not in any way an abdication of one’s responsibilities…
On Twitter today, @thattai published a short thread about how framing the ‘debate’ about cellphone radiation harming biological tissue between ionising and non-ionising radiation is not a good idea because even non-ionising radiation (called so…