Yearly Archives: 2019

Indian scicomm’s upside-down world

Posted on November 21, 2019 by VM

Imagine a big, poisonous tree composed of all the things you need to screw up to render a field, discipline or endeavour an elite club of just one demographic group. When it comes to making it more inclusive, whether by … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm | Leave a comment

A new map of Titan

Posted on November 19, 2019 by VM

It’s been a long time since I’ve obsessed over Titan, primarily because after the Cassini mission ended, the pace of updates about Titan died down, and because other moons of the Solar System (Europa, Io, Enceladus, Ganymede and our own) … Continue reading →

Posted in Scicomm, Science | Tagged Cassini mission, Chandrayaan 2, Chandrayaan 3, complex hydrocarbons, Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, geomorphology, global map, habitability, hydrocarbons, Io, NASA Dragonfly, Saturn, sharp-edged depressions, synthetic aperture radar, Titan, topography | Leave a comment

The trouble with laser-cooling anions

Posted on November 17, 2019 by VM

For scientists to use lasers to cool an atom, the atom needs to have two energy states. When laser light is shined on an atom moving towards the source of light, one of its electrons absorbs a photon, climbs to … Continue reading →

Posted in Scicomm | Tagged adiabatic cooling, anions, atomic cooling, cerium, diatomic carbon, Doppler cooling, electron affinity, hyperfine structure, ion trap, laser cooling, laser-assisted evaporative cooling, microkelvin, nuclear spin, Sisyphus cooling, Sivaramakrishnan Pancharatnam, sympathetic cooling | Comments Off

Quitting the Thing

Posted on November 15, 2019 by VM

A year ago today, I quit the Thing. The Thing didn’t quit me until three months later, and spending those months not getting back to the Thing was the most difficult thing I ever did. Earlier on the day I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Life notes | Tagged courage, quitting | Comments Off

Playing the devil’s advocate on Starlink

Posted on November 15, 2019 by VM

After SpaceX began to launch its Starlink satellite constellation to facilitate global internet coverage, astronomers began complaining that the satellites are likely to interfere with stargazing schemes, especially those of large, sensitive telescopes. Spaceflight stakeholders also began to worry, especially … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Science | Tagged Challakere science city, Elon Musk, environmentalism, India-based Neutrino Observatory, ISRO, Kulasekarapattinam, low-cost internet, Mauna Kea, mega-constellation, non-rivalry, Outer Space Treaty, satellite constellation, space-based internet, SpaceX, Starlink, Sterlite, Thirty Meter Telescope, Thoothukudi | Comments Off

The invitations

Posted on November 7, 2019 by VM

First, I was invited to speak at a science communication meeting in X in November. Next, I was invited to host an event at Y around the same date. Then I was invited to speak at Z on the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Life notes | Tagged grumpy, manel, public speaking, science communication | Comments Off

The cycle

Posted on November 6, 2019 by VM

Is it just me or does everyone see a self-fulfilling prophecy here? For a long time, and assisted ably by the ‘publish or perish’ paradigm, researchers sought to have their papers published in high-impact-factor journals – a.k.a. prestige journals – … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged for-profit publishing, impact factor, Nature journal, peer review, prestige bias, prestige journals, publish or perish, scientific publishing | Comments Off

New management at Nautilus

Posted on November 3, 2019 by VM

When an email landed in my inbox declaring that the beleaguered science communication magazine Nautilus would be “acquired by ownership group of super-fans”, I thought it was going to become a cooperative. It was only when I read the extended … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Science | Tagged Daily Dot, Deadspin, Elisa New, John Steele, Larry Summers, Nautilus, Nautilus magazine, Nicholas White, scientism | Comments Off

The private festival

Posted on November 1, 2019 by VM

I used to think I lived in a wonderful part of Bangalore: in Malleshwaram, and not just in Malleshwaram but in a gated apartment complex with great access to greenery and lots of eateries, safe walking areas, recreational spaces, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Comments Off

Disastrous hype

Posted on October 31, 2019 by VM

This is one of the worst press releases accompanying a study I’ve seen: The headline and the body appear to have nothing to do with the study itself, which explores the creative properties of an explosion with certain attributes. However, … Continue reading →

Posted in Scicomm | Tagged aerospace engineering, Big Bang, hype, mechanical engineering, supernovae, theoretical physics, thermonuclear explosions, Type 1a supernova, University of Central Florida, university press office | Comments Off