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Category Archives: Scicomm
Journalistic entropy
Say you need to store a square image 1,000 pixels wide to a side with the smallest filesize (setting aside compression techniques). The image begins with the colour #009900 on the left side and, as you move towards the right, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged conspiracy theories, coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, entropy, fact-checking, false balance, health journalism, image compression, Indian Council of Medical Research, information theory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka Pulla, pseudoscience, science journalism, thermodynamics, Washington Post
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Ocean-safe consumption
Just spotted this ad on the website of The Better India, a journalism website that focuses on “positive stories”: India’s nationwide lockdown has many important lessons – including the fact that it wasn’t useful in slowing the spread of the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged biodegradable, bioplastic, consumerism, consumption, coronavirus lockdown, Ganga river, surface cleaners, The Better India, toxicity
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The virus and the government
In December 2014, public health researchers and activists gathered at a public forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to discuss how our perception of diseases and their causative pathogens influences our ideas of what we can and can’t do to fight them. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged COVID-19, epidemiology, Evelynn Hammonds, free press, health journalism, right wing media, science communication, virology
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The WHA coronavirus resolution is not great for science
On May 19, member states of the WHO moved a vote in the World Health Assembly (WHA), asking for an independent investigation into the sources of the novel coronavirus. Their exact demands were spelled out in a draft resolution that … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm, Science
Tagged coronavirus lab origin hypothesis, COVID-19, Donald Trump, evolutionary biology, furin, Harsh Vardhan, Nitin Gadkari, novel coronavirus, principle of correspondence, SARS-CoV-2, sufficient cause, sufficient condition, WHO, World Health Assembly, World Health Organization, zoonotic spillover
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The Wolfram singularity
I got to this article about Stephen Wolfram’s most recent attempt to “revolutionise” fundamental physics quite late, and sorry for it because I had no idea Wolfram was the kind of guy who could be a windbag. I haven’t ever … Continue reading
Nitin Gadkari, tomato chutney and blood
There is a famous comedy scene in Tamil cinema, starring the actors Vadivelu and ‘Bonda’ Mani. Those who understand Tamil should skip this awkward retelling – intended for non-Tamil speakers, to the video below and the post after. Vadivelu has … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Bertrand Russell, Bonda Mani, coronavirus pandemic, false balance, journalism, nationalism, NDTV, Nitin Gadkari, novel coronavirus, Prakash Javadekar, press freedom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pseudoscience, scientism, tomato chutney, Vadivelu, Western science
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When cooling down really means slowing down
Consider this post the latest in a loosely defined series about atomic cooling techniques that I’ve been writing since June 2018. Atoms can’t run a temperature, but things made up of atoms, like a chair or table, can become hotter … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Albert Einstein, atomic cooling, atomic trap, Bose-Einstein condensate, Bose-Einstein statistics, Carl Wieman, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, collisional cooling, diatomic molecules, Eric Cornell, Harvard University, laser cooling, Massachusetts Institute of Technoogy, NaLi, niobium nitride, quantum chemistry, quantum computing, S Pancharatnam, Satyendra Nath Bose, Shivaramakrishnan Pancharatnam, Sisyphus cooling, spin polarization, superconductors, superfluids, University of Waterloo, Wolfgang Ketterle
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In conversation with Sree Srinivasan
On May 1, I was hosted on a webinar by the American journalist Sree Srinivasan, along with Anna Isaac of The News Minute and Arunabh Saikia of Scroll.in. As part of his daily show on the COVID-19 crisis, hosted by Scroll.in, Srinivasan hosts a … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged Anna Isaac, Arunabh Saikia, COVID-19, data journalism, Indian Council of Medical Research, Indian journalism, Irrfan Khan, mainstream media, novel coronavirus, pandemic, Rishi Kapoor, science journalism, Scroll.in, serological tests, Sree Srinivasan, The News Minute
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The journalist as expert
I recently turned down some requests for interviews because the topics of discussion in each case indicated that I would be treated as a scientist, not a science journalist (something that happened shortly after the Balakot airstrikes and the ASAT … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged COVID-19, expertise, experts, fourth estate, holism, journalism, science journalism, specialization, synthesis, temporary experts, virology
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Avoiding ‘muddled science’ in the newsroom
On April 23, I was part of a webinar called ProtoCall, organised by Pro.to with the support of International Centre for Journalists and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. It happens once a week and is hosted by Ameya Nagarajan and … Continue reading