Monthly Archives: August 2014
Wealth and religiosity disagree while some Hindus look the other way
My extended family’s annual trip to Tirupati is coming up. Because a more indecisive bunch doth not exist, my relatives have been planning the trip for the last week. One creepy fact their discussions threw up is that, in 2013, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged GDP, religion, religiosity, Tirupati, wealth
Comments Off on Wealth and religiosity disagree while some Hindus look the other way
For planets, one thing leads to another
One of the biggest benefits of being a journalist is that you become aware of interesting things from various fields. As a science journalist, the ambit is narrowed but the interestingness, not at all. And one of the most interesting … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged exoplanets, Keplerian disk, Kuiper Belt, log-log plot, planet formation, Solar System
Comments Off on For planets, one thing leads to another
Products of uranium-235 fission
When I read, it’s always one thing leading to another. Someone tipped me off about a piece in Science about CTBT compliance monitoring efforts, and I ended up making this incredibly ghastly but satisfying mindmap of the product yield of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged iodine-129, neutron poison, nuclear fission, nuclear transmutation, product yield, thermal neutrons, uranium-235, xenon-135
Comments Off on Products of uranium-235 fission
Female parliamentarians
India: GDP (per capita, 2013 US$) v. Gross intake ratio in first grade of primary education, female (% of relevant age group) v. Women in parliament (each point corresponds to a year in 1997-2013) India: Women in parliament v. GDP (per … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged GDP per capita, government, representation, women
Comments Off on Female parliamentarians
Science Quiz – August 4, 2014
Every week, I create a science quiz for The Hindu newspaper’s In School product. It consists of 10 questions and only developments from the week preceding its day of publication (Monday). The answers are at the end. But this week’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged chemical weapons, continuous tracks, flame throwers, internal combustion engine, quiz, Science, Second Battle of Ypres, The Hindu In School, World War I, Zeppelin
Comments Off on Science Quiz – August 4, 2014
Keeping up with the radioxenons
After the first of two nuclear weapon tests by North Korea, in 2006, a monitoring station in Yellowknife, Canada, caught a whiff of xenon-133, a radioactive isotope of xenon, in the atmosphere. It had been released by the blast and had traveled more than … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, medical diagnostics, molybdenum-99, radioactive tracers, radionuclides, technetium-99, xenon-133, xenon-135
Comments Off on Keeping up with the radioxenons
Plotting transmission losses
Transmission loss in GWh in India. Data from Central Electricity Authority. Click on the image for hi-res version. All data available here. Transmission loss as % of net generation in GWh. Net generation = Gross generation — consumption by auxiliary … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Central Electricity Authority, data, electricity, net generation, plot.ly, R, transmission losses, visualization
Comments Off on Plotting transmission losses