Category Archives: Scicomm
The nanoscopes setting the stage for AI in biology
Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a phenomenon in which one molecule transfers electronic energy to another molecule located some distance away. The transfer happens via the small electric field associated with the first molecule interacting with the field of … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged CR Rao, Cramér-Rao limit, DNA-PAINT, Eric Betzig, Ernst Karl Abbe, fluorophores, Förster resonance energy transfer, FRET microscopy, Kip Thorne, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, MINFLUX, PALM microscopy, Stefan Hell, stimulated emission depletion, STORM microscopy, super-resolution microscopy
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Why having diverse interests is a virtue
As illustrated by the Marx-Ling-Brown dispute over that Canadaland podcast and Israel’s violence in West Asia Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged Canadaland, diverse interests, fact-checking, Gaza, Israel, Jay Rosen, Jesse Brown, Justin Ling, Paris Marx, scepticism, view from nowhere
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Did we see the conspiracies coming?
Tweets like this seem on point… … but I’ve started to wonder if we’re missing something in the course of expressing opinions about what we thought climate deniers would say and what they’re actually saying. That is, we expected to … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm
Tagged climate change, climate denialism, us versus them
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Agalloch
Agalloch is a synonym of agarwood. In parallel, Aquilaria agallocha and Agalochum malaccense are synonyms of Aquilaria malaccensis, the accepted scientific name of a tree that produces much of the world’s stock of this wood. When the heartwood (or duramen) … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged agalloch, agarwood, Aquilaria malaccensis, duramen, heartwood, IUCN Red List, Phaeoacremonium parasitica
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‘Animals use physics’
What came first: physics or the world? It’s obviously the world, whereas physics (as a branch of science) offered ways to acquire information about the world and organise it. To not understand something in this paradigm, then, is to not … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
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Buildings affect winds
A 2022 trip to Dubai made me wonder how much research there was on the effects cities, especially those that are rapidly urbanising as well as are building taller, wider structures more closely packed together, had on the winds that … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems, Shanghai, skyscrapers, urban heat island, Venturi effect, wind energy, wind speed
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You’re allowed to be interested in particle physics
This piece appeared in The Hindu today. I wrote the lead article, about why scientists are so interested in an elementary particle called the top quark. Long story short: the top quark is the heaviest elementary particle, and because all … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Higgs boson, mathematical physics, particle physics, Shreya Dasgupta, The Hindu, top quark
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