Category Archives: Science
The devil’s lassi
‘The Devil’s Milkshake’, Tarence Ray in The Baffler, February 23, 2023: You’ve seen it before. An industrial disaster poisons a town’s food or water supply. Residents get angry. Public officials try to dispel that anger through a public act of … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Ayurveda, Devil's Milkshake, East Palestine, modern medicine, rationalism, solar eclipse, superstition
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Some science prizes are only for men
Say Someone has won the Nobel Prize for physics, perhaps the most prestigious honour (as awards go) for a physicist. What would it mean for all the future awards given to this Someone? One thing that a Nobel Prize does, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged bad faith, Bias Watch, MS Valiathan, National Science Day, Nobel Prize, S Natarajan, Samir K Maji, SASTRA Deemed University, T Pradeep, women in STEM
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Whose fault is a retraction?
A journal called Advances in Materials Science and Engineering retracted a paper it published and issued the following notice, excerpted from Retraction Watch, December 22, 2022: Advances in Materials Science and Engineering has retracted the article titled “Monitoring of Sports … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, peer review, retraction, scientific literature
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Something more foolish than completing phase 3 trials in 1.5 months?
That the Union government and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had entered into a more intimate, but not necessarily more beneficial, relationship became evident in 2019 when then ISRO chairman K. Sivan trotted out a series of dubious claims … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Balram Bhargava, Covaxin, Gaganyaan, human spaceflight, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, K Sivan
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The identity of scientific papers
This prompt arose in response to Stuart Ritchie’s response to a suggestion in an editorial “first published last year but currently getting some attention on Twitter” – that scientists should write their scientific papers as if they were telling a … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged IMRaD structure, knowledge production, preprint papers, replication crisis, science journalism, scientific papers, scientific publishing, storytelling
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Science’s humankind shield
“Science benefits all of humanity,” they say. Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Astronomy, Colonialism, history of astronomy, Holmdel Horn, Large Hadron Collider, self-perception, settler colonialism, Thirty Meter Telescope
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A ‘quantum consciousness’ absurdity at IIT Mandi
As you go downward, inward, smaller and smaller, you get more vast conscious experience. This is the idea in Indian knowledge systems. At the bottom of it, or the very base of it, at the source, is Brahman. My point … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged decoherence, IIT Mandi, Indian knowledge systems, Indian philosophy, Orch OR, quantum computer, quantum superposition, Roger Penrose, Science of Consciousness, Stuart Hameroff
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The ideologues cometh for the IITs
In July 2019, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its Chandrayaan 2 mission, the spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev was present in the control centre, along with other dignitaries, getting a close view of the launch from a balcony. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Chandrayaan 2, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, Jaggi Vasudev, M Jagadesh Kumar, Meera Nanda, Skyroot Aerospace, University Grants Commission, Vedic calendar
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The biopolitics of Covaxin
In a new investigation, STAT has reported fresh problems with Covaxin’s approval process in India, including the phase 2 trial dropping its placebo arm in favour of one preordained to make Covaxin look good and Bharat Biotech – the maker – … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds, Science
Tagged Balram Bhargava, Bharat Biotech, biopolitics, CDSCO, clinical trials, Covaxin, Giorgio Agamben, ICMR, Krishna Mohan
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