Category Archives: Science
Immunity for scientists? Err…
On the sidelines of a screening of the semi-fictional biopic of beleaguered ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, the Madhavan-starrer Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, Narayanan told journalists on August 1 that “scientists should” receive immunity against “arbitrary police action” (source). “It is … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged ISRO spy scandal, Nambi Narayanan, scientific community
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65 years of the BCS theory
Thanks to an arithmetic mistake, I thought 2022 was the 75th anniversary of the invention (or discovery?) of the BCS theory of superconductivity. It’s really the 65th anniversary, but since I’d worked myself up to write about it, I’m going … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged BCS theory, Bi-2212, conventional superconductors, Cooper pairs, superconductivity
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A ‘bold’ vision
‘Support Europe’s bold vision for responsible research assessment’, Nature editorial, July 27, 2022: The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, announced on 20 July and open for signatures on 28 September, is perhaps the most hopeful sign yet of real change. … Continue reading
Should ‘geniuses’ be paid extra?
A newsletter named Ideas Sleep Furiously had an essay propounding a “genius basic income” on May 28. Here are the first two paragraphs that capture a not-insignificant portion of the essay’s message: Professor Martin Hairer is one of the world’s most gifted mathematicians. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged basic income, David Graeber, genius, gifted children, research funding, school reform
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JWST and the sorites paradox
Where does beauty end and ugliness begin? Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Science
Tagged beauty, ergodicity, James Webb Space Telescope, modus ponens, sorites paradox
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What arguments against the ‘next LHC’ say about funding Big Physics
A few days ago, a physicist (and PhD holder) named Thomas Hartsfield published a strange article in Big Think about why building a $100-billion particle physics machine like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a bad idea. The article was so replete with … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Big Science, Big Think, Gaganyaan, Large Hadron Collider, Matthew Strassler, Thomas Hartsfield
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With Gyanvapi article, Abhinav Prakash Singh does logic wapsi
The national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Abhinav Prakash Singh, published an article on May 22 on the Gyanvapi mosque issue that is from start to finish an exercise in verbal sophistry. But while we have come to … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Abhinav Prakash Singh, Gyanvapi mosque, Indian Express, logical fallacy
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Hail the Royal Society
The Royal Society’s appointment of its first Brazilian member since 1871 brings an underappreciated form of our colonial hangover to the fore. Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science
Tagged Amazon rainforest, Carlos Nobre, Colonialism, Nobel Prizes, Royal Society
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The problem with giving “Mother Nature” rights and duties
Recently, the Madras high court passed a curiously worded order in which Justice S. Srimathy extended the Uttarakhand high court’s 2017 order, granting the rights due to citizens to the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers, to “Mother Nature” in toto. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Akeel Bilgrami, Constitution of India, human rights, intentionality, Madras High Court
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India – where repairing a bad road could make life worse
There is a long road that runs from Mantri Mall to Sankey Road, in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, called Sampige Road. There are eighteen smaller roads that branch off from it on either side (straightforwardly numbered one through 18), and both the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged asphalt road, Bengaluru, Chennai, concrete road, Pondy Bazaar, rain, Sampige Road, stormwater drains
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