Tag Archives: Nobel Prize
On the 2024 Nobel Prizes and the Rosalind Lee issue
The Nobel Prizes are a deeply flawed institution both out of touch with science as it is done today and with an outsized influence on scientific practice at the most demanding levels. Yet these relationships all persist with the prizes … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged blue sky research, Gary Ruvkun, Matilda effect, Matthew effect, microRNA, Newcomb Cleveland Prize, Nobel Prize, Nobel Prizes, physics, Rosalind Lee, science communication, Victor Ambros
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“Why has no Indian won a science Nobel this year?”
For all their flaws, the science Nobel Prizes – at the time they’re announced, in the first week of October every year – provide a good opportunity to learn about some obscure part of the scientific endeavour with far-reaching consequences … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Alfred Nobel, attosecond physics, Big Science, in-vitro transcribed mRNA, Large Hadron Collider, LIGO India, Nobel Prize, quantum dots
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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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Reimagining science, redux
This article on Founding Fuel has some great suggestions I thought, but it merits sharing with a couple caveats. First, in narratives about making science “easier to do”, commentators give science-industry linkages more play than science-society ones. This has been true in the … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged billion candles, blue sky research, Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, Mukund Thattai, nation building, Nobel Prize, science and society, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
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Freeman Dyson’s PhD
The physicist, thinker and writer Freeman Dyson passed away on February 28, 2020, at the age of 96. I wrote his obituary for The Wire Science; excerpt: The 1965 Nobel Prize for the development of [quantum electrodynamics] excluded Dyson. … … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Cornell University, doctorate, Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Julian Schwinger, Nobel Prize, PhD, privilege, quantum electrodynamics, Richard Feynman, scientific publishing, scientific research, Shin'ichiro Tomonaga, Vannevar Bush
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Why are the Nobel Prizes still relevant?
Note: A condensed version of this post has been published in The Wire. Around this time last week, the world had nine new Nobel Prize winners in the sciences (physics, chemistry and medicine), all but one of whom were white … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Science
Tagged Abhijit Banerjee, Albert Einstein, Appa Rao Podile, Booker Prize, Brian Keating, Caltech, Chien-Shiung Wu, CV Raman, Esther Duflo, Fermilab, gender-based discrimination, Göran Hansson, Hindutva, Hugo Award, impact factor, Isaac Asimov, John B Goodenough, late capitalism, Lise Meitner, Margaret Atwood, nationalism, Nature journal, Nobel laureates, Nobel Prize, prestige bias, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sexism, The Big Bang Theory, Vera Rubin
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Are the papers behind this year’s Nobel Prizes in the public domain?
Note: One of my editors thought this post would work for The Wire as well, so it’s been republished there. “… for the greatest benefit of mankind” – these words are scrawled across a banner that adorns the Nobel Prize’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged circadian rhythm, cryo-electron microscopy, journal paywall, LIGO, Nobel Prize, Open Access, scientific journals
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Are the papers behind this year's Nobel Prizes in the public domain?
Note: One of my editors thought this post would work for The Wire as well, so it’s been republished there. “… for the greatest benefit of mankind” – these words are scrawled across a banner that adorns the Nobel Prize’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged circadian rhythm, cryo-electron microscopy, journal paywall, LIGO, Nobel Prize, Open Access, scientific journals
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The Indian Science Congress has gutted its own award by giving it to Appa Rao Podile
An award of the Indian Science Congress has become subverted into becoming an instrument of negotiation for political agents: “You let me interfere in your duties, I will give you a fancy-sounding award”. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ABVP, Appa Rao Podile, Avula Damodaram, BJP, Chandrababu Naidu, Millennium Plaque of Honour, Mukund Thattai, Nobel laureates, Nobel Prize, plagiarism, research misconduct, Rohith Vemula, Sri Venkateswara University, University of Hyderabad, Venkaiah Naidu
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