Tag Archives: Nobel Prizes
Majorana 1, science journalism, and other things
While I have many issues with how the Nobel Prizes are put together as an institution, the scientific achievements they have revealed have been some of the funnest concepts I’ve discovered in science, including the clever ways in which scientists … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Alexei Kitaev, Ben Feringa, Cassandra Willyard, curiosity, curiosity-driven research, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, Fraser Stoddart, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, John Kosterlitz, Majorana 1, Majorana fermions, Microsoft, National Science Day, Nobel Prizes, quantum computing, science journalism, The Hindu, topological order
Comments Off on Majorana 1, science journalism, and other things
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
Comments Off on On the 2024 Nobel Prizes and the Rosalind Lee issue
Numbed by numbers
Couple things in my news feed this morning that really woke me up — one a startling statistic and the other a reminder of what statistics miss. The first from Nature, ‘How to win a Nobel prize: what kind of … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Didier Raoult, Elisabeth Bik, John W Strutt, Nobel Prizes, The Hindu
Comments Off on Numbed by numbers
Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
We may go on deleting sections of our history but in the world outside where there are multiple centres of research into the Indian past, and many scholars, there these expunged sections from books used in India will continue to … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged Ayurveda, Brian Keating, Charles Lieber, Elon Musk, Hyperloop, NCERT, Nobel Prizes, prestige bias, public transport, Rapido, Romila Thapar, Vedas
Comments Off on Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
We may go on deleting sections of our history but in the world outside where there are multiple centres of research into the Indian past, and many scholars, there these expunged sections from books used in India will continue to … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged Ayurveda, Brian Keating, Charles Lieber, Elon Musk, Hyperloop, NCERT, Nobel Prizes, prestige bias, public transport, Rapido, Romila Thapar, Vedas
Comments Off on Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
The question of Abdus Salam ‘deserving’ his Nobel
Peter Woit has blogged about an oral history interview with theoretical physicist Sheldon Glashow published in 2020 by the American Institute of Physics. (They have a great oral history of physics series you should check out if you’re interested.) Woit … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Abdus Salam, BICEP2, Brian Keating, electroweak theory, ICTP Trieste, Nobel Prize for physics, Nobel Prizes, Norman Dombey, Paul Dirac, Peter Woit, Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg
Comments Off on The question of Abdus Salam ‘deserving’ his Nobel
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
Comments Off on Hail the Royal Society
The paradoxical virtues of primacy in science
Primacy is a false virtue imposed by the structures of modern science – yet it is also necessary to right some wrongs. Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged attribution, Bibhas De, citation, Enrico Fermi, history of science, Knabenphysik, Meghnad Saha, Nobel Prizes, primacy, scientific journals, scientific literature, scientific publishing
Comments Off on The paradoxical virtues of primacy in science
Charles Lieber case: A high-energy probe of science
There’s a phenomenon in high-energy particle physics that I’ve found instructive as a metaphor to explain some things whose inner character may not be apparent to us but whose true nature is exposed in extreme situations. For example, consider the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Brian Keating, Charles Lieber, China Initiative, high-energy physics, Nobel Prizes, Thousand Talents Program
Comments Off on Charles Lieber case: A high-energy probe of science