Tag Archives: science communication
Notes on covering QM
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged mathematical physics, pedagogy, quantum physics, science communication
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Neuromorphic hype
We all know there’s a difference between operating an Indica Diesel car and a WDP 4 diesel locomotive. The former has two cylinders and the latter 16. But that doesn’t mean the WDP 4 simply has eight times more components … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged artificial neural networks, emergent properties, hype, IEEE Spectrum, more is different, neuromorphic computing, Philip Warren Anderson, science communication, superconducting synapse
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The passive voice is political
Eric Martinez, Francis Mollica and Edward Gibson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Edinburgh won an Ig Nobel Prize for literature this year for their work on what makes legal documents so hard to read. Ironically, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged active voice, Ig Nobel Prize, MIT, passive voice, science communication, science writing
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On anticipation and the history of science
In mid-2012, shortly after physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe had announced the discovery of a particle that looked a lot like the Higgs boson, there was some clamour in India over news reports not paying … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged attribution, history of science, K Ramamohan Rao, Nisar Ahmed, Satyendra Nath Bose, science communication
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A false union in science journalism
At what point does a journalist become a stenographer? Most people would say it’s when the journalist stops questioning claims and reprints them uncritically, as if they were simply a machine. So at what point does a science journalist become … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Holden Thorpe, New York Times, science communication, science journalism, self-correcting
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The omicron variant and scicomm
Somewhere between the middle of India’s second major COVID-19 outbreak in March-May this year and today, a lot of us appear to have lost sight of a fact that was central to our understanding of COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020: that … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 pandemic, delta variant, omicron variant, science communication, scientism
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The problem with rooting for science
The idea that trusting in science involves a lot of faith, instead of reason, is lost on most people. More often than not, as a science journalist, I encounter faith through extreme examples – such as the Bloch sphere (used … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged arrow paradox, biopolitics, Bloch sphere, common English, emergent properties, expertise, faith, mathematical physics, pseudoscience, quantum superposition, reason, science communication, science journalism, Social Psychology, statistical significance, trust, uncertainty, wave function
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Scicommers as knowledge producers
Reading the latest edition of Raghavendra Gadagkar’s column in The Wire Science, ‘More Fun Than Fun’, about how scientists should become communicators and communicators should be treated as knowledge-producers, I began wondering if the knowledge produced by the latter is … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged journalism, knowledge production, Raghavendra Gadagkar, science communication, science journalism
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On the lab-leak hypothesis
One problem with the debate over the novel coronavirus’s “lab leak” origin hypothesis is a problem I’m starting to see in quite a few other areas of pandemic-related analysis and discussion. It’s that no one will say why others are … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged absence of evidence, COVID-19 pandemic, DRASTIC, journalism, Katherine Eban, lab-leak hypothesis, Newsweek, Nicholas Wade, novel coronavirus, science communication, scientific illiberalism, The Seeker, Wuhan Institute of Virology, zoonotic-spillover hypothesis
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The Wire Science is hiring
Location: Bengaluru or New Delhi The Wire Science is looking for a sub-editor to conceptualise, edit and produce high-quality news articles and features in a digital newsroom. Requirements Good faculty with the English language Excellent copy-editing skills A strong news … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged hiring, job announcement, job description, science communication, The Wire Science
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