Tag Archives: science communication
Why scientists should read more
The amount of communicative effort to describe the fact of a ball being thrown is vanishingly low. It’s as simple as saying, “X threw the ball.” It takes a bit more effort to describe how an internal combustion engine works … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged active voice, Casimir effect, communication, complexity, English as second language, ESL, first language, grammar, Learning, mainstream media, meaning making, passive voice, physics, quantum physics, reading, science communication, science journalism, scientific knowledge, teaching, wisdom
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Caste, and science’s notability threshold
A webinar by The Life of Science on the construct of the ‘scientific genius’ just concluded, with Gita Chadha and Shalini Mahadev, a PhD scholar at HCU, as panellists. It was an hour long and I learnt a lot in … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Brahmins, caste, casteism, constructs, experimental physics, Gita Chadha, Indian journalism, mainstream media, Nobel Prizes, science communication, Shalini Mahadev, sociology of science, upper caste, Western modernity
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Clarity and soundness
I feel a lot of non-science editors just switch off when they read science stuff. A friend told me this earlier today, during yet another conversation about how many of the editorial issues that assail science and health journalism have … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged clarity of thought, coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, editing, editorial decisions, health journalism, newsroom, science communication, science journalism, sound argument
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The virus and the government
In December 2014, public health researchers and activists gathered at a public forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to discuss how our perception of diseases and their causative pathogens influences our ideas of what we can and can’t do to fight them. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged COVID-19, epidemiology, Evelynn Hammonds, free press, health journalism, right wing media, science communication, virology
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Dehumanising language during an outbreak
It appears the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has begun local transmission in India, i.e. infecting more people within the country instead of each new patient having recently travelled to an already affected country. The advent of local transmission is an important event … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party, COVID-19, dehumanisation, Eman Ahmed, epidemic, Harsh Vardhan, infection, infectious diseases, local transmission, private healthcare, public healthcare system, Saifee Hospital, SARS-CoV-2, science communication, science journalism, The Guardian, Washington Post, Wuhan coronavirus
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A meeting with the PSA’s office
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) organised a meeting with science communicators from around India on January 27, in New Delhi. Some of my notes from the meeting are displayed below, published with three caveats. First, my notes … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Chatham House Rules, Creative Commons, CSIR, Gaganyaan, Government of India, IndiaBioscience, ISRO, NISCAIR, Principal Scientific Adviser, science communication, science journalism
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A sympathetic science
If you feel the need to respond, please first make sure you have read the post in full. I posted the following tweet a short while ago: With reference to this: Which in turn was with reference to this: But … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Science
Tagged human condition, Kiran Bedi, NASA, pseudoscience, science communication, scientism, sympathy
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Social media and science communication
The following article was originally intended for an Indian publication but I withdrew from the commission because I couldn’t rework the piece according to changes they required, mostly for lack of focus. I thank Karnika Kohli and Shruti Muralidhar for … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged echo chamber, Facebook, homophilic segregation, LGBTQIA+, news publishing, role models, science communication, scientific paper, social media, Twitter, women in STEM
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Retrospective: The Wire Science in 2019
At the start of 2019, The Wire Science decided to focus more on issues of science and society, and this is reflected in the year-end list of our best stories (in terms of traffic and engagement; listed below). Most of our … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm, Science
Tagged democracy, Dinamalar, history of science, independent journalism, Indian Express, Mongabay, nationalism, Philosophy of Science, R&D, science communication, science journalism, social science, sociology of science, The Hindu, The Print, The Wire
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