Tag Archives: science journalism
Avoiding ‘muddled science’ in the newsroom
On April 23, I was part of a webinar called ProtoCall, organised by Pro.to with the support of International Centre for Journalists and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. It happens once a week and is hosted by Ameya Nagarajan and … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, International Centre for Journalists, new coronavirus, novel coronavirus, ProtoCall, science journalism, scientific research, Shahid jameel
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There is more than one thunder
Sunny Kung, a resident in internal medicine at a teaching hospital in the US, has authored a piece in STAT News about her experience dealing with people with COVID-19, and with other people who deal with people with COVID-19. I … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, health journalism, infodemic, intensive care unit, journalists, new coronavirus, novel coronavirus, science journalism, Sisyphus, socio-medical crisis, STAT News, uncertainty
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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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The difficulty of option ‘c’
Can any journalist become a science journalist? More specifically, can any journalist become a science journalist without understanding the methods of scientific practice and administration? This is not a trivial question because not all the methods of science can be … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged authority, climate geoengineering, expertise, first principles, Global warming, organised religion, organised science, science journalism, scientific knowledge
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A trumpet for Ramdev
The Print published an article entitled ‘Ramdev’s Patanjali does a ‘first’, its Sanskrit paper makes it to international journal’ on February 5, 2020. Excerpt: In a first, international science journal MDPI has published a research paper in the Sanskrit language. … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Acharya Balkrishna, Ayurveda, FMCG, FSSAI, MDPI, objectivity, peer review, pseudoscience, psoriasis, science journalism, scientific publishing, The Print, Withania somnifera
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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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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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The circumstances in which scientists are science journos
On September 6, 2019, two researchers from Israel uploaded a preprint to the bioRxiv preprint server entitled ‘Can scientists fill the science journalism void? Online public engagement with two science stories authored by scientists’. Two news sites invited scientists to … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged environmental journalism, free labour, Jamie Farnes, labour, newsroom, science communication, science journalism, science writing, scientists, The Conversation
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Good writing is an atom
The act of writing well is like an atom, or the universe. There is matter but it is thinly distributed, with lots of empty space in between. Removing this seeming nothingness won’t help, however. Its presence is necessary for things … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Scicomm
Tagged dark energy, electrons, galaxy, good writing, Hubble constant, neutrons, protons, science journalism, science writing, universe, vacuum, vacuum energy, void
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