Tag Archives: science journalism
An award that isn’t
ISRO just put out a call for a one-time space journalism award, named for Vikram Sarabhai, with a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. Here’s the doc with all the details. Pay attention to (4), where it says submissions will … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Akshay Kumar, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, Jaggi Vasudev, Mission Mangal, science journalism, space journalism, Vikram Sarabhai
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Diversifying into other beats
I delivered my annual talk AMA at the NCBS science writing workshop yesterday. While the questions the students asked were mostly the same as last year (and the year before that), I also took the opportunity to request them to consider … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged chemical engineering, computer science, National Centre for Biological Sciences, NCBS Science Writing Workshop, physical sciences, quantum biology, science communication, science journalism, The Wire, theoretical particle physics
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To watch ‘The Post’
I read a few reviews of The Post. Based on what the critics are saying, it seems the film has at least the potential to raise the spirits of many journalists today who could use a leg up. That said, … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Op-eds
Tagged journalism, Meryl Streep, Pentagon Papers, political journalism, science journalism, The New York Times, The Post, The Washington Post, Tom Hanks, Vietnam War
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Limitations of the Finkbeiner test
This post was republished on The Wire on January 8, 2018. The Finkbeiner test, named for science writer Ann Finkbeiner, was created to check whether a profile of a female scientist published by a mainstream news outlet was produced in the … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Scicomm
Tagged affirmative action, Ann Finkbeiner, Finkbeiner test, science journalism, The Life of Science, women in STEM
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Happy new year!
2017 was a blast. Lots of things happened. The world became a shittier place in many ways and better in a few. Mostly, Earth just went around the Sun once more, and from what we know, it’s going to be … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged anxiety, blogging, Chennai, depression, science journalism
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A shorter article about short gamma ray bursts lights up little
Identify a simple and well-defined question Describe the question and answer it Get the fuck out Writing with these three rules in mind makes for a good science article. You stick to the point, you know what details to include … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged BusinessLine, gamma-ray bursts, gravitational waves, GW170817, LIGO, neutron star mergers, science journalism, short gamma ray bursts, The Hindu
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Friends no more
Growing up, watching Friends was a source of much amusement and happiness. Now, as a grownup, I can’t watch a single episode without deeply resenting how the show caricatures all science as avoidable and all scientists as boring. The way … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged anti-intellectualism, astrology, Bapstein-King comet, consumerism, Facebook, Friends, March for Science, Ross Geller, science communication, science journalism, TV show, Twitter
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In solidarity with Nautilus’s writers
In April this year, Undark published a piece that caught me by surprise: Nautilus magazine was going broke. Actually, it wasn’t a surprise that lasted long. Nautilus, to me, had been doing a commendable job of being ‘the New Yorker … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science, business models, John Steele, journalism, Michael Segal, Nautilus, science journalism, Undark
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‘Lots of people don’t know lots of things’
You might have seen news channels on the television (if you do at all, in fact) flash a piece of information repeatedly on their screens. News presenters also tend to repeat things they’ve said 10 or 15 minutes before and … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged distribution channels, information dissemination, news, science communication, science journalism, TV news
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