Tag Archives: The Hindu
The fever dream of ‘technological sovereignty’
I recently came across an initiative called “Industrial47”. Someone had shared a link to it on a group I’m part of, and when its card loaded, the image was of a nuclear weapon going off. I found on LinkedIn that … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Science
Tagged air pollution, air purifier, Brahmaputra river, farm fires, genius, Gita Chadha, Homi Bhabha, Indian Space Research Organisation, Industrial47, investment fund, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leona Woods, LinkedIn, nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reason of state, scientific superpower, scope creep, smokeless chulha, social harm, Social welfare, solar cooker, technological sovereignty, technologisation, The Hindu, Three Gorges dam, Walchand Hirachand, Yarlung Tsangpo river
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Rule o flaw — part III
Make sure you’ve read part I and part II. The project of demolishing the building opposite my house has taken a new turn. As part of the deal between me and my neighbours and the contractor, Monday, November 18, was … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged demolition, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, The Hindu
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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
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The frustrating wait for quiet in Chennai
Deepavali is less than a month away — then again it will only be a storm amid a steady drizzle of noises Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Life notes
Tagged acoustic pressure, Deepavali, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, hearing loss, NIOSH SLM, noise map, noise pollution, Noise Pollution Rules 2000, The Hindu, Vinayak Chathurthi
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A cynical archaeology
From ‘ASI submits Bhojshala survey report to Madhya Pradesh High Court’, The Hindu, July 15, 2024: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on July 15 submitted its scientific survey report of the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal-Maula mosque complex to the Indore Bench … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Archaeological Survey of India, archaeology, Bhojshala, Kamal Maula, The Hindu
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India-based neutrino oblivion
In a conversation with science journalist Nandita Jayaraj, physicist and Nobel laureate Takaaki Kajita touched on the dismal anti-parallels between the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) and the Japanese Kamioka and Super-Kamiokande observatories. The INO’s story should be familiar to readers … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged ASHA workers, Challakere science city, COVID-19 pandemic, Department of Atomic Energy, India-based Neutrino Observatory, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Kamioka, Naba K Mondal, Nandita Jayaraj, Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector, Takaaki Kajita, The Hindu
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You’re allowed to be interested in particle physics
This piece appeared in The Hindu today. I wrote the lead article, about why scientists are so interested in an elementary particle called the top quark. Long story short: the top quark is the heaviest elementary particle, and because all … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Higgs boson, mathematical physics, particle physics, Shreya Dasgupta, The Hindu, top quark
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A gentle push over the cliff
From ‘Rotavirus vaccine: tortured data analyses raise false safety alarm’, The Hindu, June 22, 2024: Slamming the recently published paper by Dr. Jacob Puliyel from the International Institute of Health Management Research, New Delhi, on rotavirus vaccine safety, microbiologist Dr. … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged Bharat Biotech, Brian Hooker, Brian Wansink, conspiracy theory, Gagandeep Kang, Jacob Puliyel, Krishna Ella, p-hacking, peer review, rotavirus vaccine, The Hindu
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