Tag Archives: women in STEM
On India’s new ‘Vigyan Puraskar’ awards
The Government of India has replaced the 300 or so awards for scientists it used to give out until this year with the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP), a set of four awards with 56 laureates, The Hindu has reported. Unlike … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Bhatnagar Award, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Space, Khader Vali Dudekula, Millennium Plaque of Honour, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Ministry of Environment, PIO, Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, The Hindu, women in STEM
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A well-meaning manel is not a good panel
It’s time the good intentions of the organisers cease to matter. Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science
Tagged history of science, manel, Meera Nanda, women in science, women in STEM
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Gender equity in retractions
From the abstract of a fascinating study published in PLoS ONE on May 3, 2023: … this study investigated gender differences in authorship of retracted papers in biomedical sciences available on RetractionWatch. Among 35,635 biomedical articles retracted between 1970 and … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged ETH Zurich, Marcella Carollo, PLoS ONE, research misconduct, research papers, retraction, Retraction Watch, women in science, women in STEM
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Some science prizes are only for men
Say Someone has won the Nobel Prize for physics, perhaps the most prestigious honour (as awards go) for a physicist. What would it mean for all the future awards given to this Someone? One thing that a Nobel Prize does, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged bad faith, Bias Watch, MS Valiathan, National Science Day, Nobel Prize, S Natarajan, Samir K Maji, SASTRA Deemed University, T Pradeep, women in STEM
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The Nobel intent
You’ve probably tired of this but I can’t. The Nobel Prize folks just sent out a newsletter ahead of Women’s Day, on March 8, describing the achievements of female laureates of each of the six prizes. This is a customary … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Donna Strickland, Gert Cori, Marie Curie, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology, Nobel Prize for physics, women in STEM, Women's Day
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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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Two sides of the road and the gutter next to it
I have a mid-October deadline for an essay so obviously when I started reading up on the topic this morning, I ended up on a different part of the web – where I found this: a piece by a journalist … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds
Tagged bias, Bob Woodward, Donald Trump, ignorance, Jay Rosen, Kary Mullis, Nobel Prizes, objectivity, Omar Kelly, Poynter, Richard Feynman, Surjit Bhalla, Swarajya Mag, The New York Times, victim-blaming, victimisation, view from nowhere, women in STEM
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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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Why do we cover the Nobel Prize announcements?
The Nobel Prizes are too big to fail. Even if they’ve become beset by a host of problems, such as: Long gap between invention/discovery and recognition, A large cash component given to old scientists, Limiting number of awardees to three, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Abel Prize, Lasker Award, media coverage, Nobel Committee, Nobel Prizes, science journalism, SS Bhatnagar Award, Wolf Prize, women in STEM
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Some thoughts on the Mack/Dorigo Twitter exchange, and Zivkovic, Feyerabend, etc.
Aspirants flock to role models. The ‘underlying human’ must not jeopardise their conversation by being a dick. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bora Zivkovic, gender, Geoff Marcy, incommensurability, Katherine Mack, Paul Feyerabend, privilege, sexism, sexual harassment, sexuality, Tommaso Dorigo, women in STEM
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