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The worst poem ever
I'm just a lousy science journalist, writing the worst poem ever.
science journalism
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Establishing trust across the aisle on issues of climate change
Making people anxious even to ask honest questions, and robbing them of the opportunity to respectfully disagree, isn't good for science.
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The metaphorical transparency of responsible media
We in India often complain about how the media doesn't care enough to cover science stories. But when we're looking back and forward in time, we become blind to the media's efforts.
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The nomenclature of uncertainty
Many science articles in the past year dealt with observations falling short of the evidence threshold but which have been worth writing about simply because of the desperation behind them. Has this prompted science writers to think about the language they use?
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TIFR's superconductor discovery: Where are the reports?
Most news publications in India didn't report on an exciting and significant discovery made by physicists from TIFR, Mumbai. Why not?
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UCal Irvine’s ‘fifth force’ farce
If a journalist buys into a UCI press release about some kind of ‘confirmation’ of a fifth force, and which is subsequently found to be simply false, an editor wouldn’t be faced with a tough choice whatsoever about which section she has to axe.
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'Infinite in All Directions', a science newsletter
The idea for the newsletter is a derivative of a reading challenge a friend proposed: wherein a group of us would recommend books for each other to read, especially titles that we might not come upon by ourselves.
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Curious Bends – outraged warriors, bizarre obsessions, dubious drugs and more
It’s been one year since we launched Curious Bends – a newsletter where we bring you science, technology, data and India stories from around the web, once a week (subscribe). We’ve enjoyed serving you important and interesting stories. Thank you for being loyal subscribers! Anniversaries are a good time
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Science journalism as an institutional undertaking
"The paper has been through many financial crises and Science Times has not been affected." These were the words of David Corcoran, Editor, NYT Science Times, who'd dropped by my NYU SHERP class today for a short presentation and some Q&A. David said that
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NYUlab: Beat-sculpting, money-making and science journalism
(This blog post belongs to a series, presumptuously titled NYUlab, about interesting thoughts and experiences I have as I pursue an MA in science, health and environmental reporting at New York University.) Today, my class had two guests. Malcolm Ritter, whose Twitter profile reads "Associated Press science reporter"
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A case of Kuhn, quasicrystals & communication – Part IV
Dan Shechtman won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2011. This led to an explosion of interest on the subject of QCs and Shechtman’s travails in getting the theory validated. Numerous publications, from Reuters to The Hindu, published articles and reports. In fact, The Guardian ran an online article
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A case of Kuhn, quasicrystals & communication – Part III
The doctrine of incommensurability arises out of the conflict between two paradigms and the faltering of communications between the two adherent factions. According to Kuhn, scientists are seldom inclined to abandon the paradigm at the first hint of crisis – as elucidated in the previous section – and instead denounce the necessity