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The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
On Monday night, I kid you not, I dreamt of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. It was only by name, a fleeting mention in a heated conversation I was having
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Developing Tamil Nadu
“If the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comes to power, it will ruin the developed State of Tamil Nadu” — Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said this in his address
14 min read
From the Heisenberg cut to the Copenhagen interpretation
The following post was motivated by this exchange (on X.com), which prompted me to write out my understanding of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the part the
5 min read
That humans quest for cosmic dawn
From 'Cosmic dawn: the search for the primordial hydrogen signal', Physics World, November 18, 2025: The EDGES instrument is a dipole antenna, which resembles a ping-pong table with
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To be Indian is to set records
For all the ways in which the Indian people are divided these days, they're seemingly united in their desire to set records. On January 22, a tinkerer named
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Normalising deviance
A.k.a. the importance of public scrutiny
6 min read
String theory and reconciliations
According to particle physics, the fundamental building blocks of the universe are point-like particles, essentially small dots of energy with no dimension. String theory posits that these dots are actually
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Out there: using a moon to spot dark matter
The search for dark matter, the invisible ‘glue’ that holds galaxies together, has long focused solely on subatomic particles and this could be a mistake if a new study Physical
2 min read
Savouring playtime
Daily writing promptDo you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you? View all responses I work in an office with many lovely and smart people and I
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My political views
Daily writing promptHow have your political views changed over time? View all responses When I first had any views at all, I think I was in the second year of
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Heat capacity
Someone asked me recently to name the thing I've been most grateful for in 2025. After giving it some thought, I realised it had to be the heat
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Joel Mokyr, Gita Chadha, Lawrence Krauss, Joseph Vijay
All that thinking about Joel Mokyr and his prescription to support society’s intellectual elite in order to ensure technological progress took me back to a talk Gita Chadha delivered
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Mokyr hearts Nobel Prizes
I don’t like Joel Mokyr’s history of progress and have written about that before. I also have a longer analysis and explanation of my issues coming soon in
6 min read
Tracking down energetic cosmic rays
Once in a while, nature runs experiments that no human lab can match. Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are a good example. Cosmic rays are fast, high energy particles from space that
2 min read
Acting and speaking
Daily writing promptHave you ever performed on stage or given a speech? View all responses I performed several times on stage in school, up to when I was 11 years
