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 Retra…
VM
1664 posts
Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
4 min read
We may go on deleting sections of our history but in the world outside where there are multiple centres of research into the Indian past, and many scholars, there these expunged sections from books us…
Marginalia: Romila on textbooks, Rapido ad, Nobel nonsense
4 min read
We may go on deleting sections of our history but in the world outside where there are multiple centres of research into the Indian past, and many scholars, there these expunged sections from books us…
What about the celebrities in food ads?
3 min read
The row over Bournvita last month was spurred by a social-media influencer’s viral video of the product’s allegedly unhealthy sugar content. Following a legal threat from Mondelez International India,…
What about the celebrities in food ads?
3 min read
The row over Bournvita last month was spurred by a social-media influencer’s viral video of the product’s allegedly unhealthy sugar content. Following a legal threat from Mondelez International India,…
Another reason to point lights down
1 min read
‘Skyward light, wayward light’, this blog, December 14, 2022: One of the simplest ways [to prevent light pollution] is in fact to have no public lighting installation that casts light upward, into th…
The gap between language and quantum mechanics
4 min read
Physics World has a fantastic article about the problem with using a language invented, in Terry Pratchett's words, "to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is", to describe the pecul…
Where do scientists communicate their work?
2 min read
A group of Spanish researchers analysed the mentions of scientific papers authored by scientists (affiliated with Spain) on the social media, on Wikipedia, and on news outlets, blogs and policy docume…
Games grimy and green
2 min read
Every day, I spend an hour or three playing a game called Factorio, in which you mine and process natural resources with which to build and automate ever-larger factories that manufacture materials fo…
Who's to blame for the American right's distrust of science?
4 min read
This study unambiguously suggests that scientific journals do the institution of science no favor when they insert themselves so directly in the political debate, especially at a time when trust in th…
Lord of the Rings Day
2 min read
Happy Lord of the Rings Day. :) About a week ago, I began rereading book 7 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. This followed my realisation earlier this year that I had somehow lost the ability…
AI v. our ability to build AI
1 min read
A lot of this article, by Sean Ekins, Filippa Lentzos, Max Brackmann, and Cédric Invernizzi, published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on March 24, makes good sense – except the following two sen…