Should journos pay scientists for their expertise?
I recently came across a question posed on Twitter, asking if experts whom journalists consult to write articles should be compensated for their labour, especially since, in the tweeter's words, &…
VM
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Notes on covering QM
2 min read
1. I learnt last year that quantum systems are essentially linear because the mathematics that physicists have found can describe quantum-mechanical phenomena contain only linear terms. Effects add t…
Whose fault is a retraction?
2 min read
A journal called Advances in Materials Science and Engineering retracted a paper it published and issued the following notice, excerpted from Retraction Watch, December 22, 2022: Advances in Material…
Something more foolish than completing phase 3 trials in 1.5 months?
5 min read
That the Union government and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had entered into a more intimate, but not necessarily more beneficial, relationship became evident in 2019 when then ISRO ch…
2022 in retrospect
1 min read
2022 has been my worst on the record on several fronts. I had COVID-19 in the first month, which did a freaky number on my heart. My unexplained weight loss from 2021 continued its run into six months…
The identity of scientific papers
5 min read
This prompt arose in response to Stuart Ritchie's response to a suggestion in an editorial "first published last year but currently getting some attention on Twitter" – that scientists s…
Links (2)
* ‘It was a set-up, we were fooled’: the coal mine that ate an Indian village * Stanford hates fun * Concrete Built The Modern World. Now It’s Destroying It. * I Don’t Want to Be an Internet Perso…
New LHC data puts 'new physics' lead to bed
3 min read
One particle in the big zoo of subatomic particles is the B meson. It has a very short lifetime once it's created. In rare instances it decays to three lighter particles: a kaon, a lepton and an a…
Notes on the NIF nuclear fusion breakthrough
4 min read
My explainer/analysis of the US nuclear fusion breakthrough was published today. Some stuff didn't make it to the final draft for space and tone constraints; I'm publishing that below. 1. Whi…
Skyward light, wayward light
3 min read
This is welcome news: … even if it's curious that three of the four officially stated reasons for designating this 'dark sky reserve' aren't directly related to the telescopes, and…
US fusion bhashan
2 min read
Nuclear fusion? Yay! Climate finance? Shh!…
Science's humankind shield
4 min read
"Science benefits all of humanity," they say.…