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The pocket-sized accelerator

Jan 9, 2020 4 min read

Scicomm acceleration gradient ACHIP biofuels production cargo screening flue gas treatment inverse design laser plasma acceleration materials processing particle accelerator photonic circuit photonic integrated circuit Robert L Byer slab waveguide sterilisation tabletop accelerator wakefield accelerator water treatment

The world's largest machine is called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It's in the shape of a ring with a circumference of 26 km, and cost $3.4 billion (Rs 24,262 crore) and 12 years to build.…

A sympathetic science

Jan 6, 2020 4 min read

Culture Op-eds Science human condition Kiran Bedi NASA pseudoscience science communication scientism sympathy

If you feel the need to respond, please first make sure you have read the post in full. I posted the following tweet a short while ago: With reference to this: Which in turn was with reference to t…

Injustice ex machina

Jan 5, 2020 2 min read

Culture Tech anti-intellectualism artificial intelligence capitalism Cory Doctorow Evgeny Morozov globalisation machine learning middle-class aspirations nationalism populism technological solutionism

There are some things I think about but struggle to articulate, especially in the heat of an argument with a friend. Cory Doctorow succinctly captures one such idea here: Empiricism-washing is the to…

Sci-fi past the science

Jan 3, 2020 1 min read

Culture Science Arthur C Clarke Elon Musk human condition human spaceflight Jeff Bezos politics sci-fi science fiction social science Zeynep Tufekci

There's an interesting remark in the introductory portion of this article by Zeynep Tufekci (emphasis added): At its best, though, science fiction is a brilliant vehicle for exploring not the far…

Social media and science communication

Dec 30, 2019 7 min read

Op-eds Scicomm echo chamber Facebook homophilic segregation LGBTQIA+ news publishing role models science communication scientific paper social media Twitter women in STEM

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 fo…

Ending 2019

Dec 28, 2019 2 min read

Life notes blogging bounce back happiness heterodoxy populism productivity writing habit

This blog achieved multiple minor but personally enjoyable milestones in 2019: * It was read by people in 143 counties, the highest in a single year since 2008 (when I started blogging) * It was th…

Retrospective: The Wire Science in 2019

Dec 28, 2019 4 min read

Op-eds Scicomm Science democracy Dinamalar history of science independent journalism Indian Express Mongabay nationalism Philosophy of Science R&D science communication science journalism social science sociology of science The Hindu The Print The Wire

At the start of 2019, The Wire Science decided to focus more on issues of science and society, and this is reflected in the year-end list of our best stories (in terms of traffic and engagement; liste…

The rationalists' eclipse

Dec 27, 2019 4 min read

Culture Science Against Method annular solar eclipse BR Ambedkar Caliban and the Witch capitalism myth Paul Feyerabend Periyar pseudoscience rationalism science communication scientism solar eclipse superstitions superstitious beliefs Sylvia Federici

The annular solar eclipse over South India on December 26 provided sufficient cause for casual and/or inchoate rationalism to make a rare public appearance – rarer than the average person who had deci…

A personal manifesto

Dec 25, 2019 3 min read

Life notes anti-CAA protests authoritarianism Boris Johnson Constitution of India Donald Trump fascism Jair Bolsonaro majoritarianism make good art Narendra Modi National Registry of Citizens Neil Gaiman Recep Tayyip Erdogan Rodrigo Duterte Vladimir Putin

Many people who are unsure of how their work can help put out the various (figurative) fires ravaging the country at the moment often quickly conclude that purpose is best found at the frontlines of t…

My country is burning. Why should I work?

Dec 21, 2019 4 min read

Life notes Scicomm authoritarianism Citizenship Amendment Act critical thinking democracy fascism individual responsibility ISRO pluralism protest science communication

A few days ago, I found asking myself the following question: My country is burning, why should I work? I ended up with some (admittedly inchoate) thoughts, delineated below. I’m trying to fight off…

The Star Wars dynasty

Dec 21, 2019 1 min read

Culture Ben Solo dynasticism dynasty politics Emperor Palpatine Jedi Kylo Ren Leia Organa Luke Skywalker Rahul Gandhu Rey Sonia Gandhi Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker

The latest 'Star Wars' movie, The Rise of Skywalker, is worth a watch if you're a committed fan interested in staying up to date with the franchise. Otherwise, all you're missing is a…

Poor Sanskrit

Dec 13, 2019 1 min read

Op-eds Scicomm Ganesh Singh NASA Pratap Chandra Sarangi Sanskrit Sanskrit University Bill Vedas

'BJP MP Says Speaking Sanskrit Beats Diabetes, Boosts Nervous System', The Wire, December 13, 2019: In a debate in the Lok Sabha on December 12 about the Sanskrit University Bill, Ganesh Sing…