A tale of two horrors: poop and aliens
I saw this tweet yesterday: Information like this always reminds me of one fact that awakened me to the behind-the-scenes role that the natural universe plays in our cultural lives. The organic com…
VM
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Clouds, rain and radar – Addendum
3 min read
My piece on May 12 calling out Prime Minister Narendra Modi's baffling conviction in his knowledgeability about surveillance radar systems and atmospheric attenuation has prompted some criticism a…
Clouds, rain and radar
2 min read
I am not a person jo saare vigyan ko jaanta ho – lekin maine kaha itne cloud hain, baarish ho rahi hai ki ek benefit hain ki hum radar se bach sakte hain. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Transl…
On pre-approving articles before publication
3 min read
The debate about whether it is fair for scientists to expect science journalists to let them proofread articles in which they are quoted before going to print has reared its head once more, at least o…
Complexity and meaningfulness
1 min read
Science writer Graham Farmelo interviewed Edward Witten, the mathematical physicist extraordinaire, in the summer of 2018. The full interview is available to listen here (27 minutes) and, thanks to Sa…
Notes on 'Avengers: Endgame' (spoiler alert)
4 min read
At the outset, I had a great time watching the film. It ticked all the boxes of an all-round entertainer. What follows are some specific thoughts I had of the film that shouldn't be construed as…
The fiction of men
2 min read
After you find out that a male writer has been a lesser person than you thought he was, have you found it harder to read and appreciate his work? I bet you have. I'm sure it's the case with…
Fantasy and pseudoscience in Rajinikanth's '2.0'
3 min read
Rajinikanth's film 2.0, which released last year, was recently uploaded on Amazon Prime and I finally watched it in its entirety. It is a dumpster-fire of masculinity, sexism and misogyny, which i…
Welcome to the ergosphere
12 min read
A black hole's gravitational influence is a twisted – and twisting – thing, with many parts to it. We all know about the event horizon because of its wondrous ability to capture 'even light…
Poisoned trees bear poisonous fruits
2 min read
Of late, there has been a clutch of Tamil films that have endeavoured to show the Hindu right-wing in poor light, associating its rituals with violence and oppression. The two most notable examples ar…
Star Wars and the dynastic principle
3 min read
Late last week, I picked up Ram Guha's Patriots and Partisans. I know shamefully little about India's modern political history – before and after Independence – certainly beyond the virtual bo…
The black hole image's question of kind
2 min read
In my latest op-ed for The Wire, where I defended the criticisms of some people who called the EHT's black hole picture too blurry, there are two lines that aren't entirely true. This post att…