Intellectual humility
Someone mentioned in passing that I should go for a run to break my writers' block (18 days and counting) – so I did, after a LONG time. I lasted barely thirty minutes and felt pain in parts of my…
VM
1664 posts
To understand #NotInMyName
6 min read
The more vicious public debates we have, the more it will seem like a 'conversation' cordoned off to those masses for whom an awareness of social and political issues is only just budding.…
Communication, journalism and bullshit
2 min read
Science can often be complicated to deal with and benefit from a journalist's gaze – but it must be accompanied, if not preceded, by science communication.…
Why Wonder Woman's breastplate isn't disappointing
2 min read
The armour is not actually accompanied by the male gaze in the film, and may not even have been meant as armour at all.…
Unscientific breastplates
7 min read
Wonder Woman's armour isn't entirely about 'her choices': it creates new ways to harm her because it's trying to preserve other things.…
Geometry's near-miss that wasn't
2 min read
The extent of Euclidean geometry's imperfections only really came to light when physicists used Riemann's geometry to set up the theories of relativity.…
Weyl semimetals make way for super optics
5 min read
A Weyl semimetal is a crystal whose lattice has the uncommon ability to carry electrical energy at room temperature.…
Amorphous topological insulators
4 min read
Physicists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, have found that topological insulators needn't always be crystals – as has been thought.…
GM: confronting contradictions
3 min read
Neither the persuasion to nitpick scientific studies nor our persistent hypocrisy is going to end the GM crops debate.…
Some thoughts on the Mack/Dorigo Twitter exchange, and Zivkovic, Feyerabend, etc.
3 min read
Aspirants flock to role models. The 'underlying human' must not jeopardise their conversation by being a dick.…
A conqueror extraordinaire among bugs
3 min read
As of June 2015, the harlequin ladybird had been found in 59 countries outside of its native range.…
Overview of science journalism in India, for WiD
1 min read
Wissenschaft im Dialog is hosting "a special series about the role of science communication and science journalism in various countries". I wrote the India edition…