The chrysalis that isn't there

3 min read
Culture Science British Medical Journal chrysalis experiments gender discrimination industry of science modern science patriarchy publish or perish science and society scientific enterprise scientific literature scientific method scientific research

I wrote the following post while listening to this track. Perhaps you will enjoy reading it to the same sounds. Otherwise, please consider it a whimsical recommendation. :) I should really start keep…

Another controversy, another round of blaming preprints

5 min read
Analysis Scicomm Science 2019 nCoV Anand Ranganathan bad journalism bad science bioRxiv hegemony IIT Delhi Jonathan Pruitt post-publication peer-review preprint server preprints scientific journals The American Naturalist The Hindu The Wire Science transparency Wuhan coronavirus

On February 1, Anand Ranganathan, the molecular biologist more popular as a columnist for Swarajya, amplified a new preprint paper from scientists at IIT Delhi that (purportedly) claims the Wuhan coro…

The not-so-obvious obvious

4 min read
Scicomm Science Brian Wansink Cornell University data torturing Higgs boson Ig Nobel Prizes incremental research Large Hadron Collider Marc Abrahams modelling ozone p-hacking Ronald H Coase scientific research statistical significance University of Exeter

If your job requires you to pore through a dozen or two scientific papers every month – as mine does – you'll start to notice a few every now and then couching a somewhat well-known fact in study-…

Losing sight of the agricultural finish line

4 min read
Analysis Op-eds agriculture climate change detox diet diets eggs electric vehicles food genetically modified crops indoor farming insecticides keto diet land use change midday meal scheme Monsanto organic agriculture pesticides protein subsidies vegan Veganuary vertical farming

In The Guardian, Joanna Blythman pokes an important pin into the frustrating but unsurprisingly durable bubble of vegan cuisine and the low-hanging fruits of ethical eating: These days it's fashi…

Free speech at the outer limits

4 min read
Op-eds Scicomm boycott Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1964 Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 climate change Constitution of India free speech freedom of speech Goop Gwyneth Paltrow Laurie Penny Leonid Teytelman Netflix protest reproducibility crisis Tripura high court Wall Street Journal

On January 12, Peter W. Wood, president of an American organisation called the National Association of Scholars (NAS), wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal against attempts by one individual to p…