Are we obsessed with nominal identities?
In an interview to The Wire Science last month, Venki Ramakrishnan, the molecular biologist, acknowledged that Indians had a bizarre relationship with the fact that he was a Nobel laureate: I’d left…
Research funds gridlock: who wants what
On January 30, the Union ministry of finance announced a 24-25% hike in the junior (JRF) and senior research fellowships (SRF) amounts effective from January 1, 2019. The decision had been prompted b…
The history, culture and science of 'cardiac coherence breathing'
A recent article in Scientific American on the benefits of “proper breathing” for overall health has ignited anger across social media, with many in India accusing the magazine of rebranding or even a…
Which supercollider will be built?
After CERN announced the plans for its new supercollider, I was surprised no one wanted to address the elephant in the room: the supercollider's similarity to one announced by China a few months a…
Breaking down CMB Bharat
A consortium of Indian scientists has submitted a proposal to the national space agency for a new space science mission called CMB Bharat. Let's break it down. What is CMB Bharat? According to…
ISRO's amazing tender notice
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has provided more details about its Gaganyaan programme, including new stages for its GSLV Mk III launch vehicle, through – of all things – a tender notic…
Compare ideas with ideas
Avi Loeb in his interview to the New Yorker: We don’t have as much data as I would like. Given the data that we have, I am putting this on the table, and it bothers people to even think about that, j…
The problem with claiming "it's aliens"
A Harvard astronomer believes that an interstellar object could possibly have originated from a civilization outside our solar system: https://t.co/qsLjVPGJy4 pic.twitter.com/x7jh3wnRDm — The New Yor…
Just how many reusable rocket designs is ISRO working on?
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on at least three different designs of reusable launch vehicles at the same time. Together with its endeavours to increase the number of objec…
A close shave with the criticism question
Pamela Philipose, the public editor of The Wire, raised an important question towards the end of her latest column: The Wire Fortunately, he took the trouble to send in his suggestions: “It will be…
Not all retracted papers are fake news – but then, which ones are?
The authors of a 2017 paper about why fake news spreads so fast have asked for it to be retracted because they've discovered a flaw in their analysis. This is commendable because it signals that s…
A sudden spike in meteor influx 290 Mya
About 300 million years ago, something happened. And the Moon was hit by meteorites twice to thrice as often after this period than before. The Solar System has always been a dangerous place for care…