Note: One of my editors thought this post would work for The Wire as well, so it's been republished there. "… for the greatest benefit of mankind" – these words are scrawled across a ba…
I don't believe in god, but if he/it/she/they existed, then his/its/her/their gift to science communication would've been the metaphor. Metaphors help make sense of truly unknowable things, ge…
A Huffington Post article purportedly published by the US bureau has flicked two quotes from a story first published by The Wire, on the influenza epidemics ravaging India. The story's original au…
One of my favourite essays of all time – insofar as that's a legitimate category – is one called 'How to do what you love' by Paul Graham, the startup guru. In it, he makes a case for the…
The Nobel Prizes are too big to fail. Even if they've become beset by a host of problems, such as: 1. Long gap between invention/discovery and recognition, 2. A large cash component given to ol…
One of the more fascinating bits of high-energy physics is the branch of physics called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Don’t let the big name throw you off: it deals with a bunch of elementary particle…
because I wrote this on The Wire on September 15. I lied. Truth is, I don't care about Saturn. In fact, I'm fascinated with Cassini because of Saturn. We all are. Without Cassini, Saturn woul…
Overheard three people in Delhi: When you feel the rain fall, you feel the dirt pouring down on you, muck streaking down your face and clothes. It washes down the haze from the skies and you can fina…
This is how Leonard Digges described a telescope in 1571: source While it's not clearly known who first invented the telescope – or if such an event even happened – Hans Lippershey is widely cre…
One of the tougher things about writing and reading about quantum mechanics is keeping up with how the meaning of some words change as they graduate from being used in the realm of classical mechanics…
The chances that I'll ever understand Hollywood filmmakers' appetite for films based on ancient mythology is low, and even lower that I'll find a way to explain the shittiness of what thei…
This is the age of the start-up, not megaliths. Remember T-Rex did not survive evolution. It is unlikely that religions organised like T-Rexes – most of the Abrahamic religions fit this description –…