Analysis

257 posts

On the lab-leak hypothesis

6 min read
Analysis Scicomm Science absence of evidence COVID-19 pandemic DRASTIC journalism Katherine Eban lab-leak hypothesis Newsweek Nicholas Wade novel coronavirus science communication scientific illiberalism The Seeker Wuhan Institute of Virology zoonotic-spillover hypothesis

One problem with the debate over the novel coronavirus's "lab leak" origin hypothesis is a problem I'm starting to see in quite a few other areas of pandemic-related analysis and dis…

The problems with one-shot Covishield

3 min read
Analysis Op-eds B.1.1.7 variant B.1.617.2 variant COVID-19 pandemic Covishield Government of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi Public Health England Serum Institute of India vaccine effectiveness vaccine efficacy Vishwaguru

NDTV quoted unnamed sources in the Indian government saying it will be conducting a study to assess the feasibility of deploying the Covishield vaccine in a single-dose regimen instead of continuing t…

On crypto-art, racism and outcome fantasies

9 min read
Analysis Op-eds Tech art criticism art patronage Beeple Big Tech Bitcoin bitcoin mining blockchain capitalism consensus algorithms crypto-art cryptocurrencies Ethereum Everydays financial transactions Metakovan Metapurse NFT non-fungible tokens power consumption proof of stake proof of work racism settlement finality Silicon Valley Sybil attack The First 5000 Days Tim Swanson Twobadour Christie's

If you want to find mistakes with something, you’ll be able to find them if you tried long enough. That doesn’t inherently make the thing worthless. The only exception I’ve encountered to this truism…

What is academic freedom?

6 min read
Analysis academic freedom academic freedom index Ashis Nandy deliberative democracy freedom of cultural expression gender identity marketplace of ideas right to science Scholars At Risk Network UN ICESCR University of Erlangen-Nuremberg University of Gothenburg V-Dem Project

Note: I originally wrote two versions of this article for The Wire; one, a 'newsier' version, was published in June 2020. I'd intended to publish the version below, which is more of a disc…

Science prizes, wealth location and social signals

4 min read
Analysis Op-eds Science Arindam Ghosh Infosys Foundation Infosys Prizes Nobel Prizes Prachi Deshpande privilege Rajan Sankaranarayanan research funding Social Sciences SS Bhatnagar Award Swarnajayanti Fellowships wealth signalling

One count on which I almost always find myself to be an outlier in India is my opinion that the Nobel Prizes and their derivatives belong in the gutter. But while many people in other countries share…