The journalist as expert
I recently turned down some requests for interviews because the topics of discussion in each case indicated that I would be treated as a scientist, not a science journalist (something that happened sh…
COVID-19
34 posts
Avoiding 'muddled science' in the newsroom
On April 23, I was part of a webinar called ProtoCall, organised by Pro.to with the support of International Centre for Journalists and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. It happens once a wee…
Time and the pandemic
There is this idea in physics that the fundamental laws of nature apply the same way for processes moving both forwards and backwards in time. So you can't actually measure the passage of time by…
There is more than one thunder
Sunny Kung, a resident in internal medicine at a teaching hospital in the US, has authored a piece in STAT News about her experience dealing with people with COVID-19, and with other people who deal w…
'Science alone triumphs': A skeptic annotates
An article entitled 'Science alone triumphs: Providing a true picture of the world, only science can help India against coronavirus', penned by a Jayant Sinha, appeared on the Times of India&#…
The virus beyond biology
https://twitter.com/harari_yuval/status/1246784570244071424 A perfectly agreeable suggestion on first glance, especially since it provides an opportunity for a quick rebuke when faced with such consp…
Science journalism, expertise and common sense
On March 27, the Johns Hopkins University said an article published on the website of the Centre For Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), a Washington-based think tank, had used its logo wi…
On India's path to community transmission
There's a virus out there among many, many viruses that's caught the world's attention. This virus came into existence somewhere else, it doesn't matter where, and developed a mutation…
Dehumanising language during an outbreak
It appears the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has begun local transmission in India, i.e. infecting more people within the country instead of each new patient having recently travelled to an already affected…
Distracting from the peer-review problem
From an article entitled ‘The risks of swiftly spreading coronavirus research‘ published by Reuters: A Reuters analysis found that at least 153 studies – including epidemiological papers, genetic ana…