Op-eds

182 posts

Dehumanising language during an outbreak

5 min read
Op-eds Scicomm Science Amit Shah Bharatiya Janata Party COVID-19 dehumanisation Eman Ahmed epidemic Harsh Vardhan infection infectious diseases local transmission private healthcare public healthcare system Saifee Hospital SARS-CoV-2 science communication science journalism The Guardian Washington Post Wuhan coronavirus

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…

Freeman Dyson's PhD

3 min read
Op-eds Science Cornell University doctorate Freeman Dyson Institute for Advanced Study Julian Schwinger Nobel Prize PhD privilege quantum electrodynamics Richard Feynman scientific publishing scientific research Vannevar Bush Shin'ichiro Tomonaga

The physicist, thinker and writer Freeman Dyson passed away on February 28, 2020, at the age of 96. I wrote his obituary for The Wire Science; excerpt: The 1965 Nobel Prize for the development of [qu…

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…

Retrospective: The Wire Science in 2019

4 min read
Op-eds Scicomm Science democracy Dinamalar history of science independent journalism Indian Express Mongabay nationalism Philosophy of Science R&D science communication science journalism social science sociology of science The Hindu The Print The Wire

At the start of 2019, The Wire Science decided to focus more on issues of science and society, and this is reflected in the year-end list of our best stories (in terms of traffic and engagement; liste…

Starlink and astronomy

5 min read
Op-eds Scicomm Blue Origin Cerro Tololo Elon Musk Facebook Athena Federal Aviation Administration Federal Communications Commission geosynchronous orbit International Astronomical Union International Telecommunications Union Iridium constellation Jeff Bezos low-cost internet low-Earth orbit OneWeb satellite constellation SpaceX Starlink Starlink mega-constellation VLEO

SpaceX's Starlink constellation is currently a network of 120+ satellites and which, in the next decade, will expand to 10,000+ to provide low-cost internet from space around the world. Astronomer…