Is Dias bringing the bus back?
So Physical Review Letters formally retracted that paper about manganese sulphide, in the limelight for having been coauthored by Ranga P. Dias, yesterday. The retraction notice states: "Of the a…
Scicomm
331 posts
What's with superconductors and peer-review?
Throughout the time I've been a commissioning editor for science-related articles for news outlets, I've always sought and published articles about academic publishing. It's the part of th…
NYT's profile of India's space startup scene
The New York Times published a 'profile' of the Indian spaceflight startup scene on July 4. The article is typical in that: a) by virtue of being published by one of the world's most-read…
A new science page at The Hindu
Starting today, The Hindu has a new science page, available to read in the premium e-paper edition. It will be published on all days except Saturday. I will be anchoring the page from Monday to Thursd…
Notes for a ‘The Open Notebook’ report
I was quoted in a new reported feature in The Open Notebook, entitled 'Expanding the Geographical Borders of Your Source List'.…
What about the celebrities in food ads?
The row over Bournvita last month was spurred by a social-media influencer’s viral video of the product’s allegedly unhealthy sugar content. Following a legal threat from Mondelez International India,…
What about the celebrities in food ads?
The row over Bournvita last month was spurred by a social-media influencer’s viral video of the product’s allegedly unhealthy sugar content. Following a legal threat from Mondelez International India,…
The gap between language and quantum mechanics
Physics World has a fantastic article about the problem with using a language invented, in Terry Pratchett's words, "to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is", to describe the pecul…
Where do scientists communicate their work?
A group of Spanish researchers analysed the mentions of scientific papers authored by scientists (affiliated with Spain) on the social media, on Wikipedia, and on news outlets, blogs and policy docume…
BLR road-widening is a sham
While I'm told that discussions on a plan to widen Bengaluru's Sankey Road, between Bhashyam Circle and Malleshwaram 18th cross – a stretch that's one of the contributors to the city's…
Nature paper says bad news is good news
'Negativity drives online news consumption', Claire E. Robertson et al., Nature Human Behaviour, March 16, 2023: Here we analyse the effect of negative words on news consumption using a massi…
What's the anomaly in a Nobel for Modi?
I'm sure you've seen the reports doing the rounds today that some person on some Nobel Prize Committee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very deserving of the vaunted peace prize, followed…