On the lab-leak 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…
Scicomm
331 posts
Broken clocks during the pandemic
Proponents of conspiracy theories during the pandemic, at least in India, appear to be like broken clocks: they are right by coincidence, without the right body of evidence to back their claims. Two o…
'Surface of last screaming'
This has nothing to do with anything in the news. I was reading up about the Big Bang for a blog post when I came across this lucid explanation – so good it's worth sharing for that reason alone –…
On the PSA's new COVID-19 advisory
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, K. VijayRaghavan, has issued a new advisory emphasising the roles of "masks, distance, sanitation and ventilation&…
On The Lancet editorial
On May 8, The Lancet published an editorial criticising the Narendra Modi government's response to India's second COVID-19 outbreak, which has been redefining the meaning of 'snafu'. A…
On the International Day of Light, remembering darkness
Today is the International Day of Light. According to a UNESCO note: The International Day of Light is celebrated on 16 May each year, the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser i…
The constructionist hypothesis and expertise during the pandemic
Now that COVID-19 cases are rising again in the country, the trash talk against journalists has been rising in tandem. The Indian government was unprepared and hapless last year, and it is this year a…
US experiments find hint of a break in the laws of physics
At 9 pm India time on April 7, physicists at an American research facility delivered a shot in the arm to efforts to find flaws in a powerful theory that explains how the building blocks of the univer…
On the NASEM report on solar geoengineering
A top scientific body in the US has asked the government to fund solar geoengineering research in a bid to help researchers and policymakers know the fullest extent of their options to help the US dea…
COVID-19, due process and an SNR problem
At a press conference streamed live on March 18, the head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that the body – which serves as the European Union’s drug and vaccine regulator – had conclud…
A tale of vortices, skyrmions, paths and shapes
There are many types of superconductors. Some of them can be explained by an early theory of superconductivity called Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. In these materials, vibrations in the ato…
Physicists produce video of time crystal in action 😱
Have you heard of time crystals? A crystal is any object whose atoms are arranged in a fixed pattern in space, with the pattern repeating itself. So what we typically know to be crystals are really s…