The BHU Covaxin study and ICMR bait
Earlier this month, a study by a team at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi concluded that fully 1% of Covaxin recipients may suffer severe adverse events. One percent is a large number becaus…
Scicomm
331 posts
The billionaire's solution to climate change
An eye-opening profile of Marc Benioff's 1t.org initiative, the flawed research paper that inspired it, the harmful practices it's made room for, and what all this says of his wealth…
The "coherent water" scam is back
On May 7, I received a press release touting a product called "coherent water" made by a company named Analemma Water India. According to the document, "coherent water" is based on…
End of the line
The folks at The Wire have laid The Wire Science to rest, I've learnt. The site hasn't published any (original) articles since February 2 and its last tweet was on February 16, 2024. At the t…
The foundation of shit
I've been a commissioning editor in Indian science, health, and environment journalism for a little under a decade. I've learnt many lessons in this time but one in particular still surprises…
When metastable systems fail to become stable…
'Metastable systems' is a technical term for something you've definitely experienced in your daily life, as much as scientists often encounter it when studying subatomic particles. Say yo…
A Q&A about philosophy in journalism
Earlier this year, Varun Bhatta, assistant professor of philosophy at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, reached out to ask me some questions for something he was writing…
Violence shuts science? Err…
Dog bites man isn't news. Man bites dog is news. I'm reminded of this adage of the news industry – and Nambi Narayanan's comment in August 2022 – when I read reports like 'Explosion o…
Using superconductors to measure electric current
Simply place two superconductors very close to each other, separated by a small gap, and you’ll have taken a big step towards an important piece of technology called a Josephson junction. When the tw…
A survey of El Salvador's bitcoin adoption
On December 22, a group of researchers from the US had a paper published in Science in which they reported the results of a survey of 1,800 households in El Salvador over its members’ adoption, or not…
Unexpected: Magnetic regions in metal blow past speed limit
You’re familiar with magnetism, but do you know what it looks like at the smallest scale? Take a block of iron, for example. It’s ferromagnetic, which means if you place it near a permanent magnet - l…
You can do worse than watching paint dry - ask physics
I live in Chennai, a city whose multifaceted identity includes its unrelenting humidity. Its summers are seldom hotter than those in Delhi but they are more unbearable because it leaves people sweaty,…