'Lots of people don't know lots of things'
You might have seen news channels on the television (if you do at all, in fact) flash a piece of information repeatedly on their screens. News presenters also tend to repeat things they’ve said 10 or…
science journalism
89 posts
Ruins of the Sutlej avulsion paper's coverage
Reporting on the new Indus civilisation study out of IIT-K and Imperial College London was an interesting experience because it afforded an opportunity to discover how the technical fields of sediment…
Some empathy for Treebeard's privilege
There's a line from The Two Towers (2002) that's really stayed with me: I'm on nobody's side because nobody is on my side. It's spoken by Treebeard, the Ent, to one of Meriadoc/P…
Taking the ringdown route to understanding the humans of science
What follows is an attempt to process and understand Cassandra Willyard's post on Last Word on Nothing, about her preferring the humanised stories of science over the stories of the science itself…
On that 'Last Word on Nothing' post
A post published on the Last Word On Nothing blog yesterday has been creating quite the stir on Twitter. Excerpt: Physics writers, this is how you nab the physics haters — human emotion. You can expl…
Confused thoughts on embargoes
Seventy! That's how many observatories around the world turned their antennae to study the neutron-star collision that LIGO first detected. So I don't know why the LIGO Collaboration, and Natu…
Why do we cover the Nobel Prize announcements?
The Nobel Prizes are too big to fail. Even if they've become beset by a host of problems, such as: 1. Long gap between invention/discovery and recognition, 2. A large cash component given to ol…
Talking scicomm at NCBS – II
I was invited to speak to the students of the annual science writing workshop conducted at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, for the second year (first year talk's notes here…
Communication, journalism and bullshit
Science can often be complicated to deal with and benefit from a journalist's gaze – but it must be accompanied, if not preceded, by science communication.…
Overview of science journalism in India, for WiD
Wissenschaft im Dialog is hosting "a special series about the role of science communication and science journalism in various countries". I wrote the India edition…
The raison d'être of a science journalist, courtesy Hobsbawm
'Age of Extremes' offers a carefully considered picture of modern science and its philosophical roots…
Do your bit, broaden your science menu
Don't judge the best science journalists in India after having read only the worst science journalism.…