The paradoxical virtues of primacy in science
Primacy is a false virtue imposed by the structures of modern science – yet it is also necessary to right some wrongs.…
Science
363 posts
Climate change, like quantum physics, will strain language
One of the defining features of quantum mechanics is that it shows up human language, and thought supported by that language, to be insufficient and limited. Many of the most popular languages of the…
Must war have consequences for scientists?
The Journal of Molecular Structure has temporarily banned manuscript submissions from scientists working at state science institutes in Russia. The decision extends the consequences of war beyond the…
'Aatmanirbharta through science'
The Week magazine distinguished itself last year by picking Indian Council of Medical Research chief Balram Bhargava as its 'person of the year' for 2021. And now, ahead of National Science Da…
NSD II
That the Modi government has been able to coopt National Science Day as well as it has speaks only to the occasion’s moral vacuity. India’s National Science Day is the day on which physicist C.V. Rama…
Marie Curie: An icon or 'in the way'?
Who would have been the most iconic woman physicist of all time if the Nobel Prizes didn't exist?…
PTI, celebrating scientists, and class/caste
PTI's decision to stick Anna Menon's name in a headline about the new SpaceX crew makes no sense.…
Review of a review: 'Rocket Boys' (2022)
Tanul Thakur has reviewed a series on SonyLIV called Rocket Boys for The Wire. I haven't watched the show and don't plan to, for want of time as well as because, reading Thakur's review, I…
Are preprints reliable?
To quote from a paper published yesterday in PLOS Biology: Does the information shared in preprints typically withstand the scrutiny of peer review, or are conclusions likely to change in the version…
Some facts are bigger than numbers – a story
Some facts are just boring, like 1 + 1 = 2. You already knew them before they were presented as such, and now that you do, it's hard to know what to do with them. Some facts are clearly important,…
An Indian paper retracted for 'legal reasons'
The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article because it was published in error before the peer review process was completed. The content of this article has been removed for legal reasons. The autho…
Science shouldn’t animate the need for social welfare
This is an interesting discovery: First, it’s also a bad discovery (note: there’s a difference between right/wrong and good/bad). It is useful to found specific interventions on scientific findings…