The HMPV cascade
I sense the public panic over the HMPV outbreak in China is finally dying down. I don’t know which TV news channel picked up on it first and blew it out of proportion but it created the sort of time i…
The Hindu
43 posts
Rule o flaw — part III
Make sure you've read part I and part II. The project of demolishing the building opposite my house has taken a new turn. As part of the deal between me and my neighbours and the contractor, Mond…
Numbed by numbers
Couple things in my news feed this morning that really woke me up — one a startling statistic and the other a reminder of what statistics miss. The first from Nature, 'How to win a Nobel prize: wh…
The frustrating wait for quiet in Chennai
Deepavali is less than a month away — then again it will only be a storm amid a steady drizzle of noises…
A cynical archaeology
From ‘ASI submits Bhojshala survey report to Madhya Pradesh High Court’, The Hindu, July 15, 2024: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on July 15 submitted its scientific survey report of the di…
India-based neutrino oblivion
In a conversation with science journalist Nandita Jayaraj, physicist and Nobel laureate Takaaki Kajita touched on the dismal anti-parallels between the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) and the J…
You're allowed to be interested in particle physics
This page appeared in The Hindu’s e-paper today. I wrote the lead article, about why scientists are so interested in an elementary particle called the top quark. Long story short: the top quark is th…
A gentle push over the cliff
From ‘Rotavirus vaccine: tortured data analyses raise false safety alarm’, The Hindu, June 22, 2024: Slamming the recently published paper by Dr. Jacob Puliyel from the International Institute of Hea…
The cost of forgetting Ballia
Actively papering over the effects of extreme weather has to be the most self-destructive thing we’re capable of in the climate change era.…
12 years and counting
I’ve been a journalist for 12 years. For the first few years these anniversaries helped to remember that I was able to survive in the industry but now, after 12, I’m well and truly part of the industr…
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…
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…