A Q&A about my job and science journalism
A couple weeks ago, some students from a university in South India got in touch to ask a few questions about my job and about science communication. The correspondence was entirely over email, and I&#…
The Wire
29 posts
Ads on The Wire Science
Sometime this week, but quite likely tomorrow, advertisements will begin appearing on The Wire Science. The Wire's, and by extension The Wire Science's, principal source of funds is donations…
Eight years
On June 1 last year, I wrote: Today, I complete seven years of trying to piece together a picture of what journalism is and where I fit in. Today, I begin my ninth year as a journalist. I'm happ…
Retrospective: The Wire Science in 2019
At the start of 2019, The Wire Science decided to focus more on issues of science and society, and this is reflected in the year-end list of our best stories (in terms of traffic and engagement; liste…
The gaudy-hued beast
When you wake up in the morning to news of four people who allegedly raped a woman having been shot to death by the police, it's hard not to ask yourself what kind of country this is. It's eve…
Firstpost's selfish journalism
I'm sure you've heard of the concept of false balance, which is based on the conviction that there are two sides to every story even when there aren't or when it's not clear to anyone…
Diversifying into other beats
I delivered my annual talk AMA at the NCBS science writing workshop yesterday. While the questions the students asked were mostly the same as last year (and the year before that), I also took the oppo…
The blog and the social media
Because The Wire had signed up to be some kind of A-listed publisher with Facebook, The Wire's staff was required to create Facebook Pages under each writer/editor's name. So I created the …
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…
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…
GM crops, etc.
How does it make sense to grate against Bt cotton and Bt brinjal in order to discourage the introduction of GM mustard?…
If Nautilus is so good, why is it doing so bad?
If Nautilus is so good, why is it doing so bad? There's no short answer.…