Scicomm
The French philosopher Bruno Latour passed away on October 9, at the age of 75. I don't know if many people in India have noticed but people abroad, especially in Europe, have. His passing leaves a considerable vacuum in the field of science and technology studies, but I&
Analysis
Eric Martinez, Francis Mollica and Edward Gibson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Edinburgh won an Ig Nobel Prize for literature this year for their work on what makes legal documents so hard to read. Ironically, the abstract of their paper, published in July 2022, is
Scicomm
The 7 Pot Barrackpore starts at the same Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) as the regular ones, but its highest level has frequently approached 1.3M SHU, which can easily set your face on fire. How the name Barrackpore came about, though, is quite intriguing. This is the third tweet in
Scicomm
When I was writing in August about physicist Sheldon Glashow’s objection to Abdus Salam being awarded a share of the 1979 physics Nobel Prize, I learnt that it was because Salam had derived a theory that Glashow had derived as well, taking a different route, but ultimately the final
Scicomm
Given Mode-locked lasers are lasers that are capable of producing intense ultra-short pulses of light at a very high rate. Concepts Set 1 Take a bunch of atoms, excite them and place them in a box covered with mirrors in all directions. Send in one photon, a particle of light,
Analysis
I'm probably waking up late to this but the New York Times has published yet another article in which it creates a false balance by first focusing on the problematic side of a story for an inordinately long time, without any of the requisite qualifications and arguments, before
Scicomm
And the promise of one distant supernova remnant.
Analysis
If they can.
Analysis
From 'Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them', The New York Times, August 23, 2022: Dr. Esteller also suggested that there could be links between facial features and behavioral patterns, and that the study’s findings might one day aid forensic science by
Scicomm
I need to go on the record about a source of mild irritation that seems to resurface in periodic fashion: the recent Current Affairs article about the "dangerous populist science of Yuval Noah Harari". It's an excellent article; however, I'm irritated by the fact
Analysis
The effects of wind on buildings are relatively more popular than the effects of tall buildings on the wind itself.
Scicomm
I've always found the concept of two forces on an object cancelling themselves out strange. We say they cancel if the changes they exert completely offset each other, leaving the object unaffected. But is the object really unaffected? If the two forces act in absolute opposition and at