Scicomm
The billionaire's solution to climate change
An eye-opening profile of Marc Benioff's 1t.org initiative, the flawed research paper that inspired it, the harmful practices it's made room for, and what all this says of his wealth
Scicomm
Scicomm
The "coherent water" scam is back
On May 7, I received a press release touting a product called "coherent water" made by a company named Analemma Water India. According to the document, "coherent water" is based on more than "15 years of rigorous research and development" and confers "a
Life notes
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 time I left, in October 2022, the prospect of it continuing
Culture
The foundation of shit
I've been a commissioning editor in Indian science, health, and environment journalism for a little under a decade. I've learnt many lessons in this time but one in particular still surprises me. Whenever I receive an email, I'm quick to at least shoot off
Scicomm
When metastable systems fail to become stable…
'Metastable systems' is a technical term for something you've definitely experienced in your daily life, as much as scientists often encounter it when studying subatomic particles. Say you're sitting on a chair and are getting comfortable. You realise you'd be even more
Op-eds
A Q&A about philosophy in journalism
Earlier this year, Varun Bhatta, assistant professor of philosophy at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, reached out to ask me some questions for something he was writing about the representation of philosophical ideas in journalism. He interviewed others as well and subsequently wrote and published his
Scicomm
Violence shuts science? Err…
Dog bites man isn't news. Man bites dog is news. I'm reminded of this adage of the news industry – and Nambi Narayanan's comment in August 2022 – when I read reports like 'Explosion of violence in Ecuador shuts down science' (Science, January 13,
Scicomm
Using superconductors to measure electric current
Simply place two superconductors very close to each other, separated by a small gap, and you’ll have taken a big step towards an important piece of technology called a Josephson junction. When the two superconductors are close to each other and exposed to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency
Analysis
A survey of El Salvador's bitcoin adoption
On December 22, a group of researchers from the US had a paper published in Science in which they reported the results of a survey of 1,800 households in El Salvador over its members’ adoption, or not, of bitcoin as currency. In September 2021, the government of El Salvador
Scicomm
Unexpected: Magnetic regions in metal blow past speed limit
You’re familiar with magnetism, but do you know what it looks like at the smallest scale? Take a block of iron, for example. It’s ferromagnetic, which means if you place it near a permanent magnet - like a refrigerator magnet - the block will also become magnetic to
Scicomm
You can do worse than watching paint dry - ask physics
I live in Chennai, a city whose multifaceted identity includes its unrelenting humidity. Its summers are seldom hotter than those in Delhi but they are more unbearable because it leaves people sweaty, dehydrated, and irritated. Delhi's heat doesn't have the same effect because when people sweat
Scicomm
A new path to explaining the absence of antimatter
Our universe was believed to have been created with equal quantities of matter and antimatter, only for antimatter to completely disappear over time. We know that matter and antimatter can annihilate each other but we don't know how matter came to gain an upper hand and survive to