Where do scientists communicate their work?
A group of Spanish researchers analysed the mentions of scientific papers authored by scientists (affiliated with Spain) on the social media, on Wikipedia, and on news outlets, blogs and policy docume…
18 posts
The BJP's fake news (fake?) meeting
Reuters published a very interesting report on February 2, entitled 'Exclusive-In heated meeting, India seeks tougher action from U.S. tech giants on fake news'. Excerpt: Indian officials hav…
The weekly linklist – July 25, 2020
I've decided to publish this linklist via Substack. Next weekend onwards, it will only be available on https://linklist.substack.com. And this is why the list exists and what kind of articles you…
Social media and science communication
The following article was originally intended for an Indian publication but I withdrew from the commission because I couldn’t rework the piece according to changes they required, mostly for lack of fo…
IBT's ice-nine effect on Newsweek
In his 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut describes a fictitious substance called ice-nine: a crystalline form of water that converts all the liquid water it comes into contact with into more ice-…
The technically correct strapline
(Re)Stumbled upon this article, by Ed Yong in The Atlantic, July 2016, this morning. As usual, it is rivetingly packaged. The strapline in particular caught my eye: Biology textbooks tell us that lic…
How science is presented and consumed on Facebook
This post is a breakdown of the Pew study titled The Science People See on Social Media, published March 21, 2018. Without further ado… or Is popularity the best way to judge if a Facebook page coun…
Friends no more
Growing up, watching Friends was a source of much amusement and happiness. Now, as a grownup, I can't watch a single episode without deeply resenting how the show caricatures all science as avoida…
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 …
Confused thoughts on embargoes
Seventy! That's how many observatories around the world turned their antennae to study the neutron-star collision that LIGO first detected. So I don't know why the LIGO Collaboration, and Natu…
Ethics in the metadata
There is a difficult choice that those seeking to popularise articles disagreeing with a certain use of language on ethical grounds can't escape.…
The metaphorical transparency of responsible media
We in India often complain about how the media doesn't care enough to cover science stories. But when we're looking back and forward in time, we become blind to the media's efforts.…