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A wide swath of fundamental physics and chemistry is defined by the pursuit of the ground state. Since we began elucidating the structure of the atom in the 1910s, much of what we know about how particles, quasiparticles and molecules behave can be described by a desire among each of
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(I can speak only for myself here) I certainly seem to be needing a monthly reminder that to focus on pure science as a journalist is not in any way an abdication of one's responsibilities as a citizen of India. The more forceful the reminder – i.e. the
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On Twitter today, @thattai published a short thread about how framing the 'debate' about cellphone radiation harming biological tissue between ionising and non-ionising radiation is not a good idea because even non-ionising radiation (called so for its inability to strip electrons from atoms) can precipitate biochemical effects by
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There was an announcement from CERN on June 20 that I'd wanted to cover, missed it and which – to my zero surprise – no one else covered either. For the first time, two Asian schools have won CERN's annual Beamline for Schools competition. The winning students will
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It isn’t tempting to write about Elon Musk in that it is easy but in that it is an event that few thought we could witness live: a successful businessman letting his inner recklessness show. Yes, I’m accusing Musk of something as simple as lacking composure – but sadly
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I'm not fully convinced as to why everyone is currently bashing the Jio Institute up. When the 'Institutions of Eminence' scheme's rules were announced in August 2017 and greenfield institutions were welcomed to apply, everyone was either perfectly okay with the idea or didn&
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There's a video from Postcard News doing the rounds, showing a lady demonstrating the ability of a cow-urine-based substance to purportedly detoxify the human body. It does a fabulous job of making a mockery of itself given that it is only a few minutes long – and I'
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There was no post on July 11 because whatever I wrote on that day was for the article below. I couldn't share it on that day itself because the embargo for the scientific papers it was based on lifted at 8.30 pm on July 12. I. Prologue
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The most curious thing about moving to Delhi – little anxiety, lots of a seemingly deep-rooted melancholy that I will no longer have a scientist roommate. It was one of the most fun things about my time living in Chennai, and unexpectedly so. My roommate there was a physicist. He'
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The Higgs boson has finally been observed decaying into the particles it most often decays to – six years after it was discovered. The reason for this delay was noise. The Higgs boson is a scalar boson: it has spin 0. To preserve the value of this spin quantum number, it
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Fracture mechanics theory in college was never my forte, whether that was because it was taught by a particularly dull professor who thought he had a loud voice or because it was just a dry subject. Rule 1: If a crack forms in a solid material, it's because
Science
Physicists created a Bose-Einstein condensate of chromium atoms, ensured the atomic spins were each aligned 90º to the condensate's plane, applied a magnetic field gradient and separated the atoms by a small but relatively significant distance, fired radio pulses at the condensate to get the atoms' spins