Science
A group of Danish physicists that doubted last year whether two American experiments to detect gravitational waves had actually confused noise for signal has reared its head once more. New Scientist reported earlier this week that the group, from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, independently analysed the experimental data
Op-eds
Over 1,600 scientists have signed a letter of protest addressed to the White House against its proposed definition of 'gender' that purportedly disidentifies transgender and intersex people. According to a press statement issued alongside the letter, The letter was a grassroots effort. Immediately following the publication of
Scicomm
Has new ghost particle manifested at the Large Hadron Collider?, The Guardian, October 31: The prospect of such a mysterious particle has baffled physicists as much as it has excited them. At the moment, none of their favoured theories of reality include the particle, though many theorists are now hard
Science
The universe is supposed to contain equal quantities of matter and antimatter. But this isn’t the case: there is way more matter than antimatter around us today. Where did all the antimatter go? Physicists trying to find the answer to this question believe that the universe was born with
Life notes
What makes a train ride a train ride? I regularly travel between Bangalore and Chennai, using the morning Shatabdi every time. These train rides are not easy to love even the Shatabdi’s coaches have giant glass-panelled windows that offer beautiful views at sunrise and sunset. But the train’s
Life notes
Background information + The Wire's statements on the issue: 1. Panel Headed by Former SC Justice Aftab Alam to Examine Allegation Against Vinod Dua 2. The Wire’s Handling of the Sexual Harassment Charge Against Vinod Dua § 1. I strongly condemn Vinod Dua's statements vis-à-vis the #MeToo
Culture
Can't believe I'm so late to the party. It seems that a year ago, Steven Erikson put the Kharkhanas Trilogy on hold, delaying the publication of the third book. The second book, Fall of Light, came out two years ago and was a difficult read in
Op-eds
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently published a report exhorting countries committed to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to an additional 1.5º by the end of this century. As if this isn't drastic enough, one study has also shown that if we're
Op-eds
The winners of this year's Nobel Prizes are being announced this week. The prizes are an opportunity to discover new areas of research, and developments there that scientists consider particularly notable. In this endeavour, it is equally necessary to remember what the Nobel Prizes are not. For starters,
Science
The hot news this week from the mathematical physics world is that the noted mathematician Michael Atiyah claimed to have solved the Riemann hypothesis, one of the most difficult unsolved problems known and whose resolution carries a $1 million prize. The problem is that Atiyah’s solution, while remarkable for
Op-eds
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has proposed a new textbook that will discuss the 'Indian knowledge system' via a number of pseudoscientific claims about the supposed inventions and discoveries of ancient India, The Print reported on September 26. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
Life notes
For the last two nights, the skies of Bangalore have been opening up, as if for me. Last night, it poured rivers. The sky flashed with the kind of lightning that makes you say you’ve never seen lightning like that. The entire empyrean turns that electric pink that you