NB: A student of mine, Sai Mukhesh recently sent me these philosophical considerations on science, truth and society. I replied with a few scarce observations (appended beneath his text) because his queries were too vast, and my knowledge too limited, for me to say much. Aside from the reminder that Freudian psycho-analysis must not be… Read More Science, society and related matters: an exchange
People often assume that the objectivity of science requires it to be isolated from governmental politics. However, scientists have always gotten involved in politics as advisers and through shaping public opinion. And science itself – how scientists are funded and how they choose their research priorities – is a political affair. The coronavirus pandemic showed both the benefits and risks of this relationship – from the controversies surrounding hydroxychloroquine to the efforts… Read More LIV GRJEBINE: Politicized science drove lunar exploration — but polarized scientific views are worse than ever
On May 8 the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court while hearing a PIL wondered why India, a pioneer in vaccine production before the current pandemic and a big exporter of vaccines, had to rely on just two private domestic manufacturers–Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech–to produce Covid-19 vaccines. It has also baffled… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Who destroyed India's vaccine self-sufficiency? // Top Virologist Shahid Jameel Quits Covid Panel After Criticising Government
Last week, Brazil’s total death toll from COVID-19 passed 400,000. In India, the pandemic is taking around 3,500 lives every day and has prompted a global response, with offers of oxygen, ventilators, intensive-care beds and more. Although these two countries are thousands of miles apart, the crises in both are the result of political failings:… Read More India, Brazil and the human cost of sidelining science
The year is 2050. Walk out of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, and drive north across the sun-baked scrub where a few remaining oil pumpjacks nod lazily in the heat, and then you’ll see it: a glittering palace rising out of the pancake-flat ground. The land here is mirrored: the choppy silver-blue… Read More Frank Swain: The device that reverses CO2 emissions
A team of researchers from Columbia University has found that radiation levels from atomic testing in the Marshall Islands are still too high for human habitation. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes radiation readings of soil samples from four of the islands, and what they found. Over the… Read More Radiation from atomic testing in Marshall Islands still too high for human habitation (2019 report)
She unearthed fantastic prehistoric creatures that had been lost to the sands of time, and her achievements — overlooked and uncredited while she was alive — also almost remained buried. An unsung pioneer of paleontology, Mary Anning is finally getting some of the recognition she deserves thanks to the tireless work of academics and campaigners.… Read More Katie Hunt: 'Ammonite' and 5 more works about women overlooked by history
A lot of the blame for COVID-19’s “second wave” has been pointed at people not following safety guidelines put out by health experts and government officials. A new report however, says don’t blame people, blame the weather. Researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus find hot weather and wind have a bigger impact on… Read More The weather has a bigger impact on COVID spread than social distancing, study concludes
Members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and doctors across the country are staging protests Friday against the Centre’s move allowing postgraduate practitioners of Ayurveda to be trained in performing surgical procedures. On November 19, a government notification listed out specific surgical procedures that a postgraduate medical student of Ayurveda must be “practically trained to… Read More Indian Medical Association strike over ‘Ayurveda surgeons’: 30,000 from Gujarat join protest, AIIMS doctors wear black band
At the heart of Oxford’s effort to produce a Covid vaccine are half a dozen scientists who between them brought decades of experience to the challenge of designing, developing, manufacturing and trialing a safe vaccine at breakneck speed. Prof Sarah Gilbert, the Kettering-born project leader, arrived at Oxford in 1994 to work with Prof Adrian Hill, a senior member… Read More Ian Sample: How a handful of scientists developed Oxford vaccine at breakneck speed
After the truth-shower 