Uncategorized
Go slow on the social media
Why whether the social media will inspire direct political mobilization in India is hard to say.
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
The stuff we learn after a plane goes missing
(A version of this post, as written by me, first appeared in The Hindu science blog, The Copernican, on March 16, 2014.) It's likely any of you knew many of or all the following, but these are things I became aware of from reading news items and analyses
Uncategorized
Airplanes can still go missing
Airplanes are one of our largest modes of transportation in terms of physical size. With the exception of ships, airplanes have the highest carrying capacity, are quite environmentally disruptive while in operation, and are equipped with some of the most sophisticated positional tracking technologies. Yet, one still went missing last
Uncategorized
Riffing off the Rift
At first glance, the Oculus Rift is an ingenious invention - not something you can look at and go "Hey, how come I didn't think of that?" By letting its users 'step inside the game', the Rift holds enormous potential not only to herald
Uncategorized
What is a fusion reaction?
The Copernican February 21, 2014 Last week, the National Ignition Facility, USA, announced that it had breached the first step in triggering a fusion reaction. But what is a fusion reaction? Here are some answers from Prof. Bora - which require prior knowledge of high-school physics and chemistry. We'
Uncategorized
Type 1a supernova spotted in M82
(A version of this piece appeared on The Hindu, Chennai, website on January 22 as written by me.) A Type 1a supernova was spotted a few hours ago by stargazers in the starburst galaxy M82, which is only 11.4 million light-years away from Earth (here’s an interactive map
Uncategorized
A useful book to have around
India's Rise as a Space Power is a book by Prof. Udupi Ramachandra Rao, former Chairman, ISRO (1988-1994), that provides some useful historical context of the space research organization from a scientist's perspective, not an administrator's. Through it, Prof. Rao talks about how our
Uncategorized
And the GSLV flew!
The Copernican January 6, 2014 Congratulations, ISRO, for successfully launching the GSLV-D5 (and the GSAT-14 satellite with it) on January 5. Even as I write this, ISRO has put out an update on its website: “First orbit raising operation of GSAT-14 is successfully completed by firing the Apogee Motor for
Uncategorized
Rethinking cryptocurrency
I'm still unsure about bitcoins' uncertain future as far as mainstream adoption is concerned, but such issues have been hogging media limelight so much so that people are missing out on why bitcoins are actually awesome. They're not awesome because they're worth about
Uncategorized
Predatory publishing, vulnerable prey
On December 29, the International Conference on Recent Innovations in Engineering, Science and Technology (ICRIEST) is kicked off in Pune. It’s not a very well-known conference, but might as well have been for all the wrong reasons. On December 16 and 20, Navin Kabra, from Pune, submitted two papers
Uncategorized
Solving mysteries, by William & Adso
The following is an excerpt from The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco's debut novel from 1980. The story is set in an Italian monastery in 1327, and is an intellectually heady murder mystery doused in symbolism and linguistic ambivalence. Two characters, William of Baskerville and Adso of
Uncategorized
CNR Rao, a faceted gem
Inquisitions are sure to follow if you've won India's highest civilian honor on the back of a little-known career. At the same time, if that career's been forged on scientific research, then blame all that's little-known on media apathy, flick away what