Analysis
What does science in India feel like?
Indian society has inhabited at least three distinct structures of feeling in relation to science since independence — and they are not as continuous as one might expect.
Culture
Culture
Down with Vader, down with the empire
Daily writing promptEmperor Palpatine has announced open elections for a new Emperor — and he’s nominated Darth Vader. You get to nominate one challenger. View all responses Even against his long career of deception, Sheev Palpatine announcing an open election for the seat of galactic emperor sounds particularly cynical. In
Analysis
A political direction in life
Note to readers: Root Privileges is now Slightly Acidic. Daily writing promptWhat gives you direction in life? View all responses I'm a political creature. I didn't think that I'd be one but I am. I believe this is a response to India's
Culture
Let's discuss, with conditions
Writing prompt: What topics do you like to discuss? I like to discuss everything under the Sun. However, I’m also wary of people who waste time talking about something in a way that couldn’t possibly lead to a useful insight or a changed mind but are in fact
Culture
A song on my mind
Daily writing promptJot down the first thing that comes to your mind. View all responses I've got an earworm this morning and it's been unbudged. It's the song 'Neeye unakku endrum' from the 1962 Tamil film Bale Pandiya. The film is highly
Culture
Lord of the Rings Day
A happy Lord of the Rings Day to you. This year I almost didn’t write this post because I don’t have anything to say about The Lord of the Rings itself. Chiefly, I have tired of the antics of men. It’s not about some good men and
Culture
The little things
Tungsten diboride (WB2) is extraordinarily stiff and resistant to deformation and scientists have long suspected it could be a superhard material, meaning it scores at least 40 gigapascal (GPa) on a hardness test. This is important because diamond, the hardest natural material on Earth, scores 70-100 GPa but because
Culture
The pleasures of rewatching
Daily writing promptWhat movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times? View all responses I'm afraid the answer is F.R.I.E.N.D.S. My sister and I watched it growing up, then rewatched it, the re-rewatched it, and now then have
Analysis
Review: ‘Decolonial Keywords’ (2026)
Everyone who knows me knows that my intellectual coordinates are defined by scientific ideas, even when they’re about sociology or the humanities. This is why I found a new book, Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes, edited by anthropologists Renny Thomas and Sasanka Perera, so compelling. The book
Analysis
Epstein or otherwise, Silicon Valley’s techno-elite know what they’re doing
The science writer Philip Ball has described “nerd tunnel vision” as the rationalisation scientists who maintained ties with Jeffrey Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting underage sex offered, hinting at something more calculated than just oversight. “Nerd tunnel vision is a defining feature of much of the Edge discourse,
Culture
A bad Sprite ad
One of the advertisements during the ongoing T20 cricket World Cup on Star Sports India has been for Sprite, the carbonated beverage from the Coca-Cola Company. In the ad, it's a hot day, two people are irritated by the heat and humidity, and they beat it by
Culture
From the Heisenberg cut to the Copenhagen interpretation
The following post was motivated by this exchange (on X.com), which prompted me to write out my understanding of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the part the Heisenberg cut plays in it. I haven’t gone into the variants of the interpretation that Maria Violaris brings up;