I am a big consumer of tweets, and the links it forwards to. This bi-monthly series is an homage to some interesting tweets that I find online, as also some other things. Mainly a series to help me journal my own thoughts, but you’re most welcome to read and comment!

So let’s go!

I recommend you read the whole thread.

USA is essentially a nation of immigrants, and Mr. Trump and his family are too. We could bash Trump for all his stupidity, but the bigger picture IMO is that his policies go against the very idea of modern America and the American Dream. USA’s economy depends a lot on its immigrant population, as should be the case for every developed nation in the 21st Century.

Which brings me to India. Maharashtra is against Uttar Pradesh, North Indians hate South Indians, and our attitude towards foreigners is probably worse than our internal hatred. Cosmopolitanism, in society, religion and in economy, is something the saffron is fundamentally opposed to.

Anyway it was heartening reading this tweet, gave me a lot of hope for the scope of change.

A video about how frogs mate when their croaks aren’t loud enough to be heard over the gushing water. Gotta be cute right?

I attended a science quiz at IISc this week, and one of the questions was - Why is the frog in the video special?. The answer was heart-wrenching. The Panamanian Golden Frog is on the endangered species list, and is widely considered by ecologists to be functionally extinct. This video apparently is the only video taken of the frogs ever, and it is believe that the frogs got extinct soon afterwards. Sob Sob :(

And the last one for today :-

Our ministers have always had the knack of being extremely obnoxious and stupid. This is again one of those stupid moments. One of the least important things emphasized in our science curriculum is the importance and omnipotence of the scientific method, which I feel impacts the kind of engineers and doctors and scientists we produce. And, as is the case here, ministers and men of power too.

I feel the only hope against the metastasis of such falsehood is if scientists themselves stand up for it. In my opinion, India’s scientists have generally been more involved in their own work, and less vocal about the communication of science to the general public. This is changing at the roots with science popularization campaigns of various institutes like IUCAA, TIFR, ICTS etc., but it also is important for it to change at the highest levels of Government. Scientists owe this to the public that funds their research, and to the larger world community as well.

That’s all folks!