Achintya Rao • ಅಚಿಂತ್ಯ ರಾವ @RaoOfPhysics@scholar.social

Here's a much-overdue introduction!

I am a science writer by training and profession, working at #CERN since Sep 2010 and communicating everything to do with #particlephysics.

Since Jan 2014, I've also been pursuing a PhD in #scicomm, from UWE Bristol (remote, part-time -- a hell of a combination that I do not wish upon anyone).

I love learning (about) programming.

When I can spare the time, I also attend #taekwondo training and play #thecricket for the CERN Cricket Club.

Must have been around 19/20 January…

A few days ago, I saw a link here for a website (and some sites inspired by it?) designed as an experiment, allowing anyone to SSH into a space and edit their HTML homepage as they wanted. There were some lovely pages there.

I can't seem to find the page anymore and it's not in my browser history / bookmarks.

Does anyone have any clue what I'm talking about?

Anyone else dislike being really good at something specific?

I’m really good at proof-reading.

I hate that I am.

It means I get asked to proof-read documents before we send them for printing, when my primary skill (and interest) is science writing.

Versatility at work comes at a price.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Wikipedia and I know it is supposed to curate primary sources, not be one.

But when most (UK-based!) primary sources lump Hardy’s name with Ramanujan’s, what can you do?

What a surprise, a Wikipedia Administrator undid my edit, asking me to “just Google it”.

And of course this person’s a white European man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1729_(number)&oldid=941251063

Someone asked in the Talk page in 2018:

“Why is 1729 named Hardy-Ramanujan and not Ramanujan-Hardy? Ramanujan should have top billing - he did the work here. Hardy did nothing other than relate an anecdote. Did Hardy get his name first because he is the white guy?”

Silence followed.

The Wikipedia entry for “1729 (number)” referred to it as the “Hardy-Ramanujan number”, but since all Hardy contributed was taking a taxi that coincidentally had that as its number and it was Ramanujan who pointed out why it was special, I changed the entry to remove Hardy’s name.

Decolonise science, friends.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1729_(number)&oldid=941220216

Inspired by @kensanata, and because – despite having a very good memory for obscure facts and random incidents from my past – many of the things I learn / need to remember fall out of my brain (yay #ADHD), I decided to store notes in a personal #Wiki.

Does anyone else here do the same, and do you have any advice for me?

(Although mine is publicly readable, it's not publicly editable, as I don’t have the necessary skills to run such a service.)

Hey, scholars! If anyone’s looking for a #postdoc position to study #citizenscience, the CRI in Paris has a two-year position open.

Also a great opportunity to work with my wonderful friend, @gedankenstuecke!

https://research.cri-paris.org/jobs/job-postdoc

A rainbow seen a few minutes ago at #CERN.

Anyone else familiar with the #DeficitModel feel it has elements that make it seem like a straw-man argument?

Its origin is unclear, its (original?) position seems without basis in the literature. Feels a bit like it was created to serve an agenda.

Not sure I’m making much sense, but this post goes into some detail (see the comments below it too): http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2017/02/25/digging-for-the-deficit-model/

#PhDchat

I’m rather enjoying re-reading “Science in society: re-evaluating the deficit model of public attitudes” (Sturgis and Allum, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662504042690 – not , probably available on if you’re interested), but their choice of archaic/uncommon vocabulary makes me reach for the iPad’s built-in dictionary more than once. Examples include:

➡️ concomitantly
➡️ coterminous
➡️ procrustean
➡️ incommensurable

I’m happy to expand my vocabulary but frustrated at the same time!

Unrelated: Caved in following positive comments from @bgcarlisle and ordered a reMarkable tablet. Now waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

#PhDchat?

I should probably mention more often how much I love . #PhDchat

When you want to talk about the “Sagan Effect” but address the scientist as Carl Satan.

#PhDchat

I recently learnt that I can cache individual chunks of code using `cache=TRUE`.

My quantitative-analysis chapter now compiles nearly instantenously, as all the images and tables are cached (unless I change them) and all {knitr} needs to do is convert the (mostly plain-text) markdown.

Past Achintya wasted _so much time_ waiting for the plots to build every time.