Lab to Liberty

I realize that I can't think science in isolation from the world around, that is the society, to be precise. It has sometimes made me feel that maybe I'm not that good at science. In college, while I observed my peers continuously striving to talk about some difficult sum or concept, I felt poked inside what happens to the world and the people out there. I can never turn away from contextualizing everything I learn to things happening around me. It sometimes feels like an overwhelm not to be able to stick to just what I do as work. But then it is this exact thing that brings me happiness, that brings me joy. To be able to connect the dots which not many are connecting. This weekend, I could have just gone out to eat or for a day trip. Read say a few papers in my research area, watch Netflix, cook and prepare for the week and go back to work on Monday like an obedient student. But what I happened to do is travel to London to attend a panel discussion by the eminent historian Vij...

Experience at the "Global Day of Action for Climate Justice" march at COP26 Glasgow, 2021. (Earlier published in Sanket , Dec 2021) Climate change, one of the most pressing global issues of the present times, is progressing at a pace much faster than one could’ve expected. Climate scientists have issued a code red warning for humanity as destructive droughts, floods, fires and famines can devastate the  lives and livelihoods of millions. For decades, the more affluent nations, the Global North in particular, that have contributed the lion’s share for causing the climate crisis, have accumulated huge wealth from heavily polluting activities depleting natural resources and have refused to do their part to reduce emissions. Subsequently, now that the situation has slipped out of control, they are trying to shift the burden onto the poorer nations, failing to...

 When I started my PhD a question that I often faced from people was what is my research all about. Well, it was easier to answer this if the person asking the question came from a science background because I didn't have to explain them the various scientific terminologies, rather the so-called scientific jargons. But it was quite difficult for me to explain accurately what my research is about to someone who did not have a science background. And I assume the set of people I come across in a given time is a random sample set representation of a larger set of people across the roads. This made me realize two things. Firstly, as scientists it is imperative that we understand how to communicate our science to each one and everyone, whatever be their background. Secondly I realized how difficult it is to communicate scientific research to non-science audience in simple language. Not just that, even for science academia, disciplines can be very specialized and niche at times, which is...

Every year, as I sit in the audience of the Murray Lecture, I am reminded of the profound story behind the Darwin Trust—the organization funding my PhD. A tale that not only inspires but reaffirms the translational impact of science. The trust owes its existence to the pioneering work of Noreen and Kenneth Murray, a couple whose contributions to molecular biology revolutionized the field.  Both Noreen and Ken were PhD students at the University of Birmingham, where they met each other for the first time. Their shared passion for science blossomed into a lifelong partnership, and the two married in 1958. Following a post-doctoral stint at Stanford University in 1959, the couple returned to the UK and, in 1968, became part of the newly established Department of Molecular Biology at Edinburgh University.  In the early 1970s, they led the development of recombinant DNA technology, a groundbreaking innovation that laid the foundation for genetic engineering as we know it today. Nor...