What is Gyandemic?

Gyandemic is a blend of two words, “gyan” which means “knowledge” in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bangla, and many other Indian languages; and pandemic. You already know what a pandemic is. No one really needs reminding.

Gyandemic is a word I made up in response to “infodemic”, a word someone else made up. The World Health Organization and United Nations use infodemic to describe a surfeit of information (and misinformation) during the COVID-19 crisis.

A few years ago I wrote a piece for a scientific journal on the proliferation of -omics. I suspect there will be a proliferation of -demics, just as economics has seen a number of -onomics. Anyway, my point is gyandemic sounds much better than infodemic so I’m sticking with it. :)

What is this all about?

My goal is to occasionally raise a topic in science that interests me.

“Which aspects of science?” someone might ask. Pandemics? Climate change? Big stuff? Scary stuff?

I’m a generalist. I studied biology and then ended up getting a PhD in microbiology doing a bit of biochemistry on the side. My work in the lab was on the expansion of the genetic code using a new amino acid. After that I was responsible for peer-review for a chemical biology journal. Then I launched journals in neuroscience, synthetic biology, infectious diseases research, and drug discovery. I used to manage a team that launched journals in energy research, applied materials sciences, nanotechnology, polymer science, and electronics. Focus? Me? Hah! My interests are all over the place.

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