The Life of Science started in 2016 as a blog, a pet project following two freelance science writers Aashima Freidog and Nandita Jayaraj as they journaled biographies of women scientists they met while hopping across laboratories and research institutions in India. The project has since gathered many more voices. The passion project, borne out of the desire to see and hear femme stories from Indian science in the media, has evolved into a collective made of a fluid team and a broadening network of freelancers that includes science communicators, scientists, graduate students, journalists, artists and multimedia content creators. We see ourselves as a science media platform focused on contemporary research and stories of scientific pursuit intersecting with various societal barriers in India.
Our attempt is to answer questions like: How is Indian science progressing? What are the challenges minorities face? Who are the researchers in India who come from diverse marginalized identities? What kind of work are they doing? What are their stories?
The content on the platform has been cross-posted and sometimes syndicated on several media partners including thewire.in, firstpost.com and The Hindu. TLoS is also a content partner for LabXChange.org - a free science education digital platform from Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The illustrated book 31 Fantastic Adventures in Science published by Penguin India is an offshoot from this project. The book illustrated by Upasana Agarwal and coauthored by Aashima and Nandita introduces 31 amazing women currently active in Indian science.
Our Team
Aashima Dogra (she/they)
Science media editor, trying to write a book, not a status-quo warrior
Nandita Jayaraj (she/her)
Science writer, storyteller and children's book lover
Sayantan Datta (they/them)
Genderqueer science journalist, writer and communicator
Mrinal Shah
Freelance science communicator
Ipsa Jain (she/her)
Scientist by training, Artist in training, Science communicator
Aishwarya Viswamitra (she/her)
Scientist, social media specialist, figuring out how non-viruses go viral