Author: Akshat Rathi

Akshat Rathi is a senior reporter for Bloomberg News. He has previously worked at Quartz, The Economist and The Conversation. His writing has appeared in Nature, The Guardian and The Hindu. He has a PhD in chemistry from Oxford University and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Why natural disasters affect women are more than men

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Disasters affect women much more than men. A 2007 study by researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Essex found that between 1981 and 2002, natural disasters in 141 countries killed significantly more women than men, and that the worse the disaster, the bigger the gender disparity.

The latest figures from Nepal show that among the 1.3 million affected by the earthquake, about 53% are female—a small but not yet statistically significant bias. That might soon change. Lessons from previous disasters show that the bias affecting women can worsen in post-disaster relief.

Read the rest on Quartz, published May 1, 2015. Written with Shelly Walia.

Image credit: UN under CC-BY-NC-ND license

Fighting prostate cancer with new weapons

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“All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison,” said the Swiss-German physician Paracelsus in the 15th century. Since the discovery of radiation—that all-too-powerful poison—Paracelsus’ principle has been applied for more than 100 years in treating cancer. Now 21st-century technology is enhancing its use, especially for those with prostate cancer.

Radioactive seeds and 3D-printed shields are new weapons to fight prostate cancer, Quartz, 27 April 2015.

Image credit: US Gov/Wikimedia

PS: This is my first piece as a reporter for Quartz, where I will cover science and health for the online business publication. As loyal readers, I hope you will give me feedback—which you can do anonymously here—to help me write better stories. Thanks!

This epic rant is worth your time if you read the news

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LiveMint journalist Sidin Vadukut’s rant was partly based on a reading course he was designing