Engineering Discovery

Inside the movement that’s rewriting how we do science

With new labs, funding models, and institutions, metascience is reinventing the machinery of discovery.

Dec 11 • Smrithi Sunil and Big Think

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November Roundup

Predictive validity, Beyond the endless frontier, and Brain tissue freezing.

Dec 1 • Smrithi Sunil

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November 2025

Reflections on the PhD Prospectus

More than just a milestone to check off.

Nov 21 • Smrithi Sunil

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From Blobs to Atoms: The Long Journey of Cryo-Electron Microscopy

How physics, chemistry, and computation came together to bring biology into focus.

Nov 6 • Smrithi Sunil

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October 2025

Making the Electron Microscope

In a little over a century, the electron microscope evolved from a tool barely capable of resolving virus particles into one able to capture atomic…

Published on Asimov Press • Oct 27

Some ideas to engineer discovery

Notes on research rotations, curiosity vs. platform science, and rethinking the structures around discovery.

Oct 4 • Smrithi Sunil

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Sawdust and synapses

A brief digression into my woodworking.

Oct 2 • Smrithi Sunil

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September 2025

How do we diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease?

And why an early diagnosis is important, but still lacking.

Sep 25 • Smrithi Sunil

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August 2025

Zooming into biological structure

Building a mosaic of tools to see across spatial scales.

Aug 26 • Smrithi Sunil

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June 2025

Scientific Impact, Seventy Years Later

A historical essay on the life, legacy, and resurgence of Irving Langmuir’s Nobel-winning work.

Jun 1 • Smrithi Sunil

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May 2025

A Brief History of GFP

How a chance discovery in bioluminescent jellyfish led to one of the most transformative tools in modern biology: green fluorescent protein.

Published on Asimov Press • May 15

Citation Trajectories of Nobel Prize-Winning Publications

What do citation counts tell us about prize-winning work? A data post.

May 15 • Smrithi Sunil