She's one of the best writers on science today, combining optimism about progress with a realist understanding of the messiness of our world. Saloni Dattani joins Amit Varma in episode 445 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss science, medicine, data, academia and how to make the world a better place.

(FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)

Also check out:
1. Saloni Dattani at Google Scholar, Twitter, LinkedIn, Our World in Data and Works in Progress.
2. Scientific Discovery -- Saloni Dattani's newsletter.
3. Hard Drugs -- Saloni Dattani's podcast.
4. Saloni's guide to data visualization -- Saloni Dattani.
5. Four charts to understand causes of death across the lifespan -- Saloni Dattani.
6. What I've learnt about writing -- Saloni Dattani.
7. In praise of the Covid superforecasters -- Saloni Dattani.
8. The decline in cancer mortality is about much more than smoking -- Saloni Dattani.
9. Death rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen dramatically — what were the breakthroughs behind this? -- Saloni Dattani.
10. The golden age of vaccine development -- Saloni Dattani.
11. Why we didn't get a malaria vaccine sooner -- Saloni Dattani.
12. The first cancer vaccine -- Transcript of a Hard Drugs episode.
13. Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year -- Saloni Dattani.
14. Why the total fertility rate doesn't necessarily tell us the number of births women eventually have -- Saloni Dattani.
15. The rise in reported maternal mortality rates in the US is largely due to a change in measurement -- Saloni Dattani.
16. How do global statistics on suicide differ between sources? -- Saloni Dattani.
17. How many people die from snakebites? -- Saloni Dattani.
18. The Demographic and Health Surveys brought crucial data for more than 90 countries — without them, we risk darkness -- Saloni Dattani.
19. We don't have to sit back and just watch the horror unfold -- Saloni Dattani.
20. Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable -- Saloni Dattani.
21. Will AI solve medicine? -- Transcript of a Hard Drugs episode.
22. Real peer review has never been tried -- Saloni Dattani.
23. The speed of science -- Saloni Dattani.
24. Medical breakthroughs in 2025 -- Saloni Dattani.
25. Scientific progress is at risk of slowing down. Saloni Dattani is making sure it doesn't. -- Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg.
26. Innovation is not linear -- Jason Crawford.
27. Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech -- Sally Smith Hughes.
28. Missing Markets for Innovation: Evidence from New Uses for Existing Drugs -- Eric Budish, Maya Durvasula, Benjamin Roin and Heidi Williams.
29. The 100% CI.
30. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
31. How Long Do We Wait for New Inventions? -- Brian Potter.
32. Million Dollar Secret.
33. Woolly mice designed to engineer mammoth-like elephants -- Pallab Ghosh.
34. Age of Invention -- Anton Hause.
35. Million Death Study.
36. Science Fictions -- Stuart Ritchie.
37. Outliers -- Malcolm Gladwell.
38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Rukmini S: 1, 2, 3.
39. Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care — Robert Graboyes.
40. Strong Medicine -- Michael Kremer and Rachel Glennerster.
41. The Practice of Medicine — Episode 229 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lancelot Pinto).
42. Project Resource Optimization.
43. Giving What We Can.
44. Coefficient Giving.
45. 1493 -- Charles Mann.
46. The Collapse -- Mary Elise Sarotte.
47. How to Survive a Plague -- David France.
48. The Mole.
49. And the Band Played On -- Randy Shilts.

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Episode art: 'Salonium' by Simahina.

Ep 445: 'I Am Saloni and I Like Collecting Mice'

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Ep 445: 'I Am Saloni and I Like Collecting Mice'