The following quote comes from an article about science clubs in the UK, aimed at 12 & 13-year olds & intended to stimulate interest in science: "The ultimate aim is to enthuse young people about learning again…We want the clubs to help kids to see that science isn’t just about crazy, white-haired men in labs […]
Continue readingYear: 2009
the importance of evolution for modern medicine
I’ve just started reading Richard Dawkins’ latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth, & I’m thoroughly enjoying it. (At this point I should confess to a small heresy – in the past I haven’t always enjoyed his books. Not that they’re badly written – the reverse is true! But they just didn’t always gel for me. […]
Continue readinga tale of several fishes
Well, Marcus & I have just completed a Scholarship preparation session in New Plymouth – it was (I hope!) a useful & enjoyable time for all involved. Marcus & I enjoyed it anyway – we both get a buzz out of working with groups like this (one of the reasons, as far as I’m concerned […]
Continue readingwolves in the cross-fire
A while back I wrote about the wolves of Yellowstone & what they can tell us about the ecological impacts of a top predator. Wolves were reintroduced to the US’s Yellowstone National Park in 1995, after an absence of around 50 years, & wildlife biologists were having a field day (pardon the pun!) examining the […]
Continue readinganother contender for ‘best blog post title’
I thought it would be hard to beat ‘When zombies attack’. That was, until Grant alerted me to this one: ‘Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time’. The fiend! How did he beat me to this?? Ed Yong has written all about it on his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, and you can find the […]
Continue readingpeople can believe some very strange things…
I was spurred to write this by reading the latest post on the Quackometer. Dr Luc Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology, for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, a discovery with a significant impact on our understanding of the evolution and spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). However, […]
Continue readingself-grooming in cows
From time to time my Significant Other’s thoughts turn to life in the country. This can manifest itself in the purchase of lifestyle-block magazines. I was flipping through one this morning & came across an item on self-grooming in cows, & thought I’d look into it a bit further as it seemed to fit with my […]
Continue readingteaching old cows new tricks
I originally wrote the material in this post for the Science on the Farm website. It’s re-posted here because I thought it might be an interesting extension for those of you currently studying animal behaviour. Automatic milking is an exciting technological innovation facing the dairy industry in New Zealand, with the potential to affect farming lifestyles […]
Continue readingtwo ends of the science spectrum
Today the Science Media Centre carried an item about the just-announced Prime Minister’s science prizes (blogged about here by Peter Griffin). These awards (for a top research team, an emerging researcher, the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year, a science teacher, & a science media communicator) carry a lot of money. They’re sure to be […]
Continue readingconspiracy theories & the electricity supply
Apologies in advance – this is way off my usual beaten track but it’s been a hard week & I am in need of diversion 🙂 Over the last few days there’ve been a couple of letters to the editor of the Waikato Times, talking about our electricity supply. The first suggested that Nikola Tesla had […]
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