I mean, look at those really weird spines! Image from Moorea Biocode via ScienceAlert This unusual creature is Chondrocidaris brevispina, which appears to be much less spiny than the urchins we're probably all more familiar with. Those pinkish pimply bumps towards the creature's right-hand side are the bases of missing spines, which articulate with their bumps via a type of ball joint. […]
Continue readingYear: 2013
what am i?
This is a version of something that I originally wrote for the Talking Teaching blog. I've been involved in a few discussions lately, on the issue of what 'we' actually are. That is, are those of us who work with students in our lecture rooms, laboratories and tut classes, teachers? Is that the label we […]
Continue readingfluoridation: an attempt to silence science, and false equivalence
This morning’s Waikato Times features the attention-grabbing front-page headline: "Anti-fluoride campaigner tries to silence science". I guess the debate is really heating up when someone from one side tries to get the other side to shut up… It would be appreciated if we could receive some confirmation from the chemistry department that it will remain […]
Continue readinghow old is a piece of string?
Among other things, I like to knit. My mother got me started, years ago, & I worked up to quite complex Fair Isle patterns on jerseys & shawls. But the kids weren’t all that keen on wearing woolly stuff once all the new ‘manmades’ came on the market, & a well-made jersey lasts a Long […]
Continue readingis this a coat of many colours?
I had to look twice at this undersea Liberace-lookalike before recognising it as an octopus (more precisely, a blanket octopus, Tremoctopus sp.) These beautiful creatures live in the open ocean where they grow up to 2m long. The female in this image (thanks, Science Alert) has unfurled a sort of cape (called a ‘web’ in […]
Continue readingthe NEW periodic table song
I know I’m straying from my usual round, but this is too good not to share. Enjoy!
Continue readingdrinking in oxygen?
Last weekend I noticed a story in the Herald about an ‘oxygen bar‘ – somewhere where one pays to breathe in 95% oxygen for a fixed period of time. All sorts of health claims have been made for this, & it was good to see prominence given to the scientific viewpoint: that most folks’ blood […]
Continue readingbicep-flexing & s*xual selection
When I was a kid, we’d all look forward to Friday evenings – because Dad & Grandma would come back from town with the weekly supply of comics. The ads in the back were almost as good as the cartoons, although we were very disappointed to find out that sea monkeys were definitely not as […]
Continue readingonce more into the fluoride ‘debate’, dear friends
This week’s Hamilton Press (a local free newspaper) has a lot of fluoride-focused letters in its opinion pages. After reading them I must ask, again, why those opposed to fluoride need to misrepresent the evidence if their case is so strong. For example, we’re told about Amsterdam GP Dr Hans Moolenburgh, who apparently noticed those […]
Continue readingthe drunken botanist
That’s the title of one of the books I’m reading at the moment: The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart. (I do not know any drunken botanists!) Contrary to any expectations engendered by the title, the book is a thoroughly engaging wander through botany, history, & a little bar-tending (although, now that I look at the […]
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