So, another All Black has come down with mumps and the comments threads are once more awash with those opposed to vaccines, posting the usual mix of pseudoscience and misinformation. Honestly, I would post a link on the Stuff FB page to this excellent commentary by Dr Mark Crislip, but I just know that the […]
Continue readingI’ve just received a reminder that I need to set up the paper & teaching appraisal for my summer school paper. This is a series of items that students can answer on a 1-5 scale (depending on how much or how little they agree with each statement), plus opportunities to give open-ended responses to a […]
Continue readingAt FYSEC2017A last week, we heard about a site called sketchfab. Sessions like this are an invitation to get sidetracked, & my friend Terry & I set up an account & went in for a look. There are some truly amazing 3D models there that I think could have real utility in science teaching (& […]
Continue readingI'm sitting in the sun waiting for the 2017 First-Year Science Educators' Colloquium (FYSEC) to kick off- & it's somewhat embarassing to realise that I hadn't done anything with some of the notes I took at last year's event. However, much of the discussion then is still just as relevant today, & in fact many of […]
Continue readingThe Butchering Art is medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris's first book. And what a book! Descriptions that bring the horrors of pre-anaesthesia, pre-antisepsis surgery shudderingly into view? Very definitely. Science and history? Oh yes, lots of it, and beautifully told. And through it all, the humanity and vision of Joseph Lister and others like him, working to […]
Continue readingThat’s the title of this excellent article by Jennings Brown, and I urge you to go and read the whole thing. It’s the tale of perhaps the last 3 people in the US who are still alive because they are still living in iron lungs. It’s a story of courage and endurance that lets them […]
Continue readingA recent FB post from Stuff discussed the rising concerns around the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (This is something that Siouxsie Wiles has often written about: here and here, for example; her excellent book on the subject is reviewed here.) Fairly predictably, it didn't take long for the proponents of essential oils to turn up, soon to be joined by the usual […]
Continue readingThere’s an oft-repeated claim by the more strident antivaxxers that ingesting and injecting are two different things when it comes to subsantces like aluminium. This betrays a disturbing lack of knowledge of biology and physiology (especially from those who boast of ‘having done their research’), but they repeat it nonetheless. (Red’s self-belief is mildly amusing.) […]
Continue readingOn that FB thread, one commenter proudly proclaimed that she & her four children had all had measles. Over in a week, no problems, stop yer whining. Well, lovely for her – & if the illness indeed lasted only a week per person then they were lucky; 7-10 days is the norm for uncomplicated measles. But measles […]
Continue readingAaron Leaman’s excellent storyA in the Waikato Times and in Stuff used those words, and I’m sticking with them – because those adjectives desribe the majority of the comments on the relevant FB page. When Aaron interviewed me for that story, I commented that it’s essential for scientists and doctors to continue to confront the […]
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