Recently, I had an enjoyable chat with Graeme Hill on the subject of sleep. Also on the show was Karyn O'Keeffe, whose research interests are with the physiology of sleep (& the lack of it). My segment focused on the evolution of sleep and yes, I did quite a bit of reading in preparation! Sleep […]
Continue readingYear: 2017
supermarkets & nutritional advice
I rather like our local supermarket. Lovely staff, generally excellent products, & close to home as well. But I really wish the organisation would stay out of giving nutritional advice – or at least, that they do the right sort of consultation about their claims. For example, under 'recipes' there's a post about 'hyper-functional' beverages A. […]
Continue readingleech ‘therapy’ redux
Back in 2012 the Herald ran a series on alternative 'therapies' that included a somewhat uncritical piece on the use of leeches – the practitioner concerned claimed, for example, that they could be used to 'treat' diabetes. I blogged on this back then, as did fellow Sciblogger Siouxsie Wiles, & the criticisms we made then still stand. […]
Continue readinghuman evolution – new discoveries, & how do we accommodate them in our teaching?
What follows is loosely based on a workshop I ran at this year's Biolive/ChemEd secondary science teachers' conference. (A most excellent conference, by the way – kudos to those organising & presenting.) I've added a bunch of hotlinked references. Back when I was in 7th form (or year 13 ie a rather long time ago), […]
Continue readinga pox on all their parties
Chickenpox “parties”. They had their day – and that day was before the chickenpox vaccine came on the scene. Because chickenpox can be much worse in teens and adults, back in the day it did make sense to contract the disease in early childhood. In fact, it was almost unavoidable, given the epidemic nature of […]
Continue reading1896, and the consequences of refusing the smallpox vaccine
Like another, far more significant, blogger, I seem to be spending a bit of time on the subject of vaccines & vaccinations. But – given the mumps outbreaks in Auckland & Waikato, and the measles epidemic in Romania & other countries in Europe – it's a subject worth more than one look. As a result […]
Continue readingmeasles is a hoax? tell that to europe, councillor!
In the Spinoff today, there's an OP on the … 'alternative' … views of a member of our local City Council. It's worth a read. I knew that the councillor was against the use of community water fluoridation (CWF) as a public health measure, but going by various postings she's made in social media, we […]
Continue readingnomenclature nonsense, chemical fail
On the stuff page today, Dr Libby was asked how someone could reduce their exposure to chemicals. While she distinguished between 'natural' & 'synthetic' chemicals, sadly, 'natural' doesn't always equate to 'safe' or 'good for you' (as the list of plants growing in the Poison Garden in the UK makes clear). Similarly, there may be […]
Continue readingthe ‘fishing’ chimps of bakoun
I'm currently supervising a graduate student who's writing a review of the literature on tool use in wild chimpanzees. This has become a most enjoyable interaction: it's a topic I've been interested in for quite a while now, so the supervision role is an excuse to extend my own knowledge, and it's great helping the […]
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