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Category: science and society

permafrost, viruses, and silly zombie headlines

March 15, 2023 | Alison | critical thinking, ecology, new science stories, science and society

Permafrost is “any ground that remains completely frozen – 0°C or colder – for at least two years straight”, and as you’d expect is found at high altitudes or in polar regions. It acts like a deep-freezer – scientists have found mammoths buried in permafrost that were so well preserved that at least one field […]

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it’s not on to play one discipline off against another

November 20, 2022 | Alison | critical thinking, education, science and society

The topic of an ad for a university not that far to the north of where I live popped up in casual conversation today. It was – IMHO – a pretty awful advert, with the implication that science doesn’t change so do an arts degree if you want to think differently. I mean, yuck. But […]

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nuremberg, & history

November 18, 2021 | Alison | communication, critical thinking, science and society

There’s a lot been said recently about the Nuremberg code. So what is it, and why is it popping up now? As described in this excellent NEJM article, the Code was developed over 80 years ago in August 1947, by judges involved in the “Doctors Trial” at Nuremberg. There were a total of 13 court trials […]

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what is the “magneto” protein, & why are references to a 2016 paper suddenly in my feed?

July 5, 2021 | Alison | critical thinking, genetics, nature of science, science and society

A few days back an article in The Guardian popped up in my newsfeed. It was quite old – published in 2016 – but it looked interesting, so I read it & also tracked down the original paper. The article & research paper describe work done to develop and test a potential tool for unpicking […]

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kary mullis, pcr, & covid tests

May 19, 2021 | Alison | history of science, nature of science, science and society

You’ve probably come across the name Kary Mullis recently, via social media. He’s best remembered for his invention (along with a team of other researchers) of the Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR for short (and for many biology students was probably immortalised in their memories via this earworm of an advertisement¹). This turned out to […]

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covid-19 infection and how the spike protein is involved in doing harm

May 5, 2021 | Alison | nature of science, new science stories, science and society

Just this morning a journalist sent me a link to a press release about a new paper looking at how SARS-Cov-2 affects the vascular system, & asked me to comment on it for a article. If you’d like to read the actual paper you can find it here, but be aware that it does get […]

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on Plan B’s support for an anti-vaccine court case

April 26, 2021 | Alison | communication, critical thinking, science and society

Some of my readers may be aware that Nelson lawyer Sue Grey is taking a case to the NZ High Court in an attempt to stop the roll-out of the Pfizer vaccine. I don’t agree with her stance, but she has every right to do this. However, I was more than a little surprised to […]

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sam bailey on isolating viruses, and why she is wrong

April 19, 2021 | Alison | critical thinking, genetics, nature of science, new science stories, science and society

Recently I was told I needed to go to the Youtube channel of Dr Sam BaileyA and watch one of her videosB. So I did. This particular video is called The Truth About Virus Isolation, and yes it’s on Youtube, and no I’m not linking directly because I refuse to link to such a misleading […]

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why it’s important to check sources

April 17, 2021 | Alison | communication, critical thinking, nature of science, science and society

While checking my spam folder (before yeeting the contents permanently) I noticed that I’d been sent a bunch of email ‘newsletters’ from the group “Voices for Freedom.” Out of interest I opened one, just in case the contents were worth a post or two – & indeed they were. The writers of the newsletter state […]

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so much misinformation on a page supposedly about health

April 15, 2021 | Alison | critical thinking, science and society

It’s always something of a shock to come across a page run by a health-focused business that contains substantial misinformation. This one left me gobsmacked, given the sheer number of statements that are demonstrably untrue. And while a fair bit of the content is prefaced by the statement that it’s the personal opinion of one […]

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Swan girl - portrait of the author as a young scientist This blog in response to comments from secondary school biology teachers. I hope to use it as a way of encouraging critical thinking, looking at scientific papers that are relevant to the Level 3 curriculum and to Scholarship.

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