I’ve just been sent through an article from an Australian news site, which suggests that the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Obstetrics will next month be discussing the possibility of doctors offering ‘ritual nick’ – a form of female genital mutilation that entails a small incision on the clitoris. (In this they seem to […]
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flashes in the eye
I’ve just spent an interesting hour down at my optometrist’s rooms, having my eyes looked into. And learning a whole lot of new stuff.
Continue readingwhat’s in a name
This is only sort of science – but it’s fun (& also Friday). But the secretary came in with a document & pointed out that one of the names – Goodbehere – looked really old. ‘Must be a bit of history behind that one,’ she said. Names often have a story to tell. In science they […]
Continue readingengaging students in science through interactive learning
This is another re-post from Talking Teaching. I know that whole interactive-engagement thing is becoming the norm in schools, but I thought it might be interesting (for teachers, in particular) to see some of the back-story 🙂 After my lecture today one of the students said, "I like your lectures, they’re interactive. You make me […]
Continue readinghey hey it’s friday – and the darwin awards are out :-)
The Darwin Awards have been around for a few years now. They’re given to those people who – by some act of breath-taking stupidity – have removed themselves from the gene pool. (Though you could argue that most of the recipients should be excluded due to age….) The (definitely posthunous) winner of this […]
Continue readinga blog for talking teaching
This is really an advertorial, I guess 🙂 But Marcus, Fabiana & I have got together to set up a blog for talking about teaching, called – fairly predictably I guess! – Talking Teaching. So for those of my readers who are teachers (secondary, tertiary, whatever) – please feel free to join us there. We’re hoping to […]
Continue reading$60 a time
In the Dean’s office we’ve spent the last few weeks working on enrolments. As always, there’ve been students who – for whatever reason – haven’t met our re-entry requirements, & so the registrar & I have to interview them before admission. And as always, there’s a subgroup of those students who attribute their poor results […]
Continue readingthe power of the cuttlefish
I found this XKCD cartoon whlie clearing out my mailbox – I found it via PZ quite a while ago now (so it’s probably circumnavigated the world net 3.5 times by now!), but thought it was worth sharing. (Keep an eye out for cuttlefish, Marcus!) (Many of the XKCD cartoons are hilarious; some I just […]
Continue readingwhy dogs live shorter lives
Those of you who’ve followed my blog for a while (thanks, guys!) will know that in mid-2009 I farewelled my lovely old labrador Bella – & that after 9 weeks I’d had enough of being dogless & Ben joined our family. Having Ben hasn’t made me forget Bella, of course (I’m as soppy as the […]
Continue readingthe science of lolcats
By now, my readers, you have probably cottoned on to the fact that I enjoy lolcats 🙂 But it’s OK – because they’re scientific! (For some reason the cats appear to be more into physics than biology…) I actually quite like using images like this occasionally in my lectures, to liven things up or make […]
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