X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen, a discovery that was to bring him the first Nobel Prize for physics. (No, I’m not really going to trespass on Marcus’s territory! Well, not for long.) Like many other scientists of the time, Roentgen was experimenting with electtrifying the thin gases in vacuum tubes. One night […]
Continue readingTag: history of science
reflecting on teaching (& learning) about the nature of science
This is a re-post of something I originally wrote for the ‘other’ blog that I share with Marcus & Fabiana. A couple of days ago I took part in a discussion around reflective writing. It was organised by the University’s Student Learning Support team, with the intention of helping students working towards their PhDs to […]
Continue readingwhat science has given us
Had a not-the-best ending to a platelets donation today (syncope = fainting; very strange for platelets since you get all the red stuff back…) & I’m still feeling somewhat under the weather & don’t feel like writing a ‘serious’ post. So… what follows is something I’ve had tucked away for a while, wondering when to […]
Continue readingwhat evolution is
The issue of who’s going to coordinate our 2nd-year evolutionary biology paper came up the other day. (I haven’t done it for the last couple of years as my ‘other’ job – in the Dean’s office – takes up a fair proportion of my time. But at some point I’d like to get back into it. We’ve had that paper, Evolution and Diversity of […]
Continue readingevolution supressed in new zealand? i think not
While searching for some background on another post, I happened across this headline on the Herald site: University denies author’s PhD claim. I went on to read the story, as it’s always a bit of a concern to see people claiming credentials and the supposed awarding institution denying that this is the case. And a statement from the […]
Continue readingaustralian red beech
We saw this lovely tree on the shoreline at Cape Tribulation. The flowers last just a day before their petals fall. I took this particular photo because I liked the way the fallen petals exposed the colourful reproductive structures – I’m always on the lookout for images to use in my lectures. This reminds me […]
Continue readingflorence nightingale was a statistician
Just a quick post as I’m away on a panel meeting & my brain is tired – but here’s something else from my file of ‘things I didn’t know’: Florence Nightingale was a statistician. Now, I heard all about Florence Nightingale when I was a kid. She made a major contribution to the development of […]
Continue readingconspiracy theories & the electricity supply
Apologies in advance – this is way off my usual beaten track but it’s been a hard week & I am in need of diversion 🙂 Over the last few days there’ve been a couple of letters to the editor of the Waikato Times, talking about our electricity supply. The first suggested that Nikola Tesla had […]
Continue readingsherlock holmes & csi
I’ve just finished reading The Science of Sherlock Holmes, an engaging little book that has the subtitle: from Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the real forensics behind the Great Detective’s greatest cases. I’m a sucker for CSI, so when I saw that title in the library, I simply couldn’t resist. (At this point I should […]
Continue readingdarwin & the appendix
The human appendix is often held up as an example of a vestigial organ – something that is much reduced in form from the homologous structure in other organisms (though not necessarily also non-functional). Darwin wrote a little bit about our appendix in The descent of man. Now it seems that a research team has done […]
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