i didn’t know that!

When I was a kid one of my favourite books was Old Yellow. Great adventure story – but ends (spoiler alert) with the dog getting shot because it developed rabies. I was so pleased to find out that we didn’t have rabies in NZ! Anyway, rabies is caused by a virus, & there’s a vaccine for […]

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promoting a scientific mind

There’s an excellent post (& subsequent discussion) over on Pharyngula, on how to promote ‘a scientific mind’ – using science, understanding science, enjoying science, knowing how it’s done. While some of the comments may refer to the US system, what’s being discussed on Pharyngula is relevant to us all – go over there & join in!

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how not to design an experiment

On the Panda’s Thumb today I read a review of a very poor experimental set-up indeed. Apparently demonstrating that beneficial mutations (here, antibiotic resistance) lower the fitness of the organism possessing them, it actually does no such thing because of the multiple flaws in its design. But read the review – the reviewer (ERV) studies virology […]

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