Actually, that's a bit of a fib as the zombies & the lego don't actually meet in these videos 🙂 But both have a science focus. Lego is the focus of a clip called 'Building Curiosity', which is something of an ode to science; I rather enjoyed it. And the zombies? Well, you're likely to […]
Continue readingTag: nature of science
csiro should fund dowsing? are you serious???
I came across this story on Science's 'science sifter' page: The next CEO of Australia’s leading research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), is in hot water after suggesting the cash-strapped organization spend scarce research dollars investigating water divining, or dowsing. The editors at Science do have a sense of humour & […]
Continue readingwidening the definition of scientific outputs
This was first posted over on TalkingTeaching. This blog post at SkepticalScalpel really struck a chord. Entitled "Should social media accomplishments be recognised by academia", it compares the number of citations the author's received for published papers with the number of hits on a blog post reviewing original research. And finds there's no contest: Three years ago, […]
Continue readinghelicobacter pylori and the complexity of the human microbiome
In their first-year microbiology lectures. our students hear about Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium associated with the development of gastric ulcers (a discovery that eventually saw Barry Marshall and Robin Warren receive the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physology or Medicine). The trouble is, I suspect that this is all that they hear about a story that […]
Continue readingthoughts from a conference: scientists and science communication
I spent much of today at an international symposium on "Transforming Public Engagement on Controversial Science & Technology". It's been fascinating & I'm looking forward to day 2, having learned a lot from both the formal presentations and the round-table discussions. I also got to lead a discussion session after a keynote address by fellow […]
Continue readingnot science as i know it
By accident, I came across the curriculum document for Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) which provides teaching & learning materials to parents who are homeschooling their children. New Zealand students who complete the program right to year 13 gain university entrance. Home Schooling NZ gives parents advice about the ACE program, but makes it clear that […]
Continue readingfluoridation in the news
I didn’t intend to write another post on this subject so soon after the last one, but a story on yahoo.com’s news feed has really annoyed me. I know journalists these days are seriously under pressure, but that doesn’t really justify taking a ‘press release’ from a known activist organisation and running it uncritically ie […]
Continue readingfluoride-cancer claims exaggerated? it looks that way
My friend & blog-buddy Grant drew my attention to a story about osteosarcoma at stuff.co.nz – and to the comments section, where one commenter raised the issue of a claimed link between this rare form of cancer and community water fluoridation (CWF). This particular claim has surfaced quite a lot lately, as anti-fluoride groups target […]
Continue readingwas newton an astrologer?
From time to time I've heard it suggested that Isaac Newton was an astrologer (most recently in the comments section here), usually by way of implying that, if Newton thought astrology was OK, then it must be. Now, Newton is viewed as being one of those thinkers responsible for sparking the Age of Enlightenment and a […]
Continue readingnon-science nonsense & quaking whales
Over the last couple of weeks the NZ Herald ran some excellent articles on new scientific discoveries and their significance for our lives. It was great! So it was rather sad to see this rather uncritical piece on Ken Ring's claim that whale strandings can predict earthquakes – and heartening to see a quote from Peter Griffin, […]
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