One of the books I'm currently reading is the excellent The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, by Rob Dunn. It's a fascinating and beautifully-written narrative of how our understanding of both the heart and of ways to treat its disorders have developed over the centuries (& yes, I will review the book properly when I've […]
Continue readingTag: science and society
acapella science does eminem
It's not biology but this video is too good not to share 🙂 I've always had a soft spot for acapella singing, & acapella science is just wonderful as an example of combining music & science communication. (Those who want the lyrics will find them here at Scientific American.)
Continue readingcommunity water fluoridation is scientifically sound – high court judgement
We've been waiting a while for the High Court judgement on the scientific validity of community water fluoridation, and that judgement is now available. And it supports the science – see this report on the OneNews webpage. (Hamilton City Council, please take note.) The following content is from the Science Media Centre website: Court rejects fluoridation […]
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 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 readingthe science-based medicine blog on fluoridation
This is something that I posted on Making Sense of Fluoride, but thought I'd re-post here; it deserves to be widely read. I've highlighted some of the main points made by the authors as they address issues frequently raised by those opposed to community water fluoridation. The Science-Based Medicine blog is an excellent resource and […]
Continue readingshaking up the academy? or, how the academy could shake up teaching
This is something I originally wrote for my 'other' blog over at Talking Teaching. Last week I spent a couple of days down in Wellington, attending the annual symposium for the Ako Aotearoa Academy. The Academy's made up of the winners of the national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards, so there are around 150 or so […]
Continue readingfluoridation: an attempt to silence science, and false equivalence
This morning’s Waikato Times features the attention-grabbing front-page headline: "Anti-fluoride campaigner tries to silence science". I guess the debate is really heating up when someone from one side tries to get the other side to shut up… It would be appreciated if we could receive some confirmation from the chemistry department that it will remain […]
Continue readingonce more into the fluoride ‘debate’, dear friends
This week’s Hamilton Press (a local free newspaper) has a lot of fluoride-focused letters in its opinion pages. After reading them I must ask, again, why those opposed to fluoride need to misrepresent the evidence if their case is so strong. For example, we’re told about Amsterdam GP Dr Hans Moolenburgh, who apparently noticed those […]
Continue readingthe drunken botanist
That’s the title of one of the books I’m reading at the moment: The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart. (I do not know any drunken botanists!) Contrary to any expectations engendered by the title, the book is a thoroughly engaging wander through botany, history, & a little bar-tending (although, now that I look at the […]
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