From time to time (well, OK, quite often!) I write something about the nature of science. One of the things that I think is often misunderstood is that science is not about certainty, it’s about knowledge. Because we are constantly adding to our understanding of how the world works, we’re never 100% certain about our […]
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why ‘natural supplements’ need regulation
Every so often the issue of regulating supplements and complementary & alternative medicines comes up. And when it does, you tend to get responses that include: these ‘treatments’ are natural & so completely OK; people have the right to use them to self-medicate; & so on. I don’t have an issue with the ‘right to self-medicate’ […]
Continue readingputting therapeutic touch to the test
It’s ‘science fair’ time of year again & I’ve volunteered to be a judge at the local fair. I’ve always enjoyed science fairs, starting from way back when my siblings & I regularly entered in the Hawkes Bay event. It’s great meeting a whole bunch of up-&-coming young scientists, & they do some wonderful projects. […]
Continue readingsensing nonsense
The idea for this post comes via the team at the most excellent Silly Beliefs blog: Stuff (repository of news & what looks like an awful lot of other stuff) reported about a Massey University research project. The Stuff report kicks off by saying Spirits are increasingly making their presence felt in New Zealand, spurred on by celebrity […]
Continue readingacademic language & learning about science
One of the biggest challenges faced by students of biology (or any science, really) is coming to terms with the language of science. Scientific language is precise, it’s concise, and it uses a dauntingly large number of new terms. (I saw it written somewhere – sorry, too much marking & the memory’s gone bad! – […]
Continue readingchemo vs cancer, science vs disease
In another few weeks it’ll be 27 years since my mother died of metastatic breast cancer. Not a nice way to go – but eased by a very caring family GP and the wonderful people at the local hospice, who helped her die with dignity at home. I was reminded of this by reading David […]
Continue readingwhy don’t students study plants?
I was going to write about yesterday’s dreadful Herald headline on the risks of multivitamin pills (which implied that women taking multi-vits are at a hugely increased risk of breast cancer) – but Jim McVeagh beat me to it. So…
Continue readinglive from the nz international biology olympiad training camp
Today & tomorrow I’m down in Wellington. This year Victoria University is hosting the training camp for New Zealand’s Biology Olympiad aspirants, but I got invited to come down & help out at some of the lab classes. Which is great, because I don’t want to lose contact with the IBO organisation (or the the […]
Continue readinganother missing link…
This morning’s NZ Herald carried a story from the UK Telegraph under the headline "Child’s skeleton missing link to man’s ape-like forebears.’ It could have been worse: the Telegraph‘s headline was ‘Missing link between man & apes found’ (sigh). I read the article & have to confess a certain amount of disappointment – because this seems to be […]
Continue readingbest billboard ever?
A few posts ago I wrote something about ‘research’ into psychic phenomena, & why it was bad science. Now Orac has posted a sign that says it all: This highlights something that has always puzzled me about the claims made by various psychic practitioners, regarding their abilty to predict future events. Surely they’d have known? (I […]
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