I’ve been out of the office for a couple of days, with other things on my mind. Unfortunately when this happens there’s always a pile of stuff (that needed doing yesterday) waiting on one’s desk. So I’m afraid that I might not be in a position to post anything here for the next couple of days. But don’t go away – I’ll be back :)
a brief hiatus… Alison Campbell Aug 06
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Archive
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2013
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May
- perhaps the most inspiring graduation address i have ever heard
- thought-provoking video, pity about the title...
- out of the mouths of students
- aquatic apes & custard elephants
- selling services on-line
- the gastric-brooding frog - not quite back from the dead
- see-through creatures
- tool use - even more widespread than you thought
- science challenges & science education
- April
- March
- February
-
January
- where's pooh?
- social media & pseudoscience
- cloning neandertals - can we? should we? is it true?
- faecal transplants as a treatment for persistent gut infections
- a lovely friday photo
- evolution - a good video for the classroom
- stem cells, cosmetics - and unexpected consequences
- "the aviator" - a vision of the future that's a little too close for comfort
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May
-
2012
- December
- November
- October
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September
- how do kids learn about dna?
- traumatic insemination? ooh that sounds painful!
- an ambulant toupee?
- letting a good story get in the way of a few facts?
- indonesia to host 2014 international biology olympiad
- the sir paul callaghan science academy
- science: 1; society for textbook revise: 0
- if only...
- walking on custard
- more on mosaics
- immortal cells
- a genetic chimera?
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August
- science - it's not magic!
- fostering is the cause...
- charter schools (from letters to the editor)
- academic olympics fail to gain government support
- this is a poodle moth...
- dodgy experts & gardasil - further questions
- passionate biologists start early
- things to do with precious bodily fluids
- quality counts - except when it doesn't
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July
- sharks don't get cancer?
- foetal lamb cells for autism? baaaah!
- 'esoteric' - you keep using that word...
- moss s*x and springtails
- first supertrees - now super domes
- singapore's stupendous supertrees
- a letter from exotic places
- more on active learning in the biology classroom
- more on active learning in the biology classroom
- divergent views on the importance of critical thinking
- June
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May
- nz herald, what are you *thinking* - all kids are psychic?
- sagan on science & society
- the worst use for mms yet?
- every major's terrible (apologies to gilbert & sullivan)
- does the swiss government *really* support homeopathy?
- beauty in simplicity - a guide to basic critical thinking
- how much do we value our teachers?
- symphony of science: the world of the dinosaurs
- musings on national primary science week
- the ero on primary school science: 'should do better'
- April
- March
-
February
- videos on creationism & evolution
- cute, creative caminalcules
- in the rush to 'e-learning', are we losing sight of our goals?
- anti-vaccination anti-science
- here be dragons
- have universities degraded to teaching 'only' scientific knowledge?
- choosing for the future
- on your bike
- these legs were made for walking...
- arsenic & old crimes
- wonderful quotes about science
- what is science?
-
January
- motivating tomorrow's biologists
- critical thinking - a classroom resource
- why things got bigger (rpt)
- should universities offer courses in 'alternative & complementary therapies'?
- chris stringer talks about human origins
- web 2.0, postmodernism, & attitudes to science
- scientists have cured cancer! - or have they?
- it must be the silly season
- Steve Novella's BS detector
- leeches & health - asking some questions
- one reason many don't 'get' science
- a homeopathic dinosaur?
- time travellers i have met**
- skulls & braaiiinz - what's not to like? (also, plants)
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2011
-
December
- homeopathy is 'personalised'?
- the status & quality of year 11 & 12 science in australian schools
- letters to the editor: science & god
- using pseudoscience to teach science
- PM's Science Teacher Prize: Dr Angela Sharples
- convergent evolution: the pandas' thumb
- new woo for you - 'sound' therapy
- melanin + the pecten ... a new metabolic future??
- assessment for learning
- what about genetic evidence linking us to chimpanzees
- women & gay men are worst drivers, quoth the telegraph. o, rly?
- eye-catching blog post titles - I mean, 'icky toilets'?
- prior learning & university success in biology
- challenges in learning biology
- rhys morgan - another one to follow
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November
- a follow-up (from a new blog)
- what about archaeopteryx?
- writing about environmental history
- picking & choosing what to believe in...
- what, exactly, do they teach?
- Election time: Science Q&A - education
- you could probably sell anything with the right sales pitch
- visualising a curriculum
- deconstructing zeolite
- October
- September
- August
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July
- chemistry cat to the rescue
- the taipei IBO - what we did when not in the jury room
- what it was like at the IBO, part 1
- technology for technology's sake, or is there something more?
- international biology olympiad: nz team brings home the medals :-)
- a re-run of 'fact and theory'
- plants - more than you expect (again)
- why anecdotal 'evidence' is problematic
- meditating on enrolment (again)
- choose wisely... (redux)
- if you're thinking of taking Scholarship biology...
- interruption to normal service
- eye-catching titles for blog posts
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June
- the carnegie hall hypothesis: practice makes perfect
- wonderful wordle: if my dishwasher had wings
- the moon is a poor prognosticator...
- "how do you know?" always trumps "were you there?"
- birds exist, so evolution is an incoherent theory...
- dishwashers of doom
- gearing up for an olympiad
- evolution according to futurama
- engaging students effectively in science, technology and engineering
- effects of changing teaching styles on student learning
- "1080 poison gets tick from report"
- how homeopathy might (not) work in A&E
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May
- if pharyngeal slits turn into gills, why don't humans have gills?
- the sarcastic fringeheads
- why are some chickens white?
- twisting the truth on vaccination
- talking about exaptations
- another weird science letter
- another lovely biological image
- waiter, there's a fish in my cucumber!
- pink - not for boys?
- why geologists are wrong, wrong, wrong! about the age of the earth
- on academic honesty
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April
- weird 'science' letter of the week
- vision and change: biology education for all students
- vision & change in undergraduate biology education
- 'darwin's dilemma' - id in nz
- a weekend funny...
- an open thread for science-y chat
- some thoughts on 'looking ahead'
- looking ahead: science education for the 21st century
- to the ridiculous (answersingenesis)...
- from the sublime (pz myers)...
- science education for the 21st century - an update
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March
- bullying - it's everyone's problem
- inspired by science - the next stage
- my mother said...
- can ducks count?
- the discussion you have when you're really having a discussion
- a pat a day may help keep the doctor away
- creationist 'report' writing: marked down again
- another form of donation
- an ancient origin for the human eye
- talking past each other?
- my humble little blog is found by the discovery institute
- where lamarckian evolution might take our little furry fiends...
- predicting earthquakes: hedging your bets
- February
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January
- attitudes towards teaching evolution in the (US) classroom
- the improbability of an eye
- changing the culture of science education at research universities
- rules of rational debate
- the mind's eye
- resistance to science
- something old & something new
- pesky little hoppers
- plankton & philosophy - and critical thinking
- goldfish & duckweed
- 'intelligent design is not creationism in any shape or form' - yeah, right!
- the human family tree gets even more complex
- happy new year, & thanks for all the fish
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December
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2010
- December
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November
- homos*xual necrophilia by a mallard drake
- so who are these 'scientists anonymous'?
- stunning biological image #2
- Algae & isopods - a unique symbiosis
- astrology can help achieve pregnancy? um, really?
- 'the uncertainty of it all - understanding the nature of science'
- bats and exam questions
- mount st helens as a model for the grand canyon? somehow i don't think so
- a little exercise in critical thinking
- seven signs of bogus science
- homeopathic 'vaccines' and smallpox
- homeopathic 'vaccines' & smallpox
- vaccination & smallpox
- homeopathic vaccinations - fail
- chelation quackery around vaccination
- on polio
-
October
- "killer neandertals" - does this one really stack up?
- yes, we have some bananas
- sounds of biology
- vaccination in the classroom
- another resource about critical thinking
- inspired by science
- lady gaga in the lab?
- a novel take on a fairy tale
- stunning biological images
- a good example of thinking critically
- rolling brown stuff
- engagement techniques for teaching evolution
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September
- further ruminations on writing an essay
- evidence supporting an hypothesis of crank magnetism
- the specialities of mad scientists
- the great tree of life
- a cultural divide
- prized science
- science & cooking - quite similar in some ways
- more on 'sweet poison': aspartame - truth vs fiction
- retail therapy better than s*x?
- conspicuous facultative mimicry in octopuses
- sunday snippets
- discussing death
- preparing for scholarship exams
- sweet poison?
- a genetic window on marsupial evolution
- beery bladders & other oddities
- legionella - an intracellular pathogen
- picking out the drunks, and other interesting tales
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August
- caterpillar drool enhances plants' calls for help
- X-rays & ouches
- how a fungus avoids a plant's immune system
- our lives with dogs, & other interesting reading
- fungal parasites & zombie ants
- the scientists of tomorrow, today
- cat behaviour explained
- oxygenated food for the brain?
- a solar salamander
- but surely if it does no harm...
- MMS - continued health claims for an industrial bleach
- a brief hiatus...
- what made me a teacher
- northern rata - first it's an epiphyte, then it's not
- azolla & endosymbiosis
-
July
- how a little green ball of cells controls where it's going
- learning in lectures is a two-way street
- dogs behaving badly
- arctic foxes in arctic winters
- from elephantiasis to sperm competition
- giant scrotal elephantiasis
- the implausibility of possum peppering
- growing up with science
- of octopodes & clever horses
- the skills of critical thinking
- are octopuses really psychic?
- do you mind? (brain, meet brian)
- positive allometry & the prehistory of sexual selection
- kinky crayfish courtship
- repeat after me - pterosaurs were not dinosaurs!
-
June
- why an evolutionary image merits a 'fail'
- another early hominin specimen, & other things to read
- the genetics of lactase persistence
- a sponge makes the top 10
- the camel's hump
- contaminated dietary supplements
- a follow-up on bleeding for the cause
- pseudoscientific gambits
- world blood donor day
- the tyranny of powerpoint
- evolution vs creationism: the 'discussion' continues
- i get more mail - belief in evolution allows me to ignore my sins
- reflecting on teaching (& learning) about the nature of science
- acupuncture & adenosine
- iconography of evolution
-
May
- it's not a miracle
- female genital mutilation - hideous whichever way you look at it
- slightly more than half of everything i am is thanks to you (thanks, mum)
- on craig venter & his new life form
- sequencing the neandertal genome
- flashes in the eye
- let it grow, let it grow...
- milk & health: there aren't always two (equal) sides to a story
- helping students engage with maths & physics
- knowledge vs certainty
- why 'natural supplements' need regulation
- what science has given us
- putting therapeutic touch to the test
- sensing nonsense
- death shapes us all
- academic language & learning about science
-
April
- theorists of the lost ark
- think before you write (or at least, before you hand it in)
- chemo vs cancer, science vs disease
- what evolution is
- why don't students study plants?
- what science is
- what's in a name
- i get mail...
- more bad stats & other stories
- nature by numbers
- science embargoes & early releases - an update on the 'new hominin' story
- live from the nz international biology olympiad training camp
- changes in the early oceans - & their impact on the evolution of animals
- another missing link...
- more on bone-eating snotworms - the fossil years
- the costs of transpiration
- the costs of transpiration
- best billboard ever?
-
March
- engaging students in science through interactive learning
- a new hominin from siberia?
- humour with a serious message - the vaccine/autism 'debate'
- hey hey it's friday - and the darwin awards are out :-)
- how not to do science: the scole experiment
- belief & knowledge - a plea about language
- how biology teachers can respond to intelligent design
- overrun with creepy-crawlies? maybe not...
- how do we teach students to question what we say?
- cross-species hanky-panky
- what makes students stick at science?
- writing that essay
- a blog for talking teaching
- the age of mammals
- the bca vs simon singh
- evolution supressed in new zealand? i think not
-
February
- today's big earthquake in chile
- the oversized naughty bits of female spotted hyenas
- how i became a science teacher
- $60 a time
- meta-analyses - testing relationships
- an update on facilitated communication
- armed and dangerous...
- happy darwin day!
- breadth vs depth
- but it does no harm...
- the power of the cuttlefish
- the 8-glasses-a-day myth
- what's your 'risk intelligence quotient'?
- why dogs live shorter lives
- grumpiness is best?
-
January
- of rain and rotifers
- avatar
- a quick lesson from statistics :-)
- mms revisited
- asking the right questions
- communicating science - an example of good practice
- procrastination - something to avoid
- rather nice zoological videos
- on the shoulders of giants
- the science of lolcats
- saying a lot about little - another example of how not to use statistics
- cauliflory (but not with cheese)
- a wide froggy mouth - but not on a frog
- trees on stilts
-
2009
-
December
- misleading medical-science stories - & why most published research findings are false
- australian red beech
- what researchers really mean
- may your christmas be filled...
- botanical architecture
- cassowaries: crucial to rainforest ecology
- great balls of sand
- a whale of a community
- preparing for the future
- owlcat. definitely not coming to a place near you, any time soon
- rocket science & testosterone
- of ant hotels and homicidal figs
- did ancient jellyfish sting?
- an update on xenotransplantation
- holiday photos
- do flies do housework?
- re-post: a worm, but not as we know it
- some interesting links to follow
- please do not adjust your set
- gannet monogamy model moot
-
November
- moa evolution & new zealand's geological past
- facilitated communication?
- evolutionary image... fail
- off to entertain at cafe scientifique
- regulating supplements
- whence the nucleus?
- argh! the dreaded mercury!
- what's in the water?
- speciation in darwin's finches
- hummingbirds & the high cost of s*x
- a guest post from an olympian
- things that go BANG!
- topical 1080
- ten questions about intelligent design
- florence nightingale was a statistician
- lumping, splitting, and the morphological species concept
- a question of isolation
- dinosaur footprints in new zealand
- viral evolution - 'evolution before our eyes'
- fluoride reloaded
- turning kids on to science: the spectrum revisited
- the importance of evolution for modern medicine
-
October
- a tale of several fishes
- wolves in the cross-fire
- another contender for 'best blog post title'
- people can believe some very strange things...
- self-grooming in cows
- teaching old cows new tricks
- two ends of the science spectrum
- conspiracy theories & the electricity supply
- seeing the world through blindsight
- it couldn't happen here. could it?
- swim with the sharks...
- tomorrow's young scientists, today
- blood-sucking vampire moths!
- sensory perception in t.rex
- fossil poo and moa diets
- science or magical thinking?
- science or magical thinking?
- belief vs acceptance
- stomata & plant immunity to bacterial infection
- the music of science
- (i'll say it again) dose really does matter!
- why we have telomerase
- please do not adjust your set...
- knuckle-walking - not an ancestral trait in humans
- the 'missing link' disproved?
- the fabric of history
- the fabric of history
-
September
- a special kind of donation
- thoughts on xenotransplantation
- plant growth responses to touch
- what's your favourite (transitional) fossil?
- plants - much more than you expect
- food & folate
- science blogging in new zealand
- a rather strange decision
- science-based medicine vs the 'natural' kind
- critical thinking 101: reading news stories on science
- malaria & sickle-cell anaemia
- the usefulness of parachutes has not been scientifically tested
- 'warrior genes' & media fantasies
- why do we worry so much about ageing?
- the lost city & life undersea
- cut a long story short
- science can be fun: swearing as a response to pain
- more musings on human pheromones
- molecular evolution & possible gene therapy
- sherlock holmes & csi
- the scent of fear
- wait until you can see the whites of their eyes
- the power of the human mind
- August
-
December
-
2013
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Blogroll
- Ben Goldacre's BadScience
- DC's Improbable Science
- ERV
- Laelaps
- On becoming a domestic and laboratory goddess
- Pharyngula
- plankton & philosophy
- Quackwatch
- Respectful Insolence
- Science-based Medicine
- Scientific blogging
- Silly Beliefs
- Skepticblog
- The Digital Cuttlefish
- The Naked Scientists
- The Quackometer
- The Young Australian Skeptics
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
