Comments for The Scientist NZ

Comment on Phitek Systems by Aimee Whitcroft

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:59:29 +0000

There’s a designer who, playing with noise cancellation stuff, built a ball which rolls itself in the direction of loud noise, and then broadcasts white noise over it. Mad stuff.

Comment on The Startup Ecosystem by graemefielder

graemefielder — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:15:08 +0000

Hey Aaron
I too believe we are on the right track. We have a lot of the pieces in place and we currently in the process of tweaking, streamlining and bring about cohesiveness between them. With the multiple reports, taskforces and strategies being published in the last year or so it is obvious that we know what these ‘tweaks’ need to be. It is ultimately ‘time’ that is needed. Time for experience to develop, time for more international successes to occur, time for greater pools of capital to develop and time for the underlying culture that fuel these entrepreneurial/ innovation ecosystems to be more widely adopted. ‘Time’ doesn’t suggest that we should just wait around though. It is time with action. How am I contributing to this system development ? is ultimately a question those of us involved in it should be asking of ourselves on a regular basis. NZ will never be a silicon valley but neither will boston, singapore or colorado. We will be our own kiwi system. All in all I see us in the latter third of this ‘first decade’ still and am looking forward to a productive twenty ten.

Cheers
Graeme
PS: Aaron – http://www.pehub.com/60650/is-the-venture-capital-business-broken/ -a good read if you havent come across it before.

Comment on The Last Hurrah (for now)… by Grant Jacobs

Grant Jacobs — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:37:19 +0000

Good luck. One small travelling tip, something I try do. Try calling in on local universities to talk to the students (or staff in my case) if you have that sort of lazy schedule. You will need a lax schedule to do this, though. (I prefer my trips to be longish and largely unplanned so that I’ve time to randomly take up whatever transpires.) They’re great local guides and often know English and may share your own interests, too.

Don’t feel bad about working overseas, if that’s really what’s needed to follow your career. NZ is a tiny country with dodgy science funding; career-wise I should have stayed overseas myself.

Comment on Living Cell Technologies by Aimee Whitcroft

Aimee Whitcroft — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:08:23 +0000

If you’re interested, we did a briefing on the subject back in July – you can find it one our website, or using the link below :)

http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2009/07/17/xenotransplantation-and-the-lct-trials-in-new-zealand/

Comment on Living Cell Technologies by Aaron Small

Aaron Small — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:50:53 +0000

Thank you, John. A very good point.

Comment on Living Cell Technologies by kiwiski

kiwiski — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:51:16 +0000

This is certainly a much anticipated trial and one that provides much hope for many. However, I am very concerned about press releases on the state of health of individual patients in a trial. I can only see that this adds bias.

Comment on Punching above our weight by Aaron Small

Aaron Small — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:53:03 +0000

Ok, so maybe a bad example! But my point really is that while NZ’ers think we punch above our weight in sport, I think they are unaware that we do in science also. Richard Faull just happened to be in the media and caught my attention. It was new to me, so most definitely ashamedly under my radar! Thanks for your comments.

Comment on Punching above our weight by Fabiana Kubke

Fabiana Kubke — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:23:17 +0000

I don’t think that saying that Richard Faull’s contribution “has ashamedly slipped under the radar” is a fair statement. Prof Faull has been the director of the Neurological Foundation of New Zeland Human Brain bank for many years and has repeatedly been the face of the Neurological Foundation’s TV fundraising campaigns, as well as one of the more vocal advoates of neurological research in the country. Prof Faull has given talks every year at the Brain Open Day at the University of Auckland and is constantly travelling and giving public talks about Neuroscience. His work has been exensively covered in the media, and he has been profiled in numerous mainstream publications. He was named the New Zealand Herald New Zealander of the year in 2007, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, he received the the New Zeland Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2005, the Liley Medal by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and the Rutherford Medal in 2007. If anything, I would argue he is one of the ‘least’ under the radar scientists in New Zealand.

Comment on Punching above our weight by Aaron Small

Aaron Small — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:58:25 +0000

Thanks for your comments birdie. The post has been duly changed to reflect the points you made. Cheers, Aaron.

Comment on Punching above our weight by birdie

birdie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:42:00 +0000

Giving credit where credit is due….

It is important for all concerned, including Prof. Faull and his group, that a couple of misapprehensions in Aaron Small’s blog be corrected. Firstly, Prof. Faull and his group were NOT the “first to discover that brain cells regenerate”; that the brain cells of many non-human animals have this capacity had been known since the 1980s. The fascinating story of the discovery of neurogenesis in canaries, for example, can be found in Fernando Nottebohm’s paper in the New York Academy of Science, Vol. 1016, 2004, pp 628-658. Secondly, the discovery/evidence for adult neurogenesis in humans can not be associated exclusively with Prof. Faull’s group, irrespective of the great work this group are doing.