Alison Campbell

Senior University of Waikato biological sciences lecturer Dr Alison Campbell is well known in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty for promoting science to community groups and school students. She has been nicknamed the skull lady by secondary school students after her presentations on human evolution. Dr Campbell established Cafe Scientifique in Hamilton as part of an effort to encourage the community to discuss scientific issues. She has also launched BioBlog website to support secondary school biology students and teachers preparing for exams. That blog is syndicated right here on Sciblogs. Alison is on Twitter @AcampbelTeacher

food & folate - BioBlog

Sep 26, 2009 •

This is a re-posting of an article I wrote back in July. I thought I’d repost it here as I’ve been on a bit of a science/health/pseudoscience kick lately 🙂 In the July 13 Herald was an article on the inclusion of folic acid (aka folate) in bread. This has hit the news recently because (among other things) bakers are concerned about the cost of adding this supplement to bread. (One figure that’s been bandied about is that someone would have to eat 11 slices of bread to get their recommended daily dose, but this surely a ‘straw man’ argument: while the NZ diet tends to be low in folate it’s not at zero – any amount of bread would supplement that low intake.) There are a number of issues associated with this story, one being a perceived toxicity associated … Read More

science blogging in new zealand - BioBlog

Sep 26, 2009 •

I've been blogging for 2 years now & following other people's blogs for rather longer than that. But I've only ever been aware of a few other NZ science bloggers; there's so much material out there that unless you go...