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

please do not adjust your set… - BioBlog

Oct 07, 2009 •

... but there may be a brief interruption to regular programming for the next few days. I'm off to Wellington for a meeting & may not have a lot of time for blogging, although I'll try to pull something together...

a special kind of donation - BioBlog

Sep 30, 2009 •

As I left the office this afternoon I said to my colleagues, 'I'll be in a bit later tomorrow, I have an interview with a vampire.' At which they all laughed, because they know this means I'm off to my...

thoughts on xenotransplantation - BioBlog

Sep 30, 2009 •

This is a re-post of one I wrote earlier this year. For a bit of background: one of the topics that year 13 Biology students can study requires them to do research around a ‘current’ or ‘controversial’ issue such as stem cells or xenotransplantation. I wrote a brief one on stem cells (really, more a case of pointing in the right direction), but then did a longer piece on xenotransplantation, which follows here. The daughter said recently that having done stem cells, I should also look at some of the other topics you can choose from for your research exercise. She suggested xenotransplantation, as it seems quite a few of her friends have chosen that one. So I’ll have a go 🙂 Xenotransplantation is where cells, tissues, or organs from an individual of one species are transplanted into an … Read More

what’s your favourite (transitional) fossil? - BioBlog

Sep 28, 2009 •

A couple of weeks ago Brian Switek's blog Laelaps included a post on transitional fossils (those things that some creationists will tell you simply don't exist... ) Brian's post was sparked by this story (OK, maybe the writer of was aiming for...

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