BioBlog

Spiders’ prey and pitcher plants

Alison Campbell • May 16, 2019

• crab spiders,
• mutualism,
• pitcher plants,
• spiders

I’ve learned quite a bit about spiders over the years. (And I have never been able to understand the “burn it with fire!” some folks take towards these 8-legged creatures.) For example, it turns out that some spiders actively hunt fish, while others are vegetarian! Then, late last year, I came across a couple of articles on an … Read More

The package insert: misunderstood and misrepresented

Alison Campbell • May 09, 2019

• Adverse events,
• measles,
• MMR,
• vaccines

UNICEF estimates that in the period 2010-2017, 169 million children missed their first dose of the measles vaccine – that’s around 21 million children each year. Sadly, this has simply set the conditions for the measles outbreaks we’re seeing around the world, in high- and low-income countries alike. In the first three months of 2019, more than 110,000 measles … Read More

2

Measles infection is not a cure for cancer

Alison Campbell • Apr 30, 2019

• anti-vaccination,
• Health,
• Health and Medicine,
• medicine,
• pseudoscience,
• science and society,
• vaccination

We’re continuing to hear of new measles cases in New Zealand, most recently in this Stuff story about 4 new cases in Auckland (with the possibility that up to 1600 people may have been exposed). One of those ill with the disease is a 10-month-old child, too young to have received her first dose of the MMR vaccine. Completely predictably, … Read More

1

“Raw” water – an update

Alison Campbell • Apr 26, 2019

• critical thinking,
• Health and Medicine,
• pseudoscience,
• science and society

In January last year, I wrote about the US fad for “raw” water: water supposedly as nature intended it, free of any of the treatments used in municipal water supplies. Those promoting the stuff claim it’s ever so much better for you; given the prices they charge, it’s certainly good for their bank balances I’ve just come across a … Read More

3

Essential oils in the classroom: a rose (or other flowers) would smell as sweet

Alison Campbell • Apr 08, 2019

• essential oils,
• school

A story about essential oils being used in classrooms hit the headlines this week. It described how an Auckland primary school had put diffusers into 20 classrooms, using oil blends that would supposedly “stop the spread of viruses and keep children focused at school.” A parent subsequently used the threat of a legal injunction to stop this practice, at … Read More

4

Plants, their predators, and early warning systems

Alison Campbell • Apr 02, 2019

• herbivory,
• insects,
• plant signals,
• plants

People tend to think that plants don’t do much from day to day – certainly when I asked my first-year students at the start of the course, they were far more interested in animals than in plants. Poor plants! But then, to the casual eye, I guess they’re fairly static creatures However, it turns out that their responses to the … Read More

Thoughts on a question about kākāpō

Alison Campbell • Mar 21, 2019

• conservation,
• inbreeding depression,
• kakapo,
• lek breeding,
• scholarship biology

My interest in kākāpō began way back in my honours year at uni: a guest speaker told us that as far as anybody knew, the last remaining birds were a few males, somewhere in Fiordland. I remember feeling that that sounded really sad – those lonely males booming for females who never came. Shortly after that, a relatively healthy population … Read More

A new critical analysis of the Wilyman thesis

Alison Campbell • Mar 06, 2019

• immunisation,
• PhD thesis,
• vaccination,
• Wollongong

A few years back, University of Wollongong student Judy Wilyman received a PhD for a thesis that claimed to offer a “critical analysis of the Australian government’s rationale for its vaccination policy.” Both the thesis, and the processes at Wollongong in relation to PhD study and examination, attracted a considerable amount of scrutiny and criticism (see here … Read More

5

No link between MMR vaccination and autism

Alison Campbell • Mar 05, 2019

• autism,
• immunisation,
• measles,
• MMR,
• vaccination,
• Wakefield

One of the myths (and there are a lot of them) continually pushed by those opposed to vaccination, is that “the MMR vaccine causes autism” – often coupled with claims that “there are no studies comparing the health of vaccinated & unvaccinated children”. (That’s another myth, by the way.) The origins of this claim can be laid squarely … Read More

4

Measles, and myths in the comments sections

Alison Campbell • Mar 02, 2019

• herd immunity,
• immunisation,
• measles,
• MMR,
• vaccination

Measles is making a come-back on the global stage (Madagascar, the Philippines, Japan, Europe, and the US). And, sadly, this vaccine-preventable disease is popping up again in New Zealand:  most recently in the Waikato, Christchurch, Dunedin, and now Auckland. New Zealand, like the US, hasn’t had ‘home-grown’ cases of measles … Read More