BioBlog

evidence vs spin

Alison Campbell • Apr 14, 2021

• COVID-19,
• New Zealand stories,
• vaccines

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this blog post by New Zealand’s “Plan B” group. While initially this group opposed the government’s use of lockdowns to manage covid19 outbreaks in this country, they seem to have since moved on to opposing the rollout of vaccines against SARS-Cov-2. And, while they claim to be “injecting evidence … Read More

there’s a word for this sort of misinformation about vaccines

Alison Campbell • Apr 10, 2021

• COVID-19,
• misinformation,
• New Zealand stories,
• vaccines

A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read the relevant policies & exclusions and were pretty sure the … Read More

“doing my own research” & the scientific method

Alison Campbell • Apr 07, 2021

• biases,
• research,
• scientific method

This evening I was engaging in polite conversation (well, I was polite, anyway) on an RNZ Facebook post about – you guessed it! – the covid19 vaccination program. One of those present offered up a link to a blog post by Joseph Mercola to support a claim he was making about the vaccines. When I pointed out that … Read More

the strange case of the headless sea slug

Alison Campbell • Mar 31, 2021

• autotomy,
• biology,
• New Zealand stories,
• sea slug

Autotomy. There’s a word you don’t see every day – but those familiar with lizards may well have seen the result. For autotomy is the scientific name for what I suppose we could also call “self-amputation”: the process whereby an animal deliberately sheds a part of its body (a tail, limb, or other appendage). Lizards do it, but apparently so … Read More

I’m still not in the money

Alison Campbell • Mar 24, 2021

• community water fluoridation,
• fluoride,
• water

In the last week water fluoridation has made the headlines again, alongside the continuing articles and posts related to SARS-Cov-2 and the rollout of vaccines against it. One of the common features shown by quite a few of those opposed to these 2 public health initiatives (fluoridation & vaccination) is a tendency to claim that those supporting the initiatives in … Read More

Luciferin, Luciferase, etymology, & innuendo

Alison Campbell • Feb 17, 2021

• bioluminescence,
• cyberbullying,
• glow worms,
• luciferase,
• luciferin,
• science communcation,
• Social media

On Friday (5 February) we went for a walk in the Karangahake Gorge, and were very happy to discover (during the Windows Walk) that there are glow-worms in the darker parts of the mine workings. (Strictly speaking they’re glow-maggots as they’re the larvae of small flies/midges, but that is perhaps less attractive to the ear ) These little … Read More

Vaccines, viruses, & mRNA

Alison Campbell • Dec 13, 2020

• COVID-19,
• mRNA vaccine,
• Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine,
• science and society,
• vaccination

Today I was told that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (now approved for use in the US, UK, & Canada) is a virus (screencap at the bottom of this thread). It really isn’t, but I’ve seen this one several times & so I think it’s worth unpacking a little further. (You can also read about mRNA vaccines here, here, & … Read More

Mammoth bones – and … potatoes???

Alison Campbell • Dec 11, 2020

• archaeology,
• ecology,
• evolution,
• plant structure

Today I came across an interesting share in a science group that I follow – an article about a “huge 25,000-yr-old hut” made of mammoth bones. Having really enjoyed Jean Auel’s “Earth’s Children” series, of course, I was going to read on. But alas, the article was disappointing: the headline image didn’t match the story; the apparent construction … Read More

Those vaccine ingredients again

Alison Campbell • Dec 11, 2020

• anti-vaxxers,
• COVID-19,
• Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine,
• science and society,
• vaccination

A year ago I posted an explanation on vaccine “ingredients”, in relation to some wild claims made about the measles vaccine in the context of Samoa’s measles epidemic. From what I’ve seen on recent RNZ comments threads, an update for the time of SARS-Cov-2 is required. So, here’s purple making a statement about the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine that – … Read More

It always pays to check before you share

Alison Campbell • Nov 19, 2020

• COVID-19,
• Fauci,
• Influenza,
• masks

Back in 2008, Dr Anthony Fauci (yes, that Dr Fauci) co-authored a paper that examined the interplay between influenza infection and secondary bacterial … Read More