Infrequently Asked Questions

What’s in a name? Funding New Zealand taxonomy

Lynley Hargreaves • Dec 16, 2015

Professor Wendy Nelson Want to know whether that fruit fly is a dangerous new import? Or if the mussel you are about to eat has been feeding on toxic microalgae? Or what organisms are attached to the bottom of that boat? Call your local taxonomist. The trouble is, the few there are don’t get to spend much time … Read More

A spoonful of perception intervention helps the medicine go down

Lynley Hargreaves • Nov 25, 2015

Two people have heart attacks. Who gets back to work sooner? The one who thinks their illness will be short, even if their symptoms were worse, according to research in the rapidly expanding area of patient illness perception. But the main reason for this, explains new Royal Society of New Zealand Fellow and Mason Durie Medal recipient, Professor … Read More

Evolution in our changing lands

Lynley Hargreaves • Nov 12, 2015

Professor Jon Waters New Zealand has often been pictured as a kind of ‘ark’ of ancient species, isolated and unchanging since our land broke away from Gondwana 80 million years ago. But new Royal Society of New Zealand Fellow Professor Jon Waters, over multiple Marsden Fund grants, has explored the idea that geology is both more and less … Read More

Humble aspirin aids cancer survival

Lynley Hargreaves • Oct 29, 2015

Dr Anita Dunbier Breast cancer survival rates have improved by a third since the 1970s and taking the humble aspirin may help boost survival rates further still. University of Otago Senior Lecturer Dr Anita Dunbier explains why such a low-cost drug has been overlooked, why it works, and how her team is testing aspirin’s benefits in a new South … Read More

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day

Nancy de Bueger • Oct 13, 2015

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) with the goal of inspiring the next generation of budding women scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. Here are five female Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand reflecting on their role models and what got them excited about … Read More

Lasers: the transformation to come

Lynley Hargreaves • Sep 23, 2015

Cather Simpson wants every child and parent in New Zealand to know the word photonics – and to consider photonics science or engineering as a career. An Associate Professor at the University of Auckland and Director of the Photon Factory, she’s worked on problems as diverse as robotic surgery and sorting dairy herd sperm by sex. Now as part of … Read More

Have surgery, wake up on Sydney time

Lynley Hargreaves • Sep 10, 2015

Dr Guy Warman Patients who receive anaesthesia for surgery may wake up jet lagged – after a six hour operation that starts at 9am, for example, a New Zealand patient might wake up on Sydney time. This could leave patients with trouble sleeping, inhibit wound healing and lower immune function. In a bid to investigate this and find … Read More

The complex future of ecology

Lynley Hargreaves • Aug 27, 2015

If you believe the next mass extinction event (caused by humans) has begun, how do humans begin to choose which species to save? Rutherford Discovery Fellow Dr Daniel Stouffer may be able to help, although he isn’t looking at kiwi, lichens, or in fact any particular species. Instead, he’s working on ways to study all of them at the same … Read More

Aliens, relativistic effects, and the end of elements

Lynley Hargreaves • Aug 21, 2015

Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger would like to find the end of the periodic table – where elements get heavier, more relativistic and much, much less stable. The Massey University Professor is delivering the annual Rutherford Lecture series around New Zealand, and you can come along to find out more about why gold is … Read More

New Zealand kids monolingual, missing out

Lynley Hargreaves • Jul 29, 2015

Associate Professor Sharon Harvey The Māori language is in a dire situation and the 2013 census saw a further drop in numbers of Māori speaking Māori. In 2015’s Māori language week, Auckland University of Technology Associate Professor Sharon Harvey takes on popular misconceptions, explains how a national languages policy would increase our awareness of languages overall, and tells us … Read More

About Infrequently Asked Questions

A blog that features short Q&A interviews with a wide range of New Zealand scientists and scholars working on research projects.

The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the owners of SciBlogs.co.nz, the Science Media Centre or the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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