Guest Work • Jun 22, 2017 •
By Janet Hoole, Keele University Humans may have had pet cats for as long as 9,500 years. In 2004, archaeologists in Cyprus found a complete cat skeleton buried in a Stone Age village. Given that Cyprus has no native wildcats, the animal (or perhaps its ancestors) must have been brought to the island by humans all those … Read More
Michael Reddell • Jun 21, 2017 •
A month or so ago I ran a couple of posts on New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in international context. Readers may recall that New Zealand now has the second highest emissions per unit of GDP of any OECD country, having moved up from sixth in 1990. As part of the Paris climate change accord process, New … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jun 20, 2017 •
His science faltered in the sun hot sun he fell through blazing like gold at the end of a rainbow. – Icarus, Michael Dransfield Last night, I dreamed I could fly. I took off running, leaping off a yellow cliff, and soaring over a technicoloured … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 19, 2017 •
I don’t think we can blame the consultants for this one. Normally, big big numbers in economic impact reports are a black mark on the consultancy producing them. They don’t come with enough health warnings, and the misleading big big figures draw headlines too easily. Dave Guerin’s Ed Insider newsletter (essential reading for anybody following tertiary ed in New Zealand) covers the … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jun 16, 2017 •
The nurse steadied my arm as she gently positioned the syringe barrel in place. “You can look away if you need to,” she said, “it will soon be over.” I squirmed in my seat, but kept my eyes fixed on the needle as it gently slid beneath my skin. I was six years old, and photographs of children suffering from measles, … Read More
Lynley Hargreaves • Jun 15, 2017 •
Originally posted on Royal Society Te Apārangi’s Past and Future series where, as part of 150th anniversary celebrations, early career researchers are invited to share discoveries in their fields from days gone by or give us a glimpse into where their research may take us in the future. By Jason Gurney, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jun 13, 2017 •
To this day, I vividly recall my tragic attempts in product design class at high school. Our teacher, underpaid and underprepared, threw caution to the wind and let us do as we pleased. The only instructions we were given was that we had to make something that could be used as a night light. To this end, I set about creating a … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jun 12, 2017 •
The second reading of the fluoridation bill is now on the order paper for the current parliament. Public submissions have been heard, the Health Committee has reported back to the House and the Ministry of Health (MoH) has provided its own responses to submissions. Of course, we don’t know yet what the final Act will be like exactly. Read More
John Kerr • Jun 08, 2017 •
A new report of the oldest ever human fossil – estimated to be around 300,000 years old – dramatically pushes back our best guess of when Homo sapiens first walked the Earth. Two papers published in Nature today report the dating and analysis of several fossils discovered at the archaeological site of Jebel Irhoud, Morocco. An international research team … Read More
Guest Work • Jun 06, 2017
Mention the words “New Zealand” and “science” in the same sentence, and one image automatically springs to mind; that of Ernest Rutherford, earnestly staring out from the $50 note. Yet there are many more diverse and compelling scientific and technological innovations throughout New Zealand history. From Tā moko uhi (chisels) and pioneering plastic surgery techniques, to disposable syringes and … Read More