Code for life

Short version: don’t. Be a wee bit careful about empathy, too. Why to not offer sympathies for disabilities is worth knowing. It’ll help you be kind to others in many situations, and to write or talk about disabilities and difficulties better. There’s a connection with science and science communication, too. A mantra about kindness that circulates in science communication and … Read More

2

The GoodReads Choice Awards is the only major book award decided by readers – you! Even if you’re not sure about voting, the mid rounds of competitions offer great reading lists to explore. Get to it! Don’t take too long – the semi-final round ends in three days. (There is a final round from November 14th until November 27th.) … Read More

2

Two articles from Stuff have sparked a long-drawn out battle over vaccines. The Facebook pages have drawn an huge number of comments, many posting ill-formed opinions. Yeah, it’s happening again. The Stuff articles themselves are mostly fine. The vaccine battles in the comments… not. Yesterday was the 150th birthday of Nobel laureate Marie Curie.* She once wrote, “Nothing … Read More

21

A quick introduction to Cat Zero and lablit. Some of us like the science in our fiction to be real. Don’t get me wrong. I can take a premise to buy into a story, even real doozies (well, up to a point…!)[1] But once I’ve done the deal with the author to buy into their plot, I prefer the science … Read More

2

We all need a little good news from time to time. Vaccines have been a remarkably successful medical invention. Over the past year, just 12 cases of polio have been seen worldwide. Truly amazing. Also reported is that measles has fallen below 100,000 cases worldwide for the first time. A few weeks ago New Zealand was formally named as free … Read More

7

(Or a taught course, or department.) Reading about the latest retraction of a Shaw and Tomljenovic research paper on aluminium (with two ‘i’s!) and vaccines, I was reminded of topics I’ve ruminated on in the past: when to investigate a professor, and when do they no longer justify their position? What criteria might we use? What are the hallmarks … Read More

7

Ever since Rain Man, autism has been a condition du-jour for those touting (fake) ’wellness’ remedies, opposing vaccines, and general head-nodding concern. Some claim autism is caused by any number of things, offering just many remedies offered to “treat” it. Recent research reminds us that autism is mostly genetic. People with autism, or autism spectrum disorder, have difficulty in social … Read More

1

Now that New Zealand has a government, we can look to what they might do. Several parties offered to reorganise the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor role, and to introduce a Science Commission. How would you like to see this role work? I’m going to offer a few suggestions to encourage people to put their ideas forward in the comments … Read More

10

This long suggestion might be useful to those trying to migrate email between other service providers and Gmail. It’s particularly meant for (and inspired by) New Zealanders still trying to get their email accounts with custom folders out of Vodafone’s email system before Vodafone’s deadline to abandon email. [I rarely post how-to’s but this is one of a number of … Read More

Jeremy Farrar, the director of the London-based biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust, has written an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper espousing the value of (international) collaborations in the face of Brexit, Britain proposed exit from the European Union. Farrar rightfully highlights the importance of collaborations. Collaboration can be essential for many types of work, and direct interactions … Read More

2