Code for life

Magnitude vs. intensity; Chile vs. Haiti

Grant Jacobs • Mar 01, 2010

For those trying to learn more about the recent Chilean earthquake, All My Faults Are Stress Related has a clear explanation of the magnitude vs. the intensity of earthquakes, comparing the two recent large earthquakes featured in the media in Chile and Haiti. Please read Professor Hannula’s account, not mine: I am not a geologist, … Read More

Book review: The Open Laboratory: The Best Science Writing on Blogs 2009

Grant Jacobs • Feb 28, 2010

The Open Laboratory offers 50 of the best writing that science blogs gave over 2009. You know the WWW is the source when the editor is listed by their pseudonym! Scicurious edits, with Blake Stacey as production editor and Bora Zivkovic the series editor. It’s available for the princely sum of $US 15.50 … Read More

Advertising campaigns: homeopathy or a sceptical series?

Grant Jacobs • Feb 26, 2010

The atheist bus campaign has me thinking... what if there were a similar campaign against homeopathic remedies? Or an on-going series of advertisements questioning dubious practices of all kinds? Fridays are good for day-dreaming, right? NZ Bus seems to have had an attack of tremulous timidity in the face of ’some’ complaints and have withdrawn their … Read More

Best research blogs: get ready for voting; well done Aimee and David

Grant Jacobs • Feb 26, 2010

Research blogging have put up their list of candidates for the Research Blogging Awards, 2010. In them are a few familiar names. misc.ience, one of our own, makes the short-list for the Best Blog -- Chemistry, Physics, or Astronomy category. Well done, Aimee! The Atavism, syndicated here, also makes … Read More

Post-embargo publication delays: be gone

Grant Jacobs • Feb 25, 2010

Scientific research articles cited in the media should be available at the time embargoes are lifted, not later. Recently there was an article I very much wanted to write about in a timely fashion, having seen the news in local media and on Ed Yong’s blog. To my complete frustration, the research paper was unavailable … Read More

Undiluted humour: If Homeopathy Beats Science

Grant Jacobs • Feb 24, 2010

I know I really shouldn’t… But I can’t help myself. This video, picked up via undergraduate biology student Michael Hawkins’s blog (which has just been restored to him after considerable fuss) is too good to pass up. Can’t beat British humour. The alert will note the signage in the ’hospital’. In … Read More

Homeopathy check-up: Not in the health system, disclaimers on labels

Grant Jacobs • Feb 23, 2010

Today England's Science and Technology Committee published it's "Evidence Check 2" report on Homeopathy. Overall, it's a resounding "no" to homeopathy. The report comes down hard on UK government agencies relationships to homeopathy and recommends stronger transparency in the commercial sector, too. The report was to look at government policy, particularly the NHS (England's … Read More

Lab lit: for bookworms who like the science to be plausible

Grant Jacobs • Feb 23, 2010

Jenniffer Rohn defines ‘lab lit’ as ’realistic mainstream fiction featuring scientists as central characters’. Dr. Rohn is the editor of LabLit.com, which, along with articles and other material, hosts the Lab Lit List. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="(Source: Lab Lit)"][/caption] You can read about Dr. Rohn's experiment … Read More

Dem pesky birds

Grant Jacobs • Feb 19, 2010

The Australian outback has flies. You know the eponymous hand-flick of countries with flies? Locals there apparently call it the ’Australian Salute’. Whales seem to have flocks of birds and tail flicks. In this video, I can just imagine the whale cruising along thinking, ’it’s dem pesky birds again!’: … Read More

Has Andrew Wakefield resigned from Thoughtful House? (Updated)

Grant Jacobs • Feb 18, 2010

Andrew Wakefield, whose work has been at the heart of a MMR vaccine ’scare’, has been in the news of late owing to the UK General Medical Council ruling on his 1998 Lancet paper, the retraction of this research paper and more recently the withdrawal of another research paper. Orac has a blog … Read More

About Code for life

Code for Life is the blog of Dr Grant Jacobs who has wide-ranging interests in science-related subjects, especially genetics, bioinformatics and science communication. To learn more about Code for Life (topics, copyright, comments, writing), see the introductory page Twitter: @BioinfoTools

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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