Griffin's Gadgets

The closest thing to a Kiwi Nobel for now

Peter Griffin • May 27, 2016

• Alan MacDiarmid,
• Crafoord Prize,
• Ernest Rutherford,
• Maurice Wilkins,
• Nobel Prize,
• Sweden

New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr was last night presented with the prestigious Crafoord Prize, basically the equivalent of a Nobel Prize, at a ceremony in Sweden. Kerr, who is a sprightly 82, shared the prize with Stanford University theoretical astrophysicist Professor Roger Blandford. The prize for astronomy and mathematics (it rotates through certain disciplines year to year) comes with … Read More

Budget 2016: On the face of it, science did well

Peter Griffin • May 26, 2016

• Budget 2016,
• research,
• science funding

The Government claims it will put around $100 million extra into science and innovation each year for the next four years in a series of funding top-ups revealed in today’s Budget. It is always hard to tell for sure this early in the piece whether some of that is money reallocated. But the big ticket items certainly do appear … Read More

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Pre-Budget announcements reveal science funding boost

Peter Griffin • May 18, 2016

• Budget 2016,
• research,
• Science,
• science funding

There had been rumours of a significant science-related Budget announcement and yesterday we discovered what it was – a $97 million funding boost over four years for the Health Research Council.  Following some of the awkward self reflection that went on around the science system last week as Shaun Hendy’s book Silencing Science appeared, the unexpected funding news has allowed … Read More

Silencing Science: in the long run, openness is the better strategy

Peter Griffin • May 10, 2016

• risk communication,
• science communication,
• Science in Society,
• silencing science

The new book Silencing Science, by University of Auckland physicist Professor Shaun Hendy highlights some recent examples of where scientists have been missing in action when the public needed their knowledge and insights the most. I can personally relate to this. During the Fonterra botulism scare, the 2014 Yersinia outbreak and for periods in the wake of … Read More

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Sciblogs – seven years in, we have a comments policy!

Peter Griffin • May 06, 2016

• blogging,
• comments,
• policy

Sciblogs was born in 2009, a time that could now be considered to have been the tail end of the golden age of blogging in general. Back then, commenting on blog posts was a relatively popular thing, lots of people did it. Then Facebook, Twitter and Reddit came along and much of the commentary shifted to those platforms. All the while, Sciblogs never had … Read More

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Amid media uncertainty, some great science-related stories emerge

Peter Griffin • May 04, 2016

• Science journalism,
• science media

I’m asked to give a lot of presentations to groups in the science sector about what is going on with the media. These days, that involves changing my presentation on a weekly basis. Last week’s update accounted for the review of feature programmes at RNZ, including the long-running Our Changing World science show, the launch of Herald Focus – the … Read More

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What are they doing with that big balloon anyway?

Peter Griffin • Apr 19, 2016

• balloon,
• COSI,
• NASA,
• Wanaka

The NASA scientists gathered in Wanaka had to abandon their effort to launch a hot air balloon this morning, the latest of many attempts thwarted by the weather. The media let out another exasperated sigh: So what is this balloon for, exactly? As NASA explains here: Some science is best done or can only be done at … Read More

Online privacy – companies not government the biggest concern

Peter Griffin • Apr 14, 2016

• internet,
• online,
• privacy

Despite the Edward Snowden revelations of mass online collection of meta data and some high profile data breaches at our own government departments, what Kiwis most fear is not snooping spies, but companies harvesting our Facebook likes and internet searches. The latest World Internet Project survey of nearly 1400 Kiwis included for the first time a set of questions about online privacy … Read More

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Five years on – scientists reflect on the Christchurch quake

Peter Griffin • Feb 22, 2016

• Christchurch,
• earthquakes,
• Natural hazards

Five years after the biggest disaster in modern New Zealand, experts who were involved in communicating the science of the quakes share their experiences and thoughts. At 12:51pm on the 22nd of February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city of Christchurch. The disaster killed 185 people and caused billions of dollars of damage. Read More

The temples of Buddhist Thailand

Peter Griffin • Jan 20, 2016

• Buddhism,
• cycling,
• History,
• religion,
• Society,
• Thailand

This is the first of a series of posts looking at Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, which I visited on a Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City cycle trip in September 2015. “Sabai, sabai,” said my Thai cycling guide on more occasions than I could count, as he accompanied me and a dozen other bikers on our way through Thailand, Cambodia … Read More