Guest Work

"Crazy Chemist" fiasco

Guest Author • Sep 20, 2010

• chemistry,
• crazy chemist,
• Drugs,
• legal high,
• Royal Society of Chemists,
• RSC

By Michael Edmonds Over the past decade more and more scientists have realised the importance of getting out of the lab, explaining science to the public and presenting the very human face of science. Now, in a single move, the British Home Office has potentially undone some of this good work. In a revamp … Read More

Vitamin C on TV

Guest Author • Sep 16, 2010

• CAM,
• intravenous vitamin c,
• Vitamin C

By Michael Edmonds Last night 60 Minutes ran another piece on intravenous vitamin C, presenting several cases where high dosage intravenous vitamin C appears to have had phenomenal effects in treating severe illness. Now we all know that correlation is not causation and science isn’t based on anecdotes, but I suspect that many New Zealanders will soon be … Read More

Thanks, Kermit: Frogs inspire new antibiotics

Guest Author • Sep 15, 2010

• antibiotic,
• frog,
• J. Michael Conlon

By Michael Edmonds After a series of powerful broad spectrum antibiotics were developed in the 1980s many drug companies chose to cut back on antimicrobial research, assuming there would be no need for additional antibiotics. The rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria has demonstrated the folly of this decision, and companies are now scrambling … Read More

Exploring the Exposome

Guest Author • Aug 23, 2010

• disease,
• Environment,
• exposome,
• genetics,
• Health

By Dr Michael Edmonds The sequencing of the human genome has provided scientists with a great deal of information  about the 20,000 to 25,000 genes coded by our DNA and is leading to a better understanding of hereditary based diseases. However, a complementary concept, the exposome, has been proposed to bring a greater understanding of the … Read More

Goldbach's Conjecture Scatter Plot Deciphered

Guest Author • Aug 02, 2010

• Goldbach's Conjecture,
• mathematics,
• Phil Jackson,
• prime numbers

By Phil Jackson When something appears to be quite complex, it can be quite exhilarating to find that there is a very simple basis for that complexity. Although this conjecture may never be solved, never-the-less it has secrets that can be uncovered. The following graph represents the positive integers from 2 to 1,000,000 on … Read More

Biodiversity Matters

Guest Author • Jul 22, 2010

• Biodiversity

By Professor David Penman Climate change and the relative lack of agreement from the Copenhagen meeting dominated the environmental, economic and political agenda through 2009 and into 2010. While the outcomes will have significant impacts, positive and negative, on our future climate change is only one part of wider drivers of global change and we need … Read More

Interview with the Science Communicator

Guest Author • Jul 21, 2010

• NZ International Science Festival,
• science communication,
• Tom McFadden

By Sarah Morgan For the first two weeks in July Tom McFadden was in town to take part in the NZ International Science Festival, care of the Otago Institute and Genetics Otago. You may or may not recognise the name — but Tom is the man behind the glasses … Read More

Unexpected Prime Number Breakthrough

Guest Author • Jul 19, 2010

• mathematics,
• prime numbers,
• Riemann's hypothesis

By Phil Jackson Mathematicians had all but given up hope of ever understanding prime numbers. The last time there was a brief flurry of excitement was when it was discovered that the periodicity of zeros from the Riemann-Zeta function closely matched the spacing of energy levels in high-Z nuclei [1]. Prior to that, Gauss and others … Read More

How Much Science Communication Is Enough?

Guest Author • Jun 30, 2010

• Michael Edmonds,
• science communication

By Dr Michael Edmonds Over the past couple of years I have spent time participating in, and thinking about science communication. I have observed an ongoing call for more scientists to engage with the public and to communicate science with greater clarity, and I have seen scientists around the world rise to this challenge. Read More

Taking the Hot Air out of the Climate Change Debate

Guest Author • Jun 22, 2010

• AGW,
• Carbon dioxide,
• climate change,
• co2,
• denialism,
• global warming,
• IPCC,
• weather

By Dr Michael Edmonds Climate change is an issue which needs to be debated scientifically, through careful and rational analysis of the facts. However, as the climate change debate intensifies a disturbing trend is emerging — more and more of the debate involves arguments reminiscent of a ’down and dirty’ political debate. Personal attacks, misrepresentation or … Read More