Honest Universe

Pluto and Charon Up Close

Mark Hanna • Jul 16, 2015

• Astronomy,
• Charon,
• NASA,
• New Horizons,
• Pluto

I was born in June 1989. Just 2 months after that, the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Neptune on its way out of our solar system and for the first time ever we saw real close up pictures of the solar system’s outermost giant planet. Of course, I was too young to remember this, but […] … Read More

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Ethical Pharmacy Practice 4: Paving the Way

Mark Hanna • Jun 19, 2015

• Alternative Medicine,
• Australia,
• Grant McGill,
• Green Cross Health,
• Homeopathy,
• Kingsley Village Pharmacy,
• Lincoln Mall Pharmacy,
• Medicine,
• New Zealand,
• NHMRC,
• NO-JET-LAG,
• NZMA,
• Pharmacy Council,
• Pharmacy Today,
• RACGP,
• Radio NZ,
• Regulation,
• Scepticism,
• Simillimum Homeopathic Pharmacy,
• Society for Science Based Healthcare,
• Stephen Child

This year has not been a good year for homeopathy. There have been many blows to the industry in the form of more research finding it ineffective, position statements from organisations of health practitioners discouraging its use, and successful complaints to regulatory authorities. And this trend shows no signs of abating. In March, the Australian […] … Read More

Natural Curiosity: Stretching Reflections 2

Mark Hanna • Jun 15, 2015

• Ian Griffin,
• Light,
• Natural Curiosity,
• Reflection,
• Simulation

After my earlier post on this topic, I talked to a few people about why they thought these stretching reflections happened. There were a few different ideas, and when I talked to my brother about it he pointed out something in one of the images on my last post that was inconsistent with my explanation. […] … Read More

Natural Curiosity: Stretching Reflections

Mark Hanna • Jun 09, 2015

• Light,
• Natural Curiosity,
• Reflection

On a rough reflective surface like the ocean or a dark wet road, reflections from bright lights like city lights, car brake lights, or the Moon appear stretched vertically. Why is this? When a surface is perfectly flat, like a regular mirror, the image we see in the reflection isn’t distorted at all. Even if […] … Read More

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Natural Curiosity

Mark Hanna • Jun 09, 2015

• #SciCommNZ,
• Natural Curiosity,
• Science Communication

On the second Wednesday of every month, there’s a great Twitter chat on science communication in New Zealand: #SciCommNZ Unfortunately I’m always busy on Wednesday evenings while this is going on, but I’ve tried to participate as much as I can by joining in late and reading through each discussion. The questions that have been […] … Read More

Then and Now: The New Zealand Complementary Medicines Industry

Mark Hanna • May 31, 2015

• Alternative Medicine,
• Donna Chisholm,
• Medsafe,
• Ministry of Health,
• Natural Health and Supplementary Products Bill,
• New Zealand,
• North & South,
• Regulation

In 2007, the Ministry of Health undertook a review of the “complementary medicines industry” in New Zealand, and found that a significant majority of companies weren’t complying with consumer protection legislation. The review was never made public, but when I saw it mentioned in a recent article in North & South magazine I asked the […] … Read More

Press Council Complaint: Homeopathy in the Wairarapa Times-Age

Mark Hanna • Apr 14, 2015

• Alternative Medicine,
• Bad Journalism,
• Complaints,
• Homeopathy,
• Medicine,
• New Zealand,
• Peter Griffin,
• Press Council,
• Scepticism,
• Science Media Centre,
• Society for Science Based Healthcare,
• Wairarapa Times-Age

In February this year, an article was published in the Wairarapa Times-Age (both in print and online) headlined Use of natural remedies is on the rise. The article discussed some specific cases of so-called “natural remedies” being used to treat serious diseases, such as intravenous vitamin C for leukaemia and homeopathy to treat various forms […] … Read More

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Finding Power and Balance: Proving and Disproving Claims

Mark Hanna • Apr 09, 2015

• Applied kinesiology,
• Blind testing,
• Chiropractic,
• New Zealand Association of Science Educators,
• New Zealand Science Teacher,
• Power Balance,
• Scepticism

I’m very happy to have had an article published on the website of the New Zealand Science Teacher, the official publication of the New Zealand Association of Science Educators. My article is about applied kinesiology, I’ve embedded the introduction below and you can read the whole thing on the NZST website: Finding Power and balance: […] … Read More

100% Natural and Chemical Free

Mark Hanna • Mar 13, 2015

• ASA,
• Bad Science,
• Chemophobia,
• Claire Suen,
• Complaints,
• Naturalistic fallacy,
• New Zealand,
• NZ Herald,
• Regulation,
• Scepticism,
• Wendyl Nissen

This afternoon, the Advertising Standards Authority released their decision to uphold an interesting complaint regarding advertisements for a couple of cleaning products on a website. Here is the ASA’s description of how the products were described on the website: The Wendyl’s website (http://wendyls.co.nz/) for “100% natural cleaning and beauty products” advertised their products as having […] … Read More

Ethical Pharmacy Practice 3: Running Out of Excuses

Mark Hanna • Mar 12, 2015

• Alternative Medicine,
• ASA,
• Australia,
• Homeopathy,
• Medicine,
• Miers Laboratories,
• New Zealand,
• NHMRC,
• NO-JET-LAG,
• Pharmacy Council,
• Regulation,
• Scepticism,
• Society for Science Based Healthcare

Ethical pharmacy practice is something I have written about before. If you’ve read those posts, please bear with me as I cover some familiar background. In New Zealand, we are lucky enough to have an industry code of ethics for pharmacists, published by the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand, which holds pharmacists to high ethical […] … Read More

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