Nano Girl

Are you statistically less likely to die than Justin Bieber

Michelle Dickinson • May 29, 2014

Stardom seems to be a really risky business according to the BMJ open journal research paper “Dying to be famous: retrospective cohort study of rock and pop star mortality and its association with adverse childhood experiences“. In my KiwiFM science chat this week I looked at the statistics behind celebrity deaths and the strong conclusion… … Read More

Can howling like a wolf make you feel happier?

Michelle Dickinson • May 13, 2014

As a scientist I often come across journal papers that show weird and wonderful science I wish I had been involved in, either because they are totally bizarre or they are super cool. Realising that many of these articles sit in the cobweb filled archives of an online library somewhere, dreaming of seeing the light of day again, I’ve decided … Read More

Science News Roundup 7th May 2014

Michelle Dickinson • May 06, 2014

In this mornings science roundup on TV3’s Breakfast Firstline show I covered three different topics that had caught my eye over the past 7 days. The first was about how new research gives further insight into how fibre not only affects bacteria in the gut but also neurons in the hypothalamous to reduce our apetite,… … Read More

TV Science Roundup For 8th April 2014

Michelle Dickinson • Apr 08, 2014

In this weeks science roundup I decided on three very different stories from research which had been published this week including potential cures for paralysis, self destructing electronic and the science of zebra stripes. Click on the image to watch the video POSSIBLE CURES FOR PARALYSIS There were two different stories on helping to cure muscle paralysis … Read More

TV science roundup for April 2nd 2014

Michelle Dickinson • Apr 02, 2014

On TV3’s Firstline Breakfast news show this morning I chatted about this weeks new science news based on stories that had caught my eye over the last seven days. Click on the picture to watch the video The first story was based on the research paper in PNAS entitled “Compound facial expressions of emotion“ … Read More

TV science news roundup for March 26th 2014

Michelle Dickinson • Mar 25, 2014

In my science news roundup for breakfast news show Firstline this morning, I decided to summarise three very different stories which you can view by clicking on the video link below: The first involved a PNAS paper published on March 24th 2014 entitled “Extended lifespan and reduced adiposity in mice lacking … Read More

Taking on Rhys Darby and Nanotech

Michelle Dickinson • Mar 25, 2014

I’m going to start with saying that I love Rhys Darby, the man who brought life to Flight of the Conchords, Yes Man and a certain mobile phone company.  However, when I tuned into the Nerdist channel on youtube and watched the video ‘NANOTECH – Rhys Darby’s Reasons to be Scared of the Future‘ I felt … Read More

3D Printing New Parts For Your Skull

Michelle Dickinson • Mar 14, 2014

3D printing has had a lot of bad press recently with discussions about whether or not the recently house-passed bill extending the undetectable firearms act of 1988 should have included more legislation about 3D printed guns.  Although I think that we always need to be careful about the harm that new technologies can cause, its… … Read More