Tagged: Nature

Recreation Transition: low-carbon recreation in the mountains - Planetary Ecology

Guest Author • Apr 07, 2021 •

• backcountry,
• Environment,
• Nature,
• New Zealand stories,
• tramping

By Jamie Stewart, Federated Mountain Clubs Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC), founded in 1931, represents 96 clubs, 22,000 members and 300,000 people that regularly recreate in the New Zealand backcountry. This article first appeared in the June 2020 issue of Backcountry magazine and is reproduced with permission. (Read the original article). See also “EVs for mountain recreation” ( … Read More

The secret life of puddles: their value to nature is subtle, but hugely important - The Changing Climate

Guest Author • Mar 30, 2021 •

• Biodiversity,
• Climate,
• development,
• Nature

Gregory Moore, The University of Melbourne It’s official: Australians endured the coldest, wettest summer in at least five years thanks to La Niña, a climate phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean. Before we knew it, autumn rolled in bringing more rain. Tragically, it led to widespread flooding across New South Wales, but elsewhere it helped to create more puddles. Read More

Time to make nature studies a compulsory school subject – before it’s too late - The Changing Climate

Guest Author • Mar 22, 2021 •

• Biodiversity,
• children,
• education,
• Environment,
• Nature

Matthew Adams, University of Brighton The UK government is reported to be seriously considering making “nature studies” a compulsory subject for all pupils. It’s a move that was recommended in the recent government-commissioned Dasgupta review, a detailed analysis of the “economics of biodiversity”. The review is long and technical, but in among the tables and statistics, there are … Read More

Spending time in nature has always been important, but now it’s an essential part of coping with the pandemic - Scibooks

Guest Author • Mar 16, 2021 •

• green space,
• Nature,
• Psychology

Catherine Knight, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Even a short walk, an ocean view or a picnic by a river can leave us feeling invigorated and restored. There is now a growing body of evidence establishing the link between such nature encounters and our mental and physical well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance … Read More

Bursting the Conservation Bubble with Birds - Up and Atom

Kimberley Collins • Oct 16, 2018 •

• Biodiversity,
• bird of the year,
• birds,
• conservation,
• native wildlife,
• Nature,
• science communication

As another Bird of the Year draws to a close, Kimberley Collins reflects on why this kind of fun and uplifting advocacy is an important way to get New Zealanders to take an interest in conservation. Every year, thousands of New Zealanders flock to the polls to vote for their favourite bird. Well-known and enthusiastic “campaign managers” hit the streets (and … Read More

Cool! Antarctic krill can turn microplastics into nanoplastics - News

Jean Balchin • Mar 09, 2018 •

• Antarctica,
• conservation,
• digestion,
• Krill,
• marine life,
• microplastics,
• nanoplastics,
• Nature,
• ocean,
• pollutants,
• Pollution

A groundbreaking Griffith University study has found Antarctic krill which ingest microplastics are able to turn them into nanoplastics through digestion. What are Krill? Krill is a general term used to refer to around 85 species of free-swimming crustaceans called euphausiids, of which Antarctic krill is one species. Antarctic krill are one of the most abundant and successful animal species on … Read More

Why telling people they could get sick in the future won’t persuade them to be healthy now - Guest Work

Guest Author • Feb 22, 2018 •

• calories,
• Diet,
• food,
• future,
• gratification,
• Health,
• Nature,
• old age,
• sugar,
• tax,
• unwell

Adam Bulley, The University of Queensland and Thomas Suddendorf, The University of Queensland This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Everyone knows smoking, consuming too much sugar and drinking too much alcohol will harm our long-term health – but many of us do these things anyway. Why? Of course, … Read More

Proving HPV vaccines really prevent cancer - Diplomatic Immunity

Helen Petousis Harris • Feb 19, 2018 •

• cancer,
• cervical cancer,
• CIN2,
• effectiveness,
• gardasil,
• HPV,
• Nature,
• nz,
• pre-cancer,
• Sweden,
• USA,
• Vaccine

In the clinical trials for HPV vaccines cervical cancer was not a primary endpoint. An endpoint in a clinical trial is a disease or a symptom of interest. I want to explain why cancer was not an endpoint these efficacy studies. Instead surrogate endpoints were used. Why not, given that is what the investigators wanted to prevent? Because you can’t … Read More

Does science blogging still matter? Yes. Yes, it does. - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Feb 07, 2018 •

• blogging,
• dynamic ecology,
• Facebook,
• health professionals,
• Nature,
• respectful insolence,
• Science and Society,
• Science journalism,
• Social media,
• Twitter

That’s the premise of an article in Nature (Brown & Woolston, 2018), which I discovered via the excellent Debunking Denialism on Facebook (and if that’s not a good example of how various social media are interlinked, I don’t know what is). Since mine is a science blog, obviously I was interested in the Nature narrative. Brown & Woolston believe … Read More

Revenge – sweet from the age of six - News

Jean Balchin • Dec 20, 2017 •

• antisocial,
• apes,
• children,
• chimpanzees,
• empathy,
• human behaviour,
• Nature,
• prosocial,
• punishment,
• revenge

Both chimpanzees and  six-year-old children love seeing punishment doled out, even if it costs them, according to a paper published online this week in Nature Human Behaviour. These findings reveal new insights about the evolution of peer-punishment as a means to enforce social norms and ensure cooperation. We know from previous research that humans and some animal species experience … Read More