Marcus Wilson • Nov 15, 2018 •
It’s been a couple of weeks since the NIH studies on mice, rats and cellphones hit the headlines. The studies were released with perfect timing to be used in our Science Communication paper – a third-year level paper for science undergraduates on communicating science ideas well. In short, we had half the class look at what mainstream media said about … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 18, 2017 •
For the last 500 million years, the micro-animal Hypsibius dujardini, otherwise known as tardigrades, have ruled our planet. If you’ve never even heard of these bad boys, then boy howdy it’s time to learn you. Measuring up to a whopping 1mm in length, their curious little three pronged hands look like miniature garden cultivators, whilst their bodies resemble little … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 27, 2016 •
By Ausrele Kesminiene, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) The world has never seen a nuclear accident as severe as the one that unfolded when a reactor exploded in Chernobyl on April 26 1986, sending vast amounts of radiation into the skies around Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The planet had experienced massive releases like this before, in … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 17, 2016 •
Claire Corkhill, University of Sheffield Five years after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and 30 years after the Chernobyl accident, scientists are still disagreeing about the impact on human health – such as how many people have got cancer as a result and how dangerous the exclusion zones currently are. In Fukushima, residents are forbidden to permanently … Read More
Peter Griffin • Apr 11, 2014 •
Sciblogs readers may remember the kerfuffle in December when Otaki’s Damon Wyman led a campaign to have Wifi hotspots removed from classes at Te Horo School. Damon Wyman I wrote about it at the time here on Sciblogs, taking issue with Wyman’s misguided campaign, which was ultimately successful when the Te Horo Board of Trustees surveyed parents and … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Dec 12, 2012 •
(Still trying to complete the Christmas shopping list? I’m going to bring to you a couple of book reviews for readers who like more than the latest ‘trashy’ thriller.) New Zealand wasn’t always anti-nuclear. In fact, as New Zealand writer Rebecca Priestley shows us, it was distinctly pro-nuclear. Mad on Radium explores … Read More
Peter Dearden • Sep 13, 2012 •
by SM Morgan The Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami in March of 2011 caused an unfortunate side effect when it wasted the crap out of a couple nuclear power plants. The nuclear material released into the surrounding environment from the Fukushima Daiichi failures caused a fair bit of panic and we are still only now working out how much of an … Read More
Motoko Kakubayashi • Apr 27, 2012 •
Piles of debris I saw during a trip up north in Miyagi prefecture in March 2012 Tidy piles of rubbish line the north-eastern Japan coastline where there used to be towns. The question is, what can you do with so much stuff? The tsunami which hit Japan’s coast on March 11 last year destroyed houses, shops and … Read More
Aimee Whitcroft • Nov 07, 2011 •
Greetings, dear listeners! This week, aimee was joined once again by Chelfyn Baxter, co-host of the g33k show, to talk through some of the science stories of the last week. They included using lasers to rip the universe a new one, Boeing building spacecraft, the weight of the internet, alternate living, radiation-cleaning Aussie nanofibres, asteroids, and some very … Read More
Peter Griffin • Mar 18, 2011 •
A graphic from Melbourne’s The Age newspaper that does a good job of explaining the effects of various doses of ionizing radiation on the body. Source: The Age … Read More