Right now, hundreds of diplomats and trade experts from around the Asia Pacific region are ensconced at Sky City convention centre in Auckland for top-secret negotations as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The level of secrecy alone is of great concern and to some, anti-democratic, let alone what is actually being concocted in the latest draft agreement. […]
MoreOf all the questions raised by the controversy surrounding scientist Mike Joy’s quotes in the New York Times – and the heated response to them, this is the most important: can Dr Joy back up with evidence his claims about the parlous state of New Zealand’s environment? He can and he has. From the peer-reviewed […]
MoreThis is the second in a series of posts on my recent visit to South Africa and Swaziland. Part 1 is about South Africa’s fracking dilemma. The border town of Matsamo is anything but inviting as you wait in the immigration queue on your way into the mountain kingdom of Swaziland. The day we arrive […]
MoreSir Richard Friend, the Cambridge University physics professor who has just completed a lecture tour of New Zealand, recently stacked all 78 volumes of the 2005 editions of Physical Review on the floor of his office. “I probably broke all sorts of OSH rules,” says Sir Richard, whose towering wall of paper comprised 80,000 pages of […]
MoreThis is the first in a series of science-related posts based on my recent trip through parts of South Africa and Swaziland. Follow up posts will look at rhino poaching, Swaziland’s AIDS crisis, the sustainability of game parks, the geology of the Drakensbergs and South Africa’s Square Kilometer Array project. Check out my photos from […]
MoreThe Government has released Building Innovation, the second progress report of six in its Business Growth Agenda. The document gives a pretty good overview of what the Government has done and intends to do in its efforts to boost innovation in the economy. It also shows our major weaknesses when it comes to the R&D […]
MoreThe United States is experiencing its worst drought since 1988, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture having declared area covering one third of US counties a federal disaster area What’s the impact of all of this – on agricultural production, on prices for food commodities? The Daily Observer, a paper from Ottawa, Canada, published the […]
MoreOn the Sciblogs podcast this week we look at the progress made on Digital Earth initiatives like Google Earth – what’s in store for the next generation of Earth visualisation and simulation platforms? We talk to Sciblogger Ken Perrott about new data from the 2011 Australian census that shows more Aussies are ditching religion and […]
MoreA bumper edition this week of the Sciblogs podcast owing to the huge amount of interesting science news around the traps. I kick off with my Science Media Centre colleagues John Kerr and Dacia Herbulock analysing what’s come out of the Rio20+ summit in Brazil – what have the world’s nation’s agreed on and is […]
MoreThe latest episode of the Sciblogs Podcast is out now, presented by Peter Griffin and produced by John Kerr. On the Sciblogs Podcast this week we hear from Professor Chris Battershill on the environmental impact of the Rena oil spill, we check out an award winning documentary on Ecuador’s proposal to save its pristine rainforest […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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