I’ve recently been re-reading The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters, the book by former Times science editor Mark Henderson, which examines the often flagrant disregard for scientific evidence shown by politicians around the world. New Zealand politicians of all persuasions are as guilty of evidence abuse as their overseas counterparts. Examples of this abound, most famously, […]
MoreCredit to the Taranaki Daily News for running a completely new editorial in today’s paper that corrects the woeful mistake it made yesterday. Check out the column below (click to enlarge), which incidentally, ran above a column by Gwynne Dyer that looks at some of the dire predictions for global food production as climate change […]
MoreI couldn’t believe it when I heard the news. Surely its a belated April Fool’s joke, I thought? How could a respectable newspaper like the Taranaki Daily News really publish an editorial leader passing off pseudoscientific climate sceptic spin as the official view of the International Panel on Climate Change? I still don’t know the […]
MoreThere hasn’t been a decent anthrax scare in a while, but security and intelligence agencies remain primed to respond to a biological attack that could wreak havoc mechanism and scale of delivery of the agent. This infographic looks at some of the potential threats and impacts of biological attacks.
MoreAfter years of vitriolic and dangerous clashes in Antarctic waters between Japanese whaling vessels and the Sea Shepherd fleet, the news came in decidedly dry legalese. Remedies: Measures going beyond declaratory relief warranted. Japan required to revoke any extant authorization, permit or licence to kill, take or treat whales in relation to JARPA II and refrain from […]
MoreThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II report is out and paints a stark picture for agricultural productivity in a warming world. Over at the Science Media Centre, we gathered reaction from climate scientists here and in Australia and the UK. Much of the commentary focuses on things like climbing emissions, sea level […]
MoreThe fifth in a summer series created by NIWA Next time you head down to the beach for a swim scientist Els Maas would be delighted if you spare a thought for the invisible workhorses of the ocean. The NIWA microbiologist is the only person in New Zealand studying the processes of billions and billions […]
MoreKen Ring has discovered Twitter – and yet another channel to embarrass himself with his pseudoscientific theories. This time, Ring is linking recent whale strandings at Farewell Spit with the seismic activity that had my fellow movie-goers scurrying out of a showing of The Book Thief at 3.52pm on Monday afternoon in Wellington. It’s an […]
MoreI went for a walk around central Wellington last night, something I often do to make my Fitbit pedometer register the 10,000 steps it recommends I take every day. The rain had stopped, but it was windy. As I walked down Willeston St. scraps of trash were blowing about. I passed a collection of plastic […]
MoreAs political apathy and inaction on climate change dims hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are increasing exploring plan B – engineering the climate to avoid the worst of what is predicted to come if emissions can’t be curtailed. A Royal Society of London paper put the issue squarely in the spotlight in 2009 […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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