Have you seen that show on National Geographic channel? The one where people devote vast amounts of time, energy and money to preparing for the end of the world? Some of them build bunkers to hide out in when peak oil causes massive social unrest around the world. Others are preparing for the aftermath of […]
MoreRight 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. […]
MoreOver the weekend I paid 99 cents for a quality piece of long form science journalism that I downloaded and read on my iPad. Who published it? The New Yorker? Atlantic Monthly? National Geographic? No, the article is the first of what will hopefully be a long series published online by Matter, which bills itself […]
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 […]
MoreScientists around the world have reacted with dismay to conviction of six italian scientists and a former government official on manslaughter charges. The seven were convicted after prosecutors successfully argued that public statements they had contributed to a false sense of security in the Italian city of L’Aquila ahead of the 2009 earthquake that killed […]
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 […]
MoreOf all the press releases that flow into my inbox, some of the quirkiest are from Waikato Hospital. Take today’s tale (I’m publishing the release in full below as it relates the story well). What struck me in particular with the case of this unfortunate meat packer, is that Tamati would even consider losing the […]
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 […]
MoreEpisode 40 sees us revisiting volcanology and some fun with explosives as a New York professor uses explosives to recreate the eruptive effect of maars – low profile volcanoes, the remnants of which can be seen across Auckland’s volcanic field. We check in with Vicki Hyde, the founder and stalwart of the NZ Skeptics Society […]
MoreThe blueprints for Christchurch are out and by and large, they represent an ambitious and progressive vision for the future of our second biggest city. Interestingly, they also account for innovation and health precincts that could make Christchurch, already a major centre of excellence for electronics and high value manufacturing and with significant medical research […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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