It barely attracted any coverage when it was released following the Prime Minister’s post cabinet press conference last night, but Sir Peter Gluckman’s discussion paper on evidence-based policy is possibly one of the most important he has released thus far. The Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister has made a call for government departments […]
MoreIt had become apparent to journalists some time ago that things were starting to look shaky for the country’s news wire service NZPA, with its major backer Fairfax itching to go it alone, generate its own content and save some money in the process. But last night’s news that Fairfax’s move to pull the plug […]
MoreThere’s a new player in science communication that has emerged across the Tasman, in the form of The Conversation, a website backed by numerous Australian universities and overseen by a highly experienced team of journalists and scientists. I’ve known The Conversation was coming for some time – our colleagues at the Australian Science Media Centre […]
MoreThe furore over John Campbell’s interview with earthquake predictor Ken Ring this week really exposed a strong anti-science vein running through New Zealand that even we here at Sciblogs, seasoned from hand to hand combat with the anti-vax lobby, homeopaths and evolution deniers were surprised at. As one commenter on Sciblogs put it, Ken Ring’s […]
MoreJohn Campbell’s interview last night with “Moon Man” and self-proclaimed earthquake predictor Ken Ring was, according to the unprecedented stream of Twitter messages following it, a “train wreck”, “harsh”, “disappointing” and “poor journalism”. Media veteran Dr Brian Edwards weighed in (site loading slowly today) soon after the appearance to condemn Campbell’s effort: John, your mindless, […]
MoreListen to past and present world leaders like Barack Obama, Tony Blair and even George W. Bush and you’ll hear a particular speech-making tool in action – chunking. I was introduced to chunking today at a presentation at the Foo Camp “unconference” held at Mahurangi College just out of Warkworth by Olivia Mitchell, a speech […]
MoreFor the second year running, Radio New Zealand’s Summer Noelle programme hosted by Noelle McCarthy has featured interviews with Sciblogs contributors in its Science Spot series. Here are the interviews so far… (links to mp3 recordings for playback) Stick blogger Peter Kerr talks innovation Infectious Thoughts blogger Siouxsie Wiles on viruses and infectious diseases Shaken […]
MoreRight now political journalists in Wellington are leafing through documents released by Archives New Zealand and the Defence Force which detail witness accounts of unidentified flying object sightings around New Zealand back to the 1950s. I’ve spoken to a number of journalists today who sheepishly revealed they’d been roped into the effort to cover the […]
MoreUNESCO has just produced its report on science for 2010 and a brief chapter details the recent shake-up of the New Zealand science system with a number of graphs benchmarking us against our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region. The report’s overwhelming theme is of an increased focus on science among emerging countries that is […]
MoreUPDATED: The Running Hot conference for emerging researchers is underway in Wellington – follow updates via Twitter @smcnz. Last night kicked off with an interesting panel discussion moderated by Radio New Zealand’s science-friendly Nights host, Bryan Crump. Crump quizzed three scientists on their areas of research, with included climate change, neuroscience and epigenetics. Before that, […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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