Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, made a reasonable impact with his lecture on climate change delivered at Victoria University last week. A few media outlets covered the event running an NZPA article and climate skeptics were furious, urging Prime Minister John Key to “rein in” his science advisor or sack him. […]
MoreThere were not too many scientists named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. It would always have been hard to top last year, when two of our top scientists, Professor Peter Gluckman and Professor Paul Callaghan were knighted following the reintroduction of knighthoods and dameships. Here are the scientists and medical researchers I identified on […]
MoreDid scientists with links to “big pharma” fuel fear about pandemics at the World Health Organisation resulting in a massive spend-up on antiviral drugs? UPDATE: BMJ coverage now online here. It sounds like a conspiracy theory the anti-vax movement would dream up, but according to a joint investigation between the British Medical Journal and The […]
MoreI’ve been scanning newspapers to see how the Science paper by Venter et al. was covered around the world. It isn’t surprising that many newspapers turned to infographics, with varying degrees of success, to try and explain what Venter’s team achieved. Here’s one of the better ones I saw, which British paper The Independent ran…
MoreWhenever geneticist Dr Craig Venter outlines new research he is involved in the whole world listens. That’s because Venter was involved in one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the last 20 years – the sequencing of the human genome. The implications of that advance for the field of genetics has been huge and helped […]
MoreScientists at the Crown Research Institute GNS Science are this morning showing media through its Lower Hutt Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory where a new accelerator mass spectrometer has been installed. What will this expensive gadget, which represents the largest single investment in equipment since GNS became a CRI in 1992, actually do? Well, GNS is the […]
MoreThe international news media has been abuzz the last couple of days with results of a 10 year study into mobile phone use and the possible link to brain cancer. There have been lots of facts and figures thrown about and the subject really needed a good infographic to illustrate the most important thing – […]
MoreThe 10 year long, 20 million euro Interphone study into brain cancer and mobile phone use has finally been published, but the way its launch was handled led to contradictory headlines and confusion among journalists trying to communicate its important findings. For the record, Interphone which is the responsibility of the World Health Organisation, and […]
MoreThis one contains so many inaccuracies, exaggerations and irrational thoughts its clear someone isn’t thinking straight in the deep south… From The Press, May 11th
MoreAs has been widely reported over the last couple of days, the Government’s Budget for 2010 – 11 will include $321 million in new funding science and R&D initiatives over the next four years, with $96 million consisting of re-prioritised funding. This was pre-announced yesterday and made this year’s budget particularly more sciency than most […]
More
PETER GRIFFIN 
You must be logged in to post a comment.