Science related stories and commentary
The devastation following the 8.9M earthquake in Japan and, closer to home, last month’s lethal quake in Christchurch has many asking what science is actually doing to find a way of forewarning of major earthquakes. Given the loss of life in high magnitude earthquakes and the resulting tsunamis, it is indeed something that ought to […]
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, […]
MoreIt was only a couple of months ago, one sunny morning that I visited science reporter Paul Gorman and tech editor Will Harvie at The Press in Christchurch. The beautiful old building housing the newspaper was devastated in Tuesday’s earthquake and at least one of the newspaper’s staff was killed when the roof crashed down […]
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 […]
MoreThe Egyptians and other ancient civilisations used to bury their royalty in tombs encased deep within pyramids. It is sort of appropriate then that the modern ode to the Egyptian pyramids – the impressively triangular Luxor casino and hotel in Las Vegas has at its centre a room full of preserved dead people. I had […]
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 […]
MoreThis year at the Science Media Centre we’ve gotten really interested in visualisation of science data and began dabbling in these sorts of infographics which we create for the media at large to use. But the ultimate extension of this type of thing is full-on web-based interactive data visualisations that let you cut the data […]
MoreAs my fellow Sciblogger Brendan Moyle has already posted about, most news websites are carrying the horrifying news that 23 seals have been found by DOC works clubbed to death on the Kaikoura Coast. Now, as you may know, seals are protected by law in New Zealand – it is illegal to hunt, harm or […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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