Science related stories and commentary
Maybe it was Sunday reporter Simon Mercep’s seven years working for Fair Go that gave him the knack for sussing out claims that sound too good to be true. His story last night on cancer sufferers who are receiving large intravenous doses of vitamin C as part of their cancer treatment was the most balanced, […]
MoreAfter a fair bit of wind last night, there’s an eerie calm in Wellington as we brace for a storm that has variously been described as “gigantic”, “the biggest storm on the planet” and “Australia-sized”. I’m not holding out much hope for my 5km fun run in Petone on Sunday. And for a country with […]
MoreThe Canterbury earthquake has shaken out a fair bit of pseudoscience along with the shattered Christchurch masonry. First there was the Council of Homeopaths attempting to flog their shonky products to quake victims promising to help them “return to a more normal mental, emotional and physical state”. Then there was the Christchurch mum who believes […]
MoreDebate in scientific, political and business circles has raged for years over whether Bisphenol-A, a chemical used to line everything from drink bottles to tins of fruit can have harmful health effects on children and adults. UPDATE: Audio of Professor Gordon Robertson’s presentation on the science of food packaging hazards available here. With countries around […]
MoreIt is great news that Peter Beck and the team at Rocket Lab have scored a grant (amount undisclosed) from the US Office of Naval Research to “study new rocket propulsion methods and fuels”. But did the Herald on Sunday really have to go to the trouble of creating the infographic below to illustrate that, […]
MoreOne of the interesting aspects of the earthquake’s impact on Christchurch has been the phenomenon of liquefaction, where soil and sand is compacted and water is forced to the surface. There have been many reports of sand volcanoes, water fountains and severe cracking of the ground – all the result of soil liquefaction. ECAN has […]
MoreScientists from GNS Science and the University of Canterbury have been busy in the wake of Saturday morning’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Canterbury attempting to learn more about the quake and what caused it. Credit has to go to GNS Science’s John Ristau, Canterbury’s Mark Quigley and Kevin Furlong, professor of geoscience at Penn State […]
MoreGallileo is invoked in this attack on the Skeptics Society with Scott Sharpe suggesting it is conventional medicine not alternative medicine that needs quackbusting… And sometimes Sciblogs contributor Dr Michael Edmonds’ response in last weekend’s Sunday Star Times…
MoreThe New Zealand Herald has created a simple but effective infographic to accompany the series John Roughan is writing on the changes Auckland has gone through over the years. While Roughan goes all the way back to the layered rock formations that created Auckland’s distinctive cliffs, the interactive graphic on the site at the moment […]
MoreIf you read today’s letters to the Sunday Star Times you’ll see the flip side of anecdotal evidence on the use of intravenous vitamin C to treat serious illness. The letter below illustrates well why it is potentially very dangerous when people make decisions that may impact their health based on anecdotal evidence. Miraculous recoveries […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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