Science related stories and commentary
Did 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 was shocked and saddened to learn this morning (via Twitter) that internet commentator and developer and relentless advocate of open access to information Paul Reynolds died on Sunday of leukaemia. No one, not even Paul it seems knew he was ill. Eloquent tributes are flowing around the web dispersed via social networks, something Paul […]
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 […]
MoreThe Zoological Society of London has come out with a hard-hitting statement on the Government’s plans to mine parts of the conservation estate, concerned in particular at what mining might mean for the rare Archey’s frog and Hochstetter’s frog. It seems the Archey’s frog is at the top of the ZSL’s EDGE of Existence amphibian […]
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 […]
MoreA hazard we thankfully don’t have to contend with on rural roads in New Zealand – camels crossing the road. The thing about camels is that their long legs mean the full weight of their body ends up in the front windscreen of the average car as the infographic below from the Times of Oman […]
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 […]
MoreThe Government announced something to the tune of $234 million in new funding for science and R&D initiatives this morning, initiatives that will be included in the Budget on May 20. Businesses now have no excuse not to show some interest in R&D – there’ll even be a national network of commercialisation centres to help […]
MoreThe big concrete and steel pill box BP was banking on to plug the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico failed after hydrate-like crystals formed blocking the top of the dome and making in buoyant. The oil ended up spewing out of the container, leaving engineers looking for a plan B that could include […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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