Right now, hundreds of diplomats and trade experts from around the Asia Pacific region are ensconced at Sky City convention centre in Auckland for top-secret negotations as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The level of secrecy alone is of great concern and to some, anti-democratic, let alone what is actually being concocted in the latest draft agreement. […]
MoreI spent an enjoyable morning at the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes where the glow of last night’s premiere of The Hobbit was obviously still buoying attendees – particularly the Prime Minister, who at one stage suggested there were “cauldrons of opportunity” in science. The PM’s Science Prizes spell the end of the science awards season, […]
MoreLast night I spent a great evening dining with previous Harkness fellows in Wellington. I’m incredibly fortunate to be heading to the US early next year on a Fulbright-Harkness Fellowship to look at the future of public interest journalism and hopefully pick up some ideas that could be applied here in New Zealand. Here’s a […]
MoreOf all the questions raised by the controversy surrounding scientist Mike Joy’s quotes in the New York Times – and the heated response to them, this is the most important: can Dr Joy back up with evidence his claims about the parlous state of New Zealand’s environment? He can and he has. From the peer-reviewed […]
MoreOver the weekend I paid 99 cents for a quality piece of long form science journalism that I downloaded and read on my iPad. Who published it? The New Yorker? Atlantic Monthly? National Geographic? No, the article is the first of what will hopefully be a long series published online by Matter, which bills itself […]
MoreThis is the second in a series of posts on my recent visit to South Africa and Swaziland. Part 1 is about South Africa’s fracking dilemma. The border town of Matsamo is anything but inviting as you wait in the immigration queue on your way into the mountain kingdom of Swaziland. The day we arrive […]
MoreThe convictions of the Italian scientists of manslaughter has more relevance here in New Zealand than you might think. In the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, the scientific community and GNS Science in particular came in for scrutiny over how effectively it communicated the risk of earthquake activity in the lead up to September 2010, […]
MoreScientists around the world have reacted with dismay to conviction of six italian scientists and a former government official on manslaughter charges. The seven were convicted after prosecutors successfully argued that public statements they had contributed to a false sense of security in the Italian city of L’Aquila ahead of the 2009 earthquake that killed […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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