tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151794682008-02-03T20:43:53.950+11:00rivqaBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-73956225909304420242008-02-03T20:27:00.000+11:002008-02-03T20:43:53.978+11:00

Woolworths (or Safeway if you're Victorian) may soon be providing information about the carbon footprint of the products they sell, according to today's Sun-Herald. This is probably a good thing, but I'm sceptical (naturally) about how well it's going to work. What will be included in the carbon footprint? Will water and energy costs both be considered? How will the system by monitored, and by

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-82320564069157426662007-11-21T12:52:00.000+11:002007-11-21T13:00:51.780+11:00

This post was originally dated 30 September 2007; technical difficulties have prevented its publication until now. Publication should now resume as "normal"... Following Elizabeth Finkel's blistering critique of organic food (which suggested that organic food is not better for you or the environment), Cosmos Online has published an opinion piece from Craig Meisner, an American professor based in

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-79466648559127937572007-09-10T17:54:00.000+10:002007-09-10T17:58:05.545+10:00

Linked above is a great break-down of how to write a bad piece of science journalism. Wish I'd written it, that's all I can say!

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-90445856614226075722007-09-08T20:09:00.000+10:002007-09-08T20:27:17.222+10:00

Just in case you couldn't have predicted it yourself, a British team of epidemiologists has done the maths and worked out the rock stars have lower life expectancies than the general population. Even if they don't kill themselves (Kurt Cobain [Nirvana], Michael Hutchence [INXS]) or die of a drug overdose (Shannon Hoon [Blind Melon], Janis Joplin), faded stars also have shorter life spans overall

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-6408111536606479912007-08-31T13:30:00.000+10:002007-08-31T13:45:45.584+10:00

A team of coral researchers at Heron Island has compiled a gene expression library of Symbiodinium, the dinoflagellate responsible for feeding coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef. Team member Professor David Yellowlees said: ... these microscopic algae are quite weird and unlike any other lifeform. They have different photosynthetic machinery from all other light harvesting organisms.

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-56909610853066206542007-08-22T15:11:00.000+10:002007-08-22T15:19:44.385+10:00

The Eureka prize was presented last night and included a nanotechnology "magic bullet" for heart disease (Levon Khachigian of UNSW, one of my almae matres). Nanotech might make some of us nervous (OK, it makes me nervous) but clinical trials are so rigorous these days, we can hope that it's in the arena of medicine that they'll be safest and least likely to take over the world. In any case,

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-81603838493370434502007-08-06T08:56:00.000+10:002007-08-06T09:06:43.151+10:00

The obesity "epidemic" isn't just a concern during people's lifetime -- there are even problems after death. The current issue of the MJA contains a letter reporting the difficulties that obese and morbidly obese bodies cause for morgue staff and equipment. Lifting these corpses, some with a BMI of over 50, can be a serious OH&S issue. And it gets worse: Putrefaction is hastened in morbidly obese

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-75783292132059762342007-07-23T11:07:00.001+10:002007-07-23T11:08:15.011+10:00

It took me 10 seconds to work it out and 30 to confirm it. How long will it take you?

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-11637489469208986212007-07-22T10:40:00.000+10:002007-07-22T11:01:09.550+10:00

Although the article linked above is a couple of years old, it seemed the most appropriate one out of my PubMed search results (I searched for Harry Potter). The last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released yesterday. Gwilym and colleague's study showed that the release of the previous two books (The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince)

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-16407437625816723922007-06-18T10:47:00.000+10:002007-06-18T10:51:05.213+10:00

The article linked above details a deceptively simple water harvesting technology designed to collect clean water in polluted areas. Designed by an Israeli architect and PhD candidate, it is yet another example of engineering being inspired by nature. With thanks to Rational Trader for the link.

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-72231013243790226852007-06-15T10:25:00.000+10:002007-06-15T10:29:05.408+10:00

I love a good "laughter is the best medicine" story, and since becoming a mother I also love any story to do with motherhood. The article linked above contains both: it reports a study that shows that breastmilk abates infant eczema when the mother laughed in the hours prior to the feed. The researchers believe this is due to the increased levels of melatonin in the milk. Melatonin levels are

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-56642846853137315442007-06-06T11:52:00.000+10:002007-06-08T09:49:14.298+10:00

I can't resist giving a free plug to my friend Nathan's new podcast, Questionably Sane. It doesn't have too much to do with science but I think it's funny (although it does come with a coarse language warning). The most recent two episodes (3 & 4) poke fun at political correctness, which I think will appeal to scientists and others among my quiet readers. [edit: link now updated to the most

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-11167593899856260212007-06-06T11:37:00.000+10:002007-06-06T11:51:41.946+10:00

This post is the second in a series about the use of scientific terminology in the vernacular. This is a topic that I've always found fascinating, mainly because it really clarifies how laypeople understand science. In chemistry and physics, a liquid's boiling point is the highest temperature at which it will remain liquid. Increase the temperature even slightly and it will change state and

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-34974360133592490942007-05-25T12:58:00.000+10:002007-05-25T13:13:30.984+10:00

According to Ecos, CSIRO's bi-monthly environmental magazine, luxury hotels are big sinners when it comes to wasting resources such as water and electricity. Luxury travel is a growing sector and until recently, has not been closely scrutinised by environmentalists. With little or no legislation tackling luxury hotels' wasteful practices, the sky has been the limit for clients seeking an

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-54231282163186823122007-04-13T09:15:00.000+10:002007-04-13T09:35:25.303+10:00

I've recently discovered that The Guardian has a great column called "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre, a doctor and science writer. It's not a new column by any means but I've never seen it before. (In my defence, I live in Australia and am not, therefore, in the habit of reading The Guardian. Still, I'm sorry I haven't come across it until now.) This article, from 2005, seems to sum up a lot of

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-68720823748008932007-03-05T14:41:00.000+11:002007-03-05T15:08:06.970+11:00

I just spent 3.5 weeks in the United States, which is the reason for the lack of posts since the 4th (when we left). As I haven't read much science news (or any other news) since we left, I'll have to draw on my actual experiences (gasp) for this post. So, here is a round-up of the science-related touring that we did. In the Muir Woods, California, we saw the giant redwoods, which are beautiful

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-38224951495428909622007-02-04T19:38:00.000+11:002007-03-05T15:07:02.772+11:00

It must have been a slow news day yesterday because global warming has made it to the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. Since global warming was first discussed in the 1980s, I find this a bit rich. Of course, the UN report is technically news but really, this just highlights how many times scientists need to bang their heads against a brick wall before it actually starts to crumble. In

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-66465096752143180962007-01-18T08:59:00.000+11:002007-01-21T09:21:21.077+11:00

Well, I always wanted to write a story in the form of a scientific paper, but this is way better. How to write a scientific paper 17 January 2007 by Gregory Benford A tongue-in-cheek guide to turning scientific jargon into a riveting read. By Bea Realist Department of Arcane Abstrusities, University of California, Irvine References 1. 'Professorial Pathology' by E. U. Rieka, A.

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-80945801027715182702007-01-14T12:38:00.000+11:002007-01-14T13:11:01.249+11:00

This post is (hopefully) the first of a series about the use of scientific terminology in the vernacular. This is a topic that I've always found fascinating, mainly because it really clarifies how laypeople understand science. Literally, the term quantum, from the Latin quantus ("how much"), refers to an indivisible amount of energy (but it hardly seems to mean that anymore, even in physics). An

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-28877728556386569202007-01-08T19:39:00.001+11:002007-01-08T19:39:41.546+11:00

"Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear," says Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, but to me the goalposts must have shifted somewhere along the way. In my lifetime, mainstream opinions about euthanasia, and abortion (to name two important examples) have changed drastically. The article linked above describes the extreme measures that parents of a Ashley, a girl with serious brain damage, have

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-48630026583162078442007-01-01T18:25:00.000+11:002007-01-01T18:29:17.551+11:00

Another book about cloning, but this one does look good. It comes out this month and looks to be a good summary of the arguments for cloning. From the review: Herold was surprised by Professor Smith’s statement about the utility of therapeutic cloning. Of course there is a possibility that scientists will never succeed in generating patient-specific embryonic stem cells, but unless we do the

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-38139905088168761752006-12-20T09:22:00.000+11:002006-12-21T16:13:49.755+11:00

There's been a fair bit in the news about autism recently. I've always been fascinated by this disorder. The MMR vaccine scandal has been interesting to follow as an example of below-par science, and poor understanding by the public of the science. To me, this is just a symptom that science education and mainstream media science reporting needs some vast improvement. But the main reason is

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-81785373005777818252006-12-12T10:27:00.000+11:002007-06-06T11:58:10.348+10:00

This is just too cute not to post... click the link for the full article. ABSTRACT With the restoration of You-Know-Who to full corporeal form, the practice of the dark arts may lead to multitudes being charmed, befuddled and confounded. At present, muggle ethics dictate that aid may be rendered in a life-or limb-threatening situation, but the margins are blurred when neither is at stake.

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-84815215027188178842006-12-11T21:45:00.000+11:002006-12-11T22:10:45.360+11:00

... and so is stem cell research. Those who know me (and/or read this blog) will know I'd be pleased. Before the Patterson Bill was passed, I was going to post about how I wonder if the change in Labor leadership will mean anything for science. It may not mean much in terms of votes, but it does give Julia Gillard a bit more attention when she makes her statements as Labor's health spokesperson:

rivqatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15179468.post-85915412957819239752006-12-01T15:19:00.000+11:002006-12-01T15:24:44.751+11:00

Congratulations to Cosmos for winning big (again) at the Bell Awards. They won magazine of the year, editor of the year (Wilson Da Silva), and a few other awards. I love Cosmos -- there's something special about a glossy magazine, particularly when you feel like it was written just for you. I've been keeping them rather than putting them in the recycling bin (or passing them on) so I've got

rivqa