End of a career?
Changes to the New Zealand research funding meeting may spell the end of my career but, more importantly, what do they spell for research and science?
Tag: science
Shifting Beliefs
I’m always questioning my own beliefs, in this case about science, the importance of Marsden-funded undirected research and Judith Collins banning humanities and social science researchers from this fund. Do I care? Should you care?
Superstition
Halloween has been and (thankfully) gone. Superstitions galore. Can a scientist have superstitions? I have a short list I allow myself to indulge in.
Creating connections
How much investment should governments make in creative arts relative to R, S & T? I’m arguing creative arts deserve more.
COVID-19 Origins & Motivations
How did the COVID-19 pandemic start? The scientific evidence now suggest the origin was the Huanan wet market. Do we need to know more?
Beating biases
Why did moa decline all over New Zealand around the time Māori arrived when the first people were not widespread? And what does this ahve to do with figuring out why COVID cases are dropping in the UK despite the country having opened up in July.
Bodies of knowledge
A group of academics have written a letter to the Royal Society of New Zealand expressing their concerns about the school curriculum being required to ensure parity for mātauranga Māori with other bodies of knowledge. What is the relationship between mātauranga Māori and science? Are the academic’s concerns reasonable?
A cleft stick
We have employed a water diviner. Why? As a household of scientists who think the right way to look at COVID-19 is to assess the data. In the case of the Swedish experiment, the data say a lot more people died as a result of their approach. What the economic outcome will be remains to be seen in the longer term.
My teacups are getting stormy
It’s easy to get stressed right now. Our household is unlikel to be the only one overreacting when people have symptoms that could be from COVID. Or any other illness that would mean a difficult and risky trip to the doctor.