misc.ience

Carl Zimmer’s Science Reader Survey

Aimee Whitcroft — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:04:18 +0000

In a fit of market-research madness, Carl Zimmer (one of my favourite science writers) assembled a little survey looking into people’s science reading habits. In essence, it asked how people get their ’science fix’, where they get it from, and how they feel about paying for it. Now, it must be said – and it’s admitted to [...]

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You know your ‘type’? It’s stress dependent…

Aimee Whitcroft — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:18:59 +0000

A number of interesting revelations to be had here, and all to do with our choices of ‘mate’. And by mate, I don’t mean the antipodean colloquialism meaning ‘friend’. Nope, I mean mate as in, you know, someone you want to shag. As it were. The first revelation in this paper* is that, for the most part, [...]

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Why GeoNet rocks my world

Aimee Whitcroft — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:29:41 +0000

Last week, my colleague Dacia and I were fortunate enough to go out to Avalon to meet Ken Gledhill and Kevin Fenaughty, two of the people involved in GeoNet. The website will be one familiar to many Kiwis – a GNS initiative, it is the public face of a project which aims to collect data for [...]

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An exhortation to Research Bloggers

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:53:03 +0000

Good morning everyone, and welcome. As those of you who are part of Research Blogging are likely aware (following a missive that should have appeared in your inbox in the last few hours), voting has opened to choose the winners of the Research Blogging Awards 2010. And this is where the exhortation bit comes in: do go [...]

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How to get sober quicker

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:10:24 +0000

This is great news for all of us drinkers. And, frankly, if I was just a little better at actual chemistry, how I’d make my first couple of fortunes* And now I have the song ‘Tiny Bubbles‘ stuck, unfortunately, in my head. (When I first heard it, though, it was an Aero jingle. Possibly) So yes. To [...]

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Incredible infographic: the evidence for health supplements

Aimee Whitcroft — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:29:43 +0000

To paraphrase: not much, and what there is is often conflicting. So says a fantastic new infographic from my favourite data visualisation prOn website, Information Is Beautiful. Even better, the graphic is actually interactive, which means you can have a look at individual conditions, from sex to cancer and plenty in between, and split it down [...]

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I’m a Research Blogging Awards finalist!

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:27:34 +0000

Bizarre, I know. O_o In the category ‘best blog – chemistry, physics or astronomy‘. And I’m a newbie… No one’s confessed to nominating me, though. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea they existed, let alone that I had been nominated, until fellow Sciblogger David Winter popped up on chat this morning to say congratulations. David’s also [...]

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Would you like something scanned with an electron microscope?

Aimee Whitcroft — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Of course you would! Who wouldn’t? And have it you can. As I came into the work this morning, blearily clearing emails as I attempted to mainline some caffeine, I came upon an email most arresting. From an American company, ASPEX, it said that the company in question had a bit of an offer going at the [...]

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Geopolitics and science activity: 30 years’ worth

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:15:31 +0000

I just boggled. Quite a lot. I’ve just started skimming through an extremely interesting paper entitled 30 Years in Science: Secular Movements in Knowledge Creation. It takes global publication data from the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) database over the last 30 years, and then plots the change in papers published against geopolitical events that have happened. [...]

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BioScience in NZ: some statsy goodness Pt II

Aimee Whitcroft — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:55:15 +0000

Part II: How far along they are, how they’re battling and how we’re benefiting Having set out the basics of the bioscience industry – who’s doing what, in essence – I though it would be interesting to see how the organisations involved are doing. So, first up, let’s have a look at how far into the development [...]

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BioScience in NZ: some statsy goodness Pt I

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:00:30 +0000

Part I: The basics Today, StatisticsNZ released a, well, release on bioscience in NZ. Who’s doing it, where, what it’s costing them and what they’re making of of it. And, of course, what they’re actually doing. To explain, then: the bioscience survey replaces its predecessor, the biotech survey. Apparently, it was to enable the survey to track [...]

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Science articles some of NYT’s most emailed

Aimee Whitcroft — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:17:10 +0000

Apparently, the New York Times has a list of its most emailed articles, and researchers looking at the list have found something surprising (and wonderful) – that science-related articles are amongst the most emailed. I know! One would have thought articles about politics, gossip, sex and diets would win outright but it would appear that NYT’s [...]

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Drink up! Beer benefits bones…

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:57 +0000

I can hear the whoops of joy emanating around the world. Joined, of course, by mine. For years, we’ve known that a glass or two of the vino has its benefits. However, I’ve never heard of anything particularly beneficial coming as a result of drinking beer (apart from general joi de vivre, of course). But now, praise [...]

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Living with robots – don’t panic

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:36:17 +0000

Yes, that was indeed an H2G2* reference. I sneak ‘em in whenever I can… This is just a short post to point you all in the direction of a marvellous little video put together by the makers of Asimo. And various cars and bikes over the years. In it, Honda** talks to a number of very interesting [...]

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Hydrogels or, how to replace petroleum-based plastics

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:09:20 +0000

Well, wonders will never cease. Not only is water already one of the strangest,and most interesting fluids/substances around, but clever scientists from the University of Tokyo just added another layer of WTFness. In essence, they have developed a sort of non-fluid, yet still transparent and flexible, water. A hydrogel. That’s flexible. And transparent. (That was worth [...]

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