For many years the marine environment was thought to be a quiet place, in fact, the famous marine explorer Jacques Cousteau even released a documentary film ‘The Silent World’ in 1956 depicting the ocean as just that. Inquisitive scientists have since unveiled the truth: the ocean is a boisterous ... Read More

Environmental science obviously floats my boat, but for sheer drama and WTF, I go to the classics: physics, cosmology and maths.  If you are also so inclined, then let me recommend the podcasts of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time: Science radio series. These are available on the BBC Iplayer Radio ... Read More

It is now 50 years since Apollo 11 delivered Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin onto the surface of the Moon. Thinking that NASA’s Apollo program paid its way by giving us such technological marvels as non-stick frypans and pens that write in zero gravity is like thinking Richard Feynman’s greatest creation ... Read More

Sharing is caring, but not particularly so, when you must share your favourite bathing spot with bugs that make you sick! Freshwater bodies are susceptible to contamination and can serve as a vehicle for transmission of microbial pathogens. The ... Read More

It’s summer, everyone is at the beach, let’s have some fun. Either I was asleep when I was being taught this in school or my senility is progressing much faster than I thought, but the following that I recently read in a book* came as a complete (and delightful) surprise to ... Read More

Maths aside, we cannot ever truly know anything. Science does not prove things – it disproves things. This keeps us all in jobs, of course, arguing about what we think we know and don’t know. (Maths is different – mathematicians can prove things to be true. I don’t know whether ... Read More

I think you’d all agree that protecting our valuable natural resources while enabling social and economic growth is challenging. The recently recommended limit for nitrate in water of 0.8 mg/L proposed for the Tukituki River is ... Read More

Shortly after I posted my last blog about the health significance of nitrate in drinking water, the Guardian website ran a piece by Alex Bellos, author of the recently-published book Alex Through the Looking Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers ... Read More

Macroinvertebrates, or stream bugs, have been the focus of much debate amongst New Zealand’s freshwater science fraternity in recent times. To address declining water quality, the New Zealand government has proposed a National Objectives Framework (NOF), which includes a set of national bottom line values ... Read More

Every day, we make decisions that affect our health and well-being. Most of these decisions are based on some understanding of science, whether we realize it or not. Should I have that extra piece of cake (biology, chemistry)? Do I have enough time to cross the road before that car ... Read More