Monthly Archives: May 2011

Vanadium To The Rescue

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

As promised back here, my profile of Emeritus Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos is now online. Skyllas-Kazacos is a genuine unknown to the Australian public. Yes if you Google her plenty comes up, but even amongst my friends not one seems to … Continue reading →

Posted in Australasian Science, Global Warming, Hope | 3 Comments

Scientist Scripts

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

I imagine few Australians have missed the debate about whether it was wise fo Cate Blanchett to be included in the ads campaigning for a price on carbon. All this left me wondering: How would people have responded to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Enemies of science, Global Warming, Hope | 4 Comments

Saul Griffith at TEDX

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

As I may have mentioned before, Saul Griffith is an inspiration. When asked to pick a single highlight from my book, he’s usually the one I go for. (Although I actually think my profile of him is one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in book, Global Warming, Hope, Self Promotion | Leave a comment

Fish Queue Here

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

One of my favourite science lobbying stories is about how a team of conservation biologists managed to extract support for funding to save a rare bird from a usually anti-environmental US Senator. Realizing that his conservative sexual politics trumped his … Continue reading →

Posted in Australasian Science, Behavioural Zoology, Research funding, Self Promotion | 4 Comments

Omega Centauri Come On Down

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

Back here I covered Duncan Forbes efforts to engage the public in the question of what a galaxy actually is, and how one distinguishes it from a globular star cluster. Voting is still open, but enough people have taken part … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Psephology | Leave a comment

Who Are The Early Adopters?

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

Three months ago I was letterboxing in Broadmeadows for the by-election there and was struck by the number of rooftop solar panels I saw. The numbers were around the national average. Given that this is one of the poorest areas … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Hope, Psephology | Leave a comment

Thoughts on a Budget

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

Personally there is plenty in the budget I’m outraged about, but from the perspective of this blog there’s no doubt science dodged a bullet here. And I do mean dodged – it didn’t miss by luck. Congratulations to everyone involved … Continue reading →

Posted in medical science, Research funding, Science policy | Leave a comment

Synchrotron Sorrow

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

The Australian synchrotron is in big trouble. It’s funding comes to an end next year, and the state government is considering not renewing it. Just when it looks like Australian science may have dodged the bullet of funding cuts (although … Continue reading →

Posted in Research funding, Science policy, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

aMAYzing Australasian Science

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

Despite the headline, I’ll admit none of my contributions to the new edition are likely to make a list of my best ever articles, but there are still some I think are of interest. The Cool Scientist  is remarkable in … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Australasian Science, Behavioural Zoology, econophysics, Self Promotion | Leave a comment

Bad Project

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Stephen Luntz

A friend of mine currently buried in her doctorate posted this on facebook. Arguably whoever created it had too much time on their hands (perhaps they were waiting for the thesis to be returned rather than in the throws of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment