UPDATE: Please see the end of this piece, where I give examples of possible ‘good’ metrics The subject of innovation/science/tech/R&D, and its contribution to a country’s economy and society, appears to be top of mind for policymakers, funding bodies and scientific bodies all over the world. In New Zealand alone, MSI has set a target […]
Technology
Lots of land still up for grabs on largest LEGO set
In around June this year, LEGO and Google Australia (who do the maps) released Build, a WebGL LEGO simulator. Touting itself as the world’s largest LEGO set, it allows you to build, using Lego bricks, anything you want on a Google map.The map’s been divided up into small squares, and plots are a 32×32 grid. […]
New books in Science, Technology and Society
As we all know, there’s something of a profusion out there of books about science, technology and society in its myriad forms. Sorting through this heap can be something of a difficult task, and so it’s with some delight that I’ve just heard about the New Books in Science, Technology and Society initiative. It ‘aims […]
Cute animal pictures are good for your work!
Workers! Throw off your shackles! Be not afraid to be seen by your boss cooing over Cute Overload! Hiroshi Nittono and colleagues, of Hiroshima University in Japan, have shown something most intriguing: that looking at ‘kawaii’ or cute images of baby animals improves focus and careful behaviour. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the research […]
Wash ALL the things!
We all know that fresh water is going to become more and more of an issue over the coming decades. Climate change and an ever-growing population will be placing ever more stress upon this most essential of resources, and so anything that helps to save water is, at least in my books, a Bloody Good […]
The IgNobel Prize winners 2012: speech jamming, dead salmon brain activity, green hair and more
And, ladies and gentlemen, it’s official! The winner’s of this year’s IgNobel prizes have been announced and the webcast of the ceremony showed it to be as good-natured and cheerful an event as ever. Physics: Keller, Goldstein, Warren and Ball for research into the forces that control the shape and movement of a […]
This is your brain on implants (spoiler: it’s better)
Today, the Journal of Neural Engineering published rather an interesting paper. In it, they showed that they had been able to restore (and in some cases, improve) decision-making ability in primates through the use of an implanted prosthetic. Sounds like something out of science fiction, doesn’t it? The region of the brain responsible […]
Give your two cents on electric vehicles in NZ
No doubt, some of you care (in some way or other) about electric cars, the technol9ogy on which they’re built, their useage and their future. If one of those people is you, you could do worse than hieing* yourself over to the brand new - as in started yesterday - EV Supporters community. So […]
Flight sim without the fuss
The headline to this post is, at the same time, misleading and not misleading at all. To explain: allow me to introduce to you FlightRadar24: Live flight traffic. Now, I’m well aware that aeroplane anoraks* will either already know about it, or have just left this post by frantically clicking on the link […]
Selfies with Photosynth
A few months ago, I downloaded Microsoft’s Photosynth app for my iPhone. Now, before you all start shouting ‘Booooo!’, I’d like to point out that Photosynth has been around for a while, and is a pretty cool and clever piece of tech. Also, the app is a joy to use. Another reason I’ve been playing […]