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High-tech HQ launch | Future news | What Kiwis die of
Issue 216
1 - 7 February 2013
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Issue
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Changing
rules of the news
game
Not-for-profits
and shoe-string "hyperlocal" media start-ups are
increasingly helping set the news agenda as the US media
industry struggles to make the digital business model
pay.
Public interest journalism
centres, such as the
Center for Pubic Integrity,
Propublica and the Center for Investigative
Reporting are contributing to investigative
reporting efforts as mainstream newsroom numbers are
cut.
Science Media Centre manager Peter Griffin has been visiting public interest journalism centres in the US as part of a Fulbright-Harkness Fellowship. Some of these centres have broken award winning stories in science, health and the environment, partnering with mainstream news outlets in the process. The Center for Public Integrity, where Griffin is currently based, also hosts the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which recently uncovered the international and unsanctioned trade in human tissues and unsustainable fishing practices in the Pacific.
"Many of these centres are funded by foundations that recognise the importance of public interest journalism to a healthy democracy," says Griffin.
"But they and the mainstream media at large are struggling with the fundamental issue of making this sort of journalism sustainable longterm."
Along the way he has visited hyperlocal news start-ups that have sprung up to serve communities where mainstream media outlets have largely withdrawn from. One such start-up, the Alhambra Source, near downtown Los Angeles, was set up to try and improve civic engagement after local body elections in the town of 85,000, failed to produce any candidates.
You can follow Griffin's
updates as he looks at new innovations in journalism at
Futurenews.co.nz
On the science radar...
270-Million-Year-Old tape worm, virtual super powers impacting reality, brewing new medicines, pigeons' Bermuda Triangle and Pharma data cover-ups.
Callaghan Innovation
launches
Callaghan Innovation, the new "high-tech HQ" aiming to bolster the
economic impact of the government's science and research
investment, officially launched today at a breakfast event
in Auckland.
The new
Crown Agency will aim to "help get New Zealand's most
innovative ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace
more quickly," according to background on the Ministry of
Business Innovation and Employment's website
In the run up to the launch, the Science Media Centre contacted a range of key players in the NZ science and innovation sector to assess their expectations of the new agency, asking:
In your view, what is the single most important thing Callaghan Innovation could do to boost private sector innovation in New Zealand?
Prof John Raine, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Innovation & Enterprise), Head of School of Engineering, AUT University, responds:
"In this small country, it is vital that we build much more collaborative behaviour to better use limited resources to support product innovation and the growth of high-tech export businesses.
"The single greatest thing that Callaghan Innovation could do to boost private sector innovation would be to use its own embedded engineering and science capability, in partnership with that of the universities, ITPs, other CRIs and industries, to catalyse a massive increase in the level of industry-demand-driven high technology R & D project activity in New Zealand."
Prof Shaun Hendy, President of the New Zealand
Association of Scientists,
comments:
"Callaghan Innovation
represents a great opportunity to close the knowledge gap
between New Zealand and the other advanced economies. The
organisation needs to develop effective new ways of bringing
together researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses. ..."
"We will be able to tell if Callaghan Innovation is on track in a year or two by whether it has been able to significantly grow the numbers of scientists and decrease the number of bureaucrats that work there."
You can read full comments from more experts on the Science Media Centre website.
SCANZ
disaster conference
looming!
Just three
weeks to go to the Science Communicators Assoc. of New
Zealand (SCANZ) and International Public Communication of
Science and Technology (PCST) joint symposium in
Christchurch.
The conference Disasters: Communicating in the Crisis and the Aftermath, takes place 21 - 22 February.
Don't miss out on the exciting line-up of international
and local speakers. The organisers promise there'll be
something for everyone involved in science communication.
View the programme online here and register here.
Highlights include:
• Health, agricultural, environmental and natural
disasters and best practice for communicating with the
public, (including case studies on PSa, Christchurch
Hospital's Emergency department and the Rena oil spill)
• Panel discussion on scientists' responsibilities and
the media's role when handling probability, hazard and
risk
• Latest thinking from Asia, Europe and
Australasia on climate change discourse, the Fukushima
disaster and how Italian scientists were held to account for
failing to predict a natural disaster
• World launch of
Earth Girl: The Natural Disaster Fighter, an educational
computer game informed by real life
events
• Canterbury's Science Alive! museum on how they
adapted when their building was lost to the Feb 2011 quake
And much, much more. Find out more about the
conference on the SCANZ website.
Sir
Paul Homes passes on
The Nation has lost
one of it's most iconic broadcasters.
Renowned
New Zealand television and radio presenter broadcaster Sir
Paul Homes passed away, aged 62, at his Hawke's Bay home
this morning.Sir Paul was knighted
earlier this month at special ceremony brought forward
because of his poor health.
You can about Sir Holmes' life and tributes in the wake of his passing at the NZ Herald, ODT, Fairfax News, TV 3, TVNZ and Radio NZ.
Quoted:
Radio New Zealand - Rural news
"In waterways, as with many agricultural
chemicals -- as with fertilisers, as with pesticides, as
with agri-pharmaceuticals -- they're beneficial on land, but
they tend to be bad in water. ... Indeed this is what we
found in our experiments with DCD."
- Dr Marc Schallenberg,
Freshwater lakes
specialist
University of Otago
New from the
SMC
Experts
Respond:
DCD in milk:
Agribusiness expert Prof Jacqueline Rowarth sheds some light
on the controversy over trace amounts of dicyandiamide
in NZ milk.
Callaghan Innovation:
Science and innovation experts give their two cents on the
nation's new economy boosting biz-tech
agency.
Reflections on
Science:
Risky business:
Sir Peter Gluckman urges the science community
to find ways to fund more
intellectually risky research by high-performing
scientists.
Staring death in the
eye
Sciblogger Dr Siouxsie
Wiles has teamed up with data visualisation expert Mike
Dickison to create a series of infographics looking at the
morbidly fascinating topic of what New Zealanders die from.
Check out the results here.
Sciblogs highlights
Some
of the highlights from this week's
posts:
Is your region warming? - Ken
Perrot blogs about a New Scientist tool which enables you to
access regional temperature data illustrating how the world
has warmed, by simply entering your city/town.
Open
Parachute
Antarctic voyage: the Mertz
Polynya - Dr Helen Bostock, marine geologist at
NIWA, kicks off the new Field Work blog with post about her
upcoming Antarctic voyage.
Field Work
The use of DCD to control nitrogen pollution
in NZ - With DCD in the international headlines
following trace findings of it in NZ milk, Bob Wilcock
explains its use by dairy farmers and the role it plays in
combating nitrogen
pollution.
Waiology
Climate change complicit in Australia's
disastrous summer - Jesse Dykstra links the
extreme weather (scorching heat, bushfires, flooding and
tornadoes) experienced lately in Australia with climate
change.
Shaken Not Stirred
Research highlights
Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.
Skybugs: In
what is believed to be the first study of its kind,
researchers used genomic techniques to document the presence
of significant numbers of living microorganisms -
principally bacteria - in the middle and upper troposphere,
that section of the atmosphere approximately four to six
miles above the Earth's surface. Future research will aim to
identify the features that allow bacteria to survive at such
heights.
PNAS
'Petting'
sensory system: Researchers have identified a
system of touch-sensing nerves in mice which only respond to
gentle stroking and appear to trigger feelings of wellbeing
and relaxation. Further studies are needed to see if similar
sensory neurons exist in humans. Video clip available (contains
lolcats).
Nature
Flaxseed
boosts milk nutrition: Dairy cows that are fed
flaxseed produce more nutritious milk, according to a new US
study. Milk from flaxseed-feed cows contained more omega-3
fatty acids and less saturated fat than milk from cows on a
standard diet, but retained a similar texture. The
researchers also noted that butter from the flaxseed-fed
cows was softer at refrigerated
temperatures.
Journal of Dairy
Science
Health outcomes of coming out:
Lesbians, gays and bisexuals who have openly disclosed their
sexuality to others have lower stress hormone levels and
fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression, and burnout, than
their peers who are 'in the closet', according to a new
study. The researchers highlighted the importance of such
findings, saying, "Coming out is no longer a matter of
popular debate but a matter of public
health."
Psychosomatic
Medicine
Microchips enter a new
dimension: Scientists from the University of
Cambridge have created, for the first time, a new type of
microchip which allows information to travel in three
dimensions. Researchers believe that in the future a 3D
microchip would enable additional storage capacity on chips
by allowing information to be spread across several layers
instead of being compacted into one layer, as is currently
the case.
Nature
Policy
updates
Some of the policy highlights from this week:
Meaty agreement: The red meat industry has agreed to work together to promote and assist in the adoption of best practice by sheep and beef farmers, as part of a new $65 million dollar sector development project with Government co-funding.
Upcoming sci-tech
events
• Open Research Conference - 6-8
February, Auckland.
• The Invisible World: Images of
Nanotechnology - Opening 8 February; Exhibition
8-23 February, Auckland.
For these and more
upcoming events, and more details about them, visit the
SMC's Events Calendar.
ENDS
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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