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Deadline: Social media, climate targets, top scientists
SMC Science Deadline: How NZ research institutions use social media, climate targets and honouring top scientists
Issue 331, 05 Jun
2015
New from the SMC
Experts respond: No slowdown in global
warming
In the News: HRC funding for the health of New Zealand
SMC Blog: Queen’s Birthday Honour’s list recognises scientists
The SMC
network
UK
SMC
Expert reaction: New study on the global
warming ‘hiatus’
Briefing: Predicting death – who is at risk of dying in the next five years?
Expert reaction: Study investigating predictors of risk of death within five years
Expert reaction: Cause of schizophrenia
Australian
SMC
Expert reaction: Global warming
‘slowdown’ an illusion created by bad
data
Expert reaction: Benefits outweigh harms for breast cancer screening
Media training for
scientists
Upcoming
Hamiltonworkshop
SMC Social
Media Snapshot
Science and social media make comfortable bedfellows according to the inaugural SMC Social Media Snapshot.
Most New Zealand
research institutions have some form of social media
presence and several have amassed tens of thousands of
followers, helping them to stay engaged with a broad
audience who “share”, “like” and “favourite”
their content.
Which institutions are using social media in the New Zealand science sector, what are the most popular social media platforms and who is making best use of them?
We tackled these question by undertaking an informal stocktake of social media usage, aiming to get a clearer picture of social media use by organisations involved in scientific research.
Our findings:
• Around 90 per cent of the
country’s 45 major research organisations engaged in
scientific research have an official social media presence
(at least one official social media account).
• Twitter
is the most popular social media platform among research
institutions, followed by Facebook and
Youtube.
• Institutions most commonly have a presence
on 2 or 3 social media platforms.
• The University of
Auckland, GeoNet and Te Papa have the most followers for
Facebook, Twitter and Youtube respectively.
• Smaller
research groups within institutions have been slower to
adopt social media, but Facebook is their preferred
platform.
SMC Director, Peter Griffin, said the data
collected show that research institutions are paying growing
attention to their social media presence with the likes of
Twitter and Facebook used not only to communicate new
research findings, but to keep in touch with alumni and
publicise courses and events.
“We are also seeing some institutions really starting to leverage social media to try and spread their content far and wide. They are coming up with compelling, short videos that are likely to play well on Facebook and riding the news cycle by tweeting commentary on topical news stories,” said Griffin.
“I expect to see more of this type of thing as the general approach of the New Zealand science sector to social media ramps up and becomes more sophisticated. Many organisations are now having a genuine, two-way interaction with followers on social media platforms which is great to see, as research suggests this is an increasingly important channel for Kiwis to find out information about science.”
Download the full report on the SMC website
The Science Media Centre has collated all the Twitter accounts covered in the snapshot into a handy Twitter list, availablehere. It is a work in progress so if there are any you think we missed, let us know by tweeting us @smcnz.
Top
scientists honoured
Individual New Zealanders contributions to science and society has been recognised in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday New Zealand Royal Honours.
Announced on 1st June, the list acknowledges a wide range of people who serve their communities and recognises those who have achieved something special.
Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, one of New Zealand’s internationally recognised biomedical/medical scientists and the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, has been made a Member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ).
The appointment is New Zealand’s most senior honour, and ordinary membership is limited to a maximum of 20 living persons.
Further honours include:
Professor David Bibby, for services to science and education, was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Prof Bibby, currently Dean of Science and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science, Architecture and Design at Victoria University, has contributed to science for more than 40 years. He is an advisor to the Science Media Centre.
Dr Michelle Dickinson, for services to science, was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM). Dr Dickinson is one of the world leaders in the field of nano-mechanical engineering and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland. She is also actively engaged in communicating science to the public and writes the NanoGirl blog on Sciblogs.
Dr Gavin Ellis, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Dr Gavin Ellis, a journalist for more than 40 years, was central to the transformation and modernisation of the country’s biggest newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, in his roles as editor and editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2005. Dr Ellis is also an advisor to the Science Media Centre.
For services to science, Mr Michael Macknight was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Mr Macknight is the inventor of MacLab, now known as PowerLab and the founder, in 1986 of ADInstruments.
The SMC congratulates all of those recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Read more on the Science Media Centre website.
Challenging climate
change
PCE "disappointed" with New Zealand's low ambition in tackling climate change.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright has submitted a response to the Government's discussion documentseeking feedback on New Zealand's climate change targets ahead of the Paris climate change conference in December.
In her submission, made public earlier this week, she expressed disappointed that the discussion document was "long on national circumstances but short on ambition" and called for a national forum for tackling climate change to help New Zealand draw up a credible plan to reduce emissions.
She explains in a media release that “New Zealand should be presenting an ambitious climate target backed by a robust plan. This country has major opportunities to reduce emissions through forestry, electricity and transport, but they will not just happen of their own accord.”
Dr Wright also made a second recommendation in her submission - that New Zealand must ensure any carbon units purchased offshore represent real emissions reductions and are not just ‘hot air’.
The United Nations conference aims to establish a new international agreement on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that includes – for the first time – action from all countries. Each country is to outline how it intends to tackle climate change, including a target for reducing emissions after 2020.
“This is an important time," Dr Wright says. "There is a new impetus for action with the world’s two largest economies – China and USA – setting ambitious targets. New Zealand needs to keep up.”
No slowdown in global warming
Timely research ahead of the United
Nations' upcoming climate change conference in Paris has
revealed that the widely reported slowdown of global warming
since the start of the millennium – often called the
‘hiatus’ – is in fact a result of bad
data.
According to the authors, when better corrections for various sources of bias were applied to the data, the so-called global warming hiatus vanishes—and in fact, they argue, global warming may have sped up.
The research was published in the journal Science this morning.
Read expert commentary on the Science Media Centre website.
Quoted: Otago Daily Times
"I wouldn't put this in
the climate change basket too quickly."
If the same
rainfall happened every month for a year "then we can start
talking about climate change."
University of Otago climatologist Dr Nicolas Cullen, on the floodings Dunedin City Council called a '100-year event'.
Policy news &
developments
MBIE reshuffle: The Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment has confirmed changes to
it's organisational structure following consultation with
employees.
UN Food and Ag conference: Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy leave is in Europe to represent New Zealand at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ (FAO) Biennial Conference in Rome.
PCE on climate targets: As part of a submission on intended climate targets, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment this week issued an urgent call for a national forum to tackle climate change.
Budget 2015 - Funding boost enhances weather forecasting: An operating funding increase that will grow to just over $5 million a year by 2018/19 will allow MetService to become more resilient.
Budget 2015 - Saving our kiwi: A fresh approach to saving the kiwi from extinction has been launched today thanks to a new $11.2 million investment from Budget 2015
Hi-tech start-up grants awarded by new tech incubators: Seven innovative start-ups are the first to receive repayable grants of up to $450,000 over two years from the new technology incubators funded through Callaghan Innovation.
New from
Sciblogs
Some of the highlights from
this week's Sciblogs posts:
Then and Now: The New Zealand Complementary
Medicines Industry: Mark Hanna lays bare never
before seen government data on dodgy health claims in the NZ
complementary medicine sector.
Honest
Universe
Monday Micro: Fighting superbugs with
pheromones: Bacteria chemical messengers could
hold the key to holding of the antibiotic apocalypse, writes
Siouxsie Wiles.
Infectious Thoughts
What if your clothes were a
touchscreen? Practical wearable tech is just
around the corner, says Michelle Dickinson (MNZM),
explaining Google’s new Project
Jacquard.
Nanogirl
Why you should clean your heat pump filters
(the physics):Marcus Wilson does the maths on
why you need clear out the old heat pump once in a
while.
Physics Stop
Tangata Whenua – changing science,
changing history: Atholl Anderson tells us
how science as a whole is an important part of his new book
charting Māori history from ancient origins to
now.
Infrequently Asked
Questions
Upcoming
events
Please see the SMC Events Calendar for more events and
details
• Hutt Science Festival - 1-7
June, Wellington. Various events for adults and children,
including hands-on fun, life on Mars, design exhibitions,
and a robot wars bootcamp.
• What if… Darwin had persevered with
Maths? - 10 June, Christchurch. Prof
Mike Steel provides an overview of how ideas from maths have
become central to the study and visualising of
evolution.
• Science Public Lecture Nelson - 17 June, Nelson. Two lectures by VUW scientists, titled "A crisis in the pharmaceutical industry: Should we care?" and "Genes, gene therapy, and gene patenting".
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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