The Kauri (Agathis australis) is something special. I’m from down south, not from Kauri tree territory (the north of the north island) so they are something new and different for me. I’m amazed at how huge they can get, and how long they can live for. Kauri can grow over 50m tall, can have a trunk circumference of up to 16m, and …
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Lululemon, the Greek Alphabet and Physics
If I showed you a picture of the symbol capital Omega (Ω), what would be the first thing that comes to mind? The other day I was tutoring a girl in high school electricity. She had just calculated the resistance of a lightbulb, so I told her to add the units to the answer and …
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Fraud and the First Digit Law
In 1881, Simon Newcomb (an astronomer) observed that the tables at the front of his book of logarithms were much more worn then those further along. In his words, ‘The first significant figure is oftener 1 than any other digit, and the frequency diminishes up to 9’ . About fifty years later, Frank Benford rediscovered …
Do you know what you’re wearing?
From season to season, the fashion industry is making mega bucks using big influencers and bringing in new trends one after the other. Consumerism has surged, with the global retail market generating over $1.34 trillion annually in sales. A business-minded person would say this is great for the economy of all countries who produce and …
New research suggests that sleeping causes cancer
An absurd statement I know, but what would you do if it were true? Getting cancer doesn’t sound like fun, but then again, I enjoy sleep… I’m sure you have heard claims like this before, whether this be scrolling through Facebook, reading mainstream news or watching ‘How to not get Cancer’ on television. As of …
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The Axis of Evil
You are not special. Neither is your dog or the planet you live on. Humans, on the Earth or in the Solar System are not privileged observers of the universe. In cosmology, this is known as the Copernican Principle [1]. Essentially it means that the Earth and Solar System at the scale of the entire …
The science behind bath bombs
You go home, you’re tired after a hard day at uni, and all you want to do is relax a bit. What’s one of the best things to do…go have a long soak in the bath with a bath bomb! As you lie in your bath (I recommend a Lush Black Rose bath bomb which promises …
Can you wait for the Marshmallow?
Are you impulsive? Do you want certain things straight away? Or are you a patient person who can wait? The Marshmallow Test was a study carried out in the 70s by psychologist Walter Mischel to better understand the idea of delayed gratification. The concept of delayed gratification is the idea that if you are able …
Nobel Prize 2019: Oxygen Availability
Within the last week, we have heard the announcement of the 2019 Nobel Prize Laureates. As I am studying Biomedical Science, one field of particular interest to me was the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This year, the prize was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. …
What brings you happiness?
We all know that feeling when we just feel on top of the world, everything’s gone to plan throughout the day so far, it’s actually been even better than anticipated and you just don’t want the day to end. But the truth is, those days will be over before you know it. Then there are …
Science Scholars 2019 