The Scientist NZ

With what's just happening in Japan, I bet you...

2011-03-30T15:37:58.829+13:00

With what's just happening in Japan, I bet you folk in NZ are pretty happy with your no nuclear stance. How far along is the tidal power project in Cook Strait - that seems to have huge potential

"Scientific research shouldn't be differe...

2011-03-29T22:16:23.970+13:00

"Scientific research shouldn't be differentiated from commercial enterprises."
I couldn't agree with this more. It is the only way the human race is ever going to advance. We are driven by commercial industry and if we can use this investment to better our quality of life then I am behind that.

I applaude the comment that he wasn't afraid t...

2010-12-01T13:17:28.162+13:00

I applaude the comment that he wasn't afraid to give it a go. Failure can teach as much as success. Rightly or wrongly I think of giving it a go as a NZ trait but I see that the current schooling system is breeding a mindset that if it looks like you may fail don't have a go. Because in some courses a student may get distinction in several parts of an evaluation, but if they get one "did not achieve" then the whole evaluation is DNA. So they don't have a try and the education system learns nothing about their ability and where they need to target teaching.

ICT industry taskforce 2003: goal to build another...

2010-02-17T12:52:49.635+13:00

ICT industry taskforce 2003: goal to build another 100 technology-based companies with overseas revenues exceeding $100m per annum.
Regrettably, most people laughed at us at the time. The goal is still valid (increase the target revenue), and there's no unfixable reason to not achieve it.

This is just brilliant. I'm flabbergasted we w...

2009-11-30T19:19:42.713+13:00

This is just brilliant. I'm flabbergasted we weren't made aware of this! Someone needs to develop public relations for the science arena...

Aaron you mentioned in your earlier postings when ...

2009-10-05T16:56:19.694+13:00

Aaron you mentioned in your earlier postings when you first started writing that many PhD students are increasingly keen to stick around and contribute to their knowledge to the 'science scene' in NZ. Perhaps further to your idea above, scholarships or internships of some sort at that level overseas (with the understanding that what PhD students learn during their tenure travelling/being younger/observing international 'scenes') could be offered, thus enticing post-PhD work to be done upon return? Not sure, it may not be feasible enough short term for the long term benefits (or indeed if post-PhD folk were willing to sign up)

I always thought Simon Upton had a rather romantic...

2009-09-28T09:53:30.236+13:00

I always thought Simon Upton had a rather romantic view of RS&T. Particularly for someone that oversaw the development of CRIs with their focus on mission oriented applied RS&T.

Investment in RS&T (along with investment in other intangible assets) hasa pay off in terms of economic growth, and the more intangible, uncertain, unappropriable and long-term the more it gets under-invested in by business.

The first step to a solution is to separate out the various kinds of RS&T an economy needs in a way that helps highlight where the problems lie. Time scale to return isn't a bad proxy for the latter. With shorter-term return RS&T the investment decisions are easier and the focus needs to be on business taking responsibility. With undirected RS&T with little immediate pay off potential we are in Simon Upton country. Funds like Marsden and PBRF fit this bill with their strong emphasis on quality of investigator - although even here there are some moves a foot to shape the investment so it better fit with broader national priorities, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The issue lies with RS&T that is between these two extremes. Stuff that lies beyond the time horizons and risk profiles of a typical business, but is mission oriented and applied (and, all due respects to Simon Upton, hence needs business input into what is done, and what stops getting done). This is typically NERF/RFI. Managing this investment not only needs a good strategic understanding of what RS&T can deliver but also what business can - and how to get the best out of both.

IMHO setting up a better framework to allow these conversations to occur is the answer and this is where the low hanging fruit lie in improving our systems. I note this isn't about sector plans and the like, it needs to happen at a much lower and different level of aggregation - perhaps something to comment on later when other things are not pressing.

Cheers

I'd heard of them also. Two very similar, very...

2009-09-22T09:42:02.654+12:00

I'd heard of them also. Two very similar, very cool companies. The other big application for their technology is in grid stabilization - ie. storing charge from renewables for when the wind isn't blowing or when the sun isn't shining. Two huge markets in the next 20 years or so. Will be watching these guys keenly...

There's another company, Altair Nanotechnologi...

2009-09-22T09:35:01.644+12:00

There's another company, Altair Nanotechnologies, that produce similar nano lithium batteries but have the advantage of a 10 minute charge/discharge which means that an electric car could fill up at the station in less than 10 min!!! Also, Altair's batteries have been breaking records for electric car speed challenges, similar to the killacycle.

Thanks for your comments, Alison. I couldn't a...

2009-09-21T14:34:24.046+12:00

Thanks for your comments, Alison. I couldn't agree more! This is also no easy task, and there are a number of great things going on at the moment that a step in the right direction - the NZ Science Media Centre (which was mentioned in Sir Peter's speech) are doing a great job of providing unbiased scientific information to the NZ media, Nanocamp to be at held at Canterbury University is fantastic for inspiring young school students about a career in science, and the New Science Journalism Project is great at encouraging scientists to become better communicators. I'm sure there are many more you can tell me about too - they're all a step in the right direction!

As well as the higher profile that Sir Peter can p...

2009-09-21T14:24:00.324+12:00

As well as the higher profile that Sir Peter can provide, we need to achieve a bit of a sea-change in society's attitudes to science. When you have science described as 'just' another way of looking at the world, when we're told that scientists can't be relied upon because they get things wrong or keep changing their stories (both hallmarks of science, given that we are always gaining new information), & when students need take science only till the end of year 10 (& not even that, in at least one school I know of), then we have a problem.

Hey Azza, I saw this mentioned in the Vic Alumni ...

2009-09-10T09:21:59.319+12:00

Hey Azza,

I saw this mentioned in the Vic Alumni email, nice work!

The coverage these guys are getting is awesome. He...

2009-09-04T22:39:12.337+12:00

The coverage these guys are getting is awesome. Here is an article on Stuff.co.nz about Thang Trans research: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2835666/Niwa-warms-to-juice-theory

Thanks for your comments and for clearing that up ...

2009-09-04T22:29:57.234+12:00

Thanks for your comments and for clearing that up Simon.

To the extent that NZ has been involved in the pro...

2009-09-04T20:25:30.272+12:00

To the extent that NZ has been involved in the production of HTS wires this has come from IRL not HTS-110. DSIR/IRL held key patents on BSCCO (material used in 1st generation wire)and IRL has had an on going contract with American Superconductors (one of the producers of HTS wire) to help improve the quality of YBCO based wire (2nd generation).

HTS-110's contribution has been in using the wire to make magnets.

The real issue around dveloping wire for fault current limitiers (at least of the resistive type) is to incorporate bulk metal conductors (not at the nm scale) to act as a resistive and thermal sink when the superconductor ceases to conduct (superconductors work well for dealing with fault currents because they cease to conduct at sub cycle seeds if the current goes beyond a critical current).

Thanks for your comments, Bill. You make some vail...

2009-09-04T09:46:32.670+12:00

Thanks for your comments, Bill. You make some vaild points. Can I also point you to some research being conducted here at Victoria University, which is published in the spring issue of Victorious: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/newspubs/victorious/publications/Victorious-spring09.pdf

Thanks for your comments Annie! Whoops, that's...

2009-09-03T19:02:08.888+12:00

Thanks for your comments Annie! Whoops, that's my bad - the blog is members only at the moment as we are using it more as a forum for discussion amongst ourselves until we finalise what direction we will take. We hope this is an ongoing thing, long after we've gone, so I think involving students is quite critical.

Apparently i can't read the ViNES blog as it&#...

2009-09-03T15:10:02.831+12:00

Apparently i can't read the ViNES blog as it's for members only...
It would be great for you guys to build exposure through students at uni who are getting ready to graduate. They are soon to seek work in industry so by exposing them to your thinking now would provide them with a safety net and a little understanding into the big bad world.
From there they would act as advocates and hopefully spread soem of the word for you.

Goonix's comments are interesting and useful, ...

2009-08-28T14:28:37.643+12:00

Goonix's comments are interesting and useful, but can be debated. As far as the per kWh question goes, distributed or on-site generators compete with the retail cost of power, not the wholesale. Which is fair enough, if the turbine is in your backyard, you don't need a high voltage transmission network to deliver the power. If you stay connected, you help delay investments in more capacity in the high voltage backbone.

As far as the 8000kWh figure goes, Goonix is right, but that is for an all electric home with electric water heating, electric space heating and all electric appliances. Our design (declaring my interest as one the developers)is aimed at powering all of a carefully designed house, or making a significant contribution to an average house. The house at Waitati in Dunedin that is hosting one of our prototypes is home to a family of 4 plus regular guests, is well designed for passive solar heating, has solar and wood fired wetback water heating,but otherwise normal electric appliances and we expect will generate more energy from the turbine in a year than they use.

Later on, we intend to scale our design to cover the 1.5 to 10 kW power range which will cover more demand requirements.

Good to have the debate, there are some very interesting issues here. Please visit our website www.powerhousewind.co.nz to find out more.

PS. One excellent prorgam that addresses this issu...

2009-08-26T16:53:08.438+12:00

PS. One excellent prorgam that addresses this issue is the World Gold Council GROW Program. You can check it out here: http://www.utilisegold.com/wgc_initiatives/research_funding/

Hi Aaron, nice post - I couldn't agree more wi...

2009-08-26T03:36:26.336+12:00

Hi Aaron, nice post - I couldn't agree more with your comments. This looks like a great initiative, the younger you can get people communicating their ideas in an effective manner the better.

Thanks for your post. The government is already he...

2009-08-20T16:05:17.150+12:00

Thanks for your post. The government is already heading in this direction. In fact just a couple of weeks ago there was a meeting between the University Commercialisation Offices of New Zealand (UCONZ), the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST). This meeting signalled the likely change in the PBRF system to value commercialisation just as much as it does with publications.

I found it interesting that Callaghan mentioned me...

2009-08-20T12:59:28.814+12:00

I found it interesting that Callaghan mentioned meat exports being able to pay for the pharmaceuticals sector 18 times over in the past, yet 'relentless decline' now sees it at 4 times over. Further then to this statement, surely it's common sense/recognising with hinsdight that this is due to us being ahead of our time back then with the ship exporting meat over the UK. Do we not want to continue being ahead of the mentioned rat race? Same concept, different gravy surely in this day and age? Disappointing that publishing is the prevailing factor in which who to fund is decided. It encourages 'social science climbing' somewhat, and that doesn't make sense. With IP being so much more valuable these days due to accessibility being easier (internet, telecommunications etc), surely the PBRF should focus on those who patent. A sensitive topic to those who are practical yet deserve recognition.

I think agriculture knows it has to become more su...

2009-08-17T16:03:33.891+12:00

I think agriculture knows it has to become more sustainable. But the argument stands that we are a primary produce based country, who do import most of our technology ie cars etc... Moving towards cleaner farming systems is a high priority, it can be seen through the 2009 Feildays theme My Land Our environment and the Clean Green Farmer theme for some farmer day coming up. While I agree in concept with making money from a knowledge economy. I also saw the affect a small increase in dairy prices sold on the Fonterra online platform had on the New Zealand dollar a few weeks ago. I think the issue between balancing the economic consequences, while shifting (as fast as possible) to a sustainable 'carbon zero lifestyle, while continuing to raise food production to feed a growing world population. Will take science and argiculture working closely together - but I can't see an easy solution - esp when you are as vulnerable as New Zealand - and one commodity from one animal can directly effect our dollar.
I would not like to be a world leader at the moment.

Thanks for the comments everyone. It is a complex ...

2009-08-17T10:25:31.522+12:00

Thanks for the comments everyone. It is a complex issue indeed. I understand the concerns about agriculture, and as I understand it CO2 absorbed by pasture is not included in the Kyoto Protocol, however negotiations are underway to include it in the future. Despite this ruminant animals are still considered net emitters, there are nitrous oxide emissions due to fertilizer, and methane is a much, much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential).

Ultimately I think there will be a price on carbon and we will need to penalise or (depending on how you look at it) give incentive to emitters. Agriculture is NZ’s biggest emitter unfortunately, and hopefully this will lead to better use of fertilisers, forestry and the introduction of new innovations etc to mitigate this. These can then be sold to the world to increase the value of NZ’s exports.