australia

What the ‘venomous bees’ story tells us about science communication

Manu Saunders2 Comments

Last week, most of the mainstream Australian news media reported on a University of Melbourne press release about a new study from researchers in the Department of Pharmacology. The study analysed data from Australian public hospital admissions and death records from venomous bites and stings over the period 2001-2013.

All the media stories sent the same message, launching off the popular international myth that Australia has the most venomous creatures on Earth. Finally, this study had evidence to prove that Australia’s bees and wasps were more deadly than our snakes or spiders!

Native spider-hunting wasp (Pompilidae) dragging a paralysed spider across our dirty floor.
Native Australian spider-hunting wasp (Pompilidae) dragging a paralysed spider across our dirty floor.

Technically, the media stories were accurate, and the data in the study did show such a trend (in simplified terms). But this is another great example of how using the generic term for a whole taxonomic group, e.g. ‘bees’, can be seriously misleading. Continue reading →

Coal-fired nothings…

Manu SaundersLeave a comment

I didn’t post anything in January because I was in India for most of the month.  It was an amazing trip, but I came home to the same news from before I went away…Australia still hasn’t cottoned on to the fact that coal is on the way out.

I saw these while I was in India:

Wind farm near Ahmednagar, Maharashtra State, India

India is ranked 5th in the world in terms of wind power installed capacity, with almost 11,000 MW capacity, and they’re planning more.  The US and a lot of Europe are already on the fast-track to zero-emissions power generation.  Even China reached their 2020 target of 30,000 MW of wind power this year, and have now increased the target to 150,000 MW.  All this is compared to Australia’s current operating capacity of about 1,300 MW. Continue reading →