what am i?

This is a version of something that I originally wrote for the Talking Teaching blog. I've been involved in a few discussions lately, on the issue of what 'we' actually are. That is, are those of us who work with students in our lecture rooms, laboratories and tut classes, teachers? Is that the label we […]

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drinking in oxygen?

Last weekend I noticed a story in the Herald about an ‘oxygen bar‘ – somewhere where one pays to breathe in 95% oxygen for a fixed period of time. All sorts of health claims have been made for this, & it was good to see prominence given to the scientific viewpoint: that most folks’ blood […]

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the drunken botanist

That’s the title of one of the books I’m reading at the moment: The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart. (I do not know any drunken botanists!) Contrary to any expectations engendered by the title, the book is a thoroughly engaging wander through botany, history, & a little bar-tending (although, now that I look at the […]

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