So we now have a method for testing the hand sanitiser and soap after we have washed our hands.

5 days later we bring out the agar plates from the incubator and saw that the bacteria colonies have grown. We saw the bacteria in big bunches of colonies. We are so excited because this is the first time we’re seen bacteria. We then had a feeling this was going tto be very fun getiing our results

The worm juice could be improving growth by adding nutrients to the soil or maybe reducing diseases.

I would like to investigate whether worm juice has an effect on stopping disease growth on root vegetables,

What I would like to find is whether worm juice helps plants grow better by having an impact on soil disease.

I think potatoes would be a good plant to test as I have found that there are lots of soil borne diseases that can affect potato plants.

We did some reading and found out that hand sanitizer only kills bacteria while soap washes away the bacteria,so we want to compare thee two methods of cleaning.

So, here is a first map. The locations are not the exact address of each sighting (we need to check on some privacy issues around that) but quite near to the actual location of the sighting.

You will notice that we have had a good coverage of reports of Tui, but also that the sightings are quite tied to population densities in New Zealand. This is to be expected, but of course creates a degree of bias in the data. And this is something that we need to take into account for the final analysis.

But when I look at the map, I have to confess I am really amazed at the amount of contributions that all of you have been producing, so a big pat on the back to all of the New Zealanders that are participating in the project.

We are now also analyzing in a bit more detail the demographics of the contributions, and those should be posted soon. We are still accepting contributions, so please continue to visit the site and stay in touch with the new things that will be happening!

If you have been paying attention, you might have been hearing a rise in stories related to brains in the media (I will be blogging about some of them soon). This is because this has been Brain Awareness Week. My first (ever) post on a blog (now defunct and reborn here) was indeed one describing my last year’s experience organizing for the 3^rd time the Open Brain Day at the University of Auckland.

A year has gone by, and I am sitting at this year’s Brain Day that is being held at the Business School’s Owen Glenn Building at the University of Auckland. This year we are also celebrating the launch of the Centre of Brain Research, which launched towards the end of last year, finally replacing the Auckland Neuroscience Network.

For the first time, I can look at the day without the pressure of running after a myriad of details. And this year we are bigger, longer and uncut. (Well, the latter not so true since we have some cut brains to show you what they look like on the inside).

If you have come to brain open days before, check it out again. If you haven’t then this would be a great time to start.

Matt and Fabiana, Image by Titine (cc-BY-SA)

Our new phone!

At the meeting we also had a chat with Paul Brislen from Vodafone New Zealand, who, generously gave us a great mobile phone to be used by Citizen Science New Zealand. The phone he sent us (a vodafone XP3 Quest, similar or the same as the one on the left) is classified under ‘rugged’ in their site, and it is even waterproof! So there is nothing stopping us now!

Please join me in thanking Paul and Vodafone for such a generous gift!