22 Feb 2023

Science commentator Siouxsie Wiles

From Nine To Noon, 11:45 am on 22 February 2023
Locals cleaning up around Gisborne

Locals cleaning up around Gisborne Photo: RNZ/Nathan McKinnon

The infection risk from black water after cyclone/flooding, especially if houses are contaminated.

Also, are the prices of pharmaceutical drugs justified?. Pharma companies often justify the high price of new drugs as the cost for their investing in R&D. 

And if you have ever wondered how fingerprints form, researchers studying mouse toes and cultured human cells found that waves of ridges emerge from the tip of the finger, the centre of the fingertip, and the crease at the base of the fingertip.

When they collide, patterns form through a self-organising mechanism called a Turing reaction-diffusion system, first proposed by codebreaker Alan Turing in 1952. 

A fluorescent dye highlights DNA left on a fingerprint.

Photo: Alicia Haines / ESR

Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.