About REBECCA PRIESTLEY
I’m a science historian and writer. I write about all sorts of things, but I’m mostly interested in New Zealand’s science history, about which I’ve curated two exhibitions, The Art of Science and Butterflies, Boffins & Black Smokers. I write a regular science column for The Listener, which you can read here, and I’ve completed four books, which you can read more about here. I’m now working on an anthology of Antarctic science, which should be finished ... soon and trying to decide between two new book projects: a worthy history of science biography and a fun contemporary science story. Perhaps I'll do both. I mostly blog when I'm adventuring - most of these posts are from recent trips to Antarctica and the Kermadec Islands.-
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Author Archives: Rebecca Priestley
The dawning of the age of Anthopocene
This article first appeared in The Listener, issue 3716, 30 July 2011 As a geology student in the late 1980s, I learnt a mnemonic to remember the various geological periods, epochs and ages that make up Earth’s history. It started … Continue reading
Galileo in Florence
This story first appeared in The Listener, issue 3688, 15 January 2011. I’d come a long way to see Galileo’s arthritic middle finger, but recognised the great 17th-century astronomer’s aged appendage – displayed in a gilt-edged glass egg in a … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Travel
Tagged florence, galileo, museum, prosecco, santa croce
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Kermadecs voyage #2: The mystery of the floating pumice
I was planning to write this personal blog at the same time as writing one for Scientific American, but I’m so busy circumnavigating islands in a RHIB, flying into volcanic craters in a Navy Seasprite, fishing for sharks off the … Continue reading
Posted in Kermadecs, Science, Travel
Tagged HMNZS Canterbury, Kermadec Islands, Kermadecs, Navy, pumice
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Kermadecs voyage #1: On the HMNZS Canterbury
In 1955, when the US and USSR were involved in a nuclear arms race, the British Prime Minister asked New Zealand’s permission to test hydrogen bombs in the Kermadecs, a small group of islands about 800 km north of Auckland. … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Kermadecs, Travel
Tagged Blake Trust, HMNZS Canterbury, Kermadecs, Navy, rum
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Why New Zealanders are so excited about the transit of Venus
The weather forecast for tomorrow’s transit of Venus is appalling. Cloud cover, rain, and gale force winds. But I was up in Tolaga Bay today – the focus of New Zealand’s celebrations of the transit – and the local Anglican … Continue reading
Of noddies, humpbacks, tubeworms and sea mats
Late last year I wrote an essay about the science and history of the Kermadec Islands for a gorgeous new book, Kermadec. I was just getting an excerpt from it ready to post when I heard that a Department of … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Kermadec Islands, marine sanctuary, Pew Environment Group, Raoul Island
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