Our students’ maths knowledge in their first year of high school is worse than ever – and that has grave implications for the future, say mathematics professors Gaven Martin, who chairs the Royal Society panel that’s tackling the decline, and Jodie Hunter. Maths is an essential part of our lives, from everyday living to educational … Read more
The R number, the classic measure of how easily an infectious disease spreads, is how New Zealand crushed community transmission. But it’s also a clever guide to a much bigger picture, writes Jenny Nicholls. Predicting how the global Covid-19 pandemic will progress can seem impossible, with graphs of cases from other countries beginning to look … Read more
Could it really cost less than a cup of coffee to power your home for an entire year? Mark Hanna investigates the New Zealand Herald’s extraordinary claim. Yesterday afternoon, the New Zealand Herald broke a huge story about something that, if true, could revolutionise our way of life and possibly even solve climate change. It … Read more
The only thing more volatile than the polling is the commentary around the volatile polling. Statistician Richard Arnold tackles some of the critical questions. We love them, we hate them, and they have a greater impact on our political system than many would like to acknowledge. The problem is, polls are statistics, and people as … Read more