Nicola Gaston

Dr Nicola Gaston is Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at The University of Auckland and principal investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute. She is the author of the BWB text Why Science is Sexist.

Science
Dec 29, 2018

2018 was the year I realised that scientists are optimists

But what I’m grappling with, writes Nicola Gaston, is how optimistic we can afford to be about human behaviour

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Politics
Jul 25, 2017

Growing up on the DPB: on Metiria Turei, fraud and fear

Following the Green co-leader’s admission about misleading Winz, Nicola Gaston recalls her own upbringing on a benefit, and confesses to a fraud of her own.

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Society
Jun 15, 2017

Do low-value, for-profit tertiary providers really deserve 'consistent treatment' from the government?

As the debate around the value of private tertiary education providers sharpens with Labour’s immigration policy release, a new bill proposes substantial changes to the wider sector. Nicola Gaston has …

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Science
Feb 9, 2017

The impersonal is political, too: a report from the frontline of the culture wars

Do we have our priorities right when it comes to the emphasis on economic 'usefulness' of education? Nicola Gaston asks if NZ is in danger of plunging into a culture war of its own.

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Science
Jan 31, 2017

Why scientists need to go to the barricades against Trump – and for the humanities

Nicola Gaston on the anti-science agenda of the Trump presidency, and why scientists should embrace the arts.

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Society
May 20, 2016

Helen Clark: running to be UN boss as an accomplished human who is a woman

Believe it or not, it is possible that Helen Clark is both the best option for the job of Secretary General, and that she is an important candidate because she is female

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