Worth more than gold
Cawthron Institute made the front page of our local paper tonight with a great story about a new business they have developed. Cawthron has become an important source for rare marine toxins, used as standards for calibrating the instruments used for detecting them in food such as shellfish. They get very high prices for these chemicals: one example was quoted where €3000 was paid for 1 mg (that’s one thousandth of a gram). There were many interesting stories along the way. Here’s one of them:
Airport parking and algae blooms
Recently there was a letter to the editor of the local paper complaining about the harsh attitude of the management of our airport. It was from the mother of a couple of teenagers who had parked in a place reserved for airport staff. The letter sparked a flurry of responses from the general public, enough to fill half page of the weekend edition. Opinions were divided: many agreed that the airport manager was cruel and inhumane, while others felt that people needed to take responsibility for their own actions. But the whole saga reminded me of a time when a more relaxed attitude would surface (and, I suspect, there was less pressure on parking spaces). At the very beginning of 93, I received a call from the airport manager asking if I knew the whereabouts of X. Yes, X was a scientist on our staff. Well, X had left their…