Dr Lucy Stewart
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lcsnz.bsky.social
Dr Lucy Stewart
@lcsnz.bsky.social
1.4K followers 320 following 4.1K posts
Fan of weird microbes, Pākehā nō Pōneke, dilettante crafter, co-President @nzscientists.bsky.social. All opinions my own etcetera.

ORCID: 0000-0001-7352-3329
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lcsnz.bsky.social
Holiday reading (the holiday is me taking a week off work)
Four library books: Everybody Wants To Rule The World Except Me by Django Wexler, The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brian, Flying Blind by Peter Robison, and The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison.
August 2, 2025 at 12:29 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
I keep putting this off because Current Events but I can't any longer: it's the 2025 Marsden PhD stipend graph! 🧪
A graph showing the values in NZ$ after tax of the living wage, minimum wage, training wage, and a Marsden Fund PhD stipend and Masters stipend. PhDs after year 3 are typically unpaid (shown as a value of NZ$0). Values are given from 2010 to 2025. As of 2025 the PhD stipend is only just worth more than the training wage.
May 12, 2025 at 2:41 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Post a photo you took with no context to bring some zen to the timeline.
A dewy spiderweb in a tangle of sticks and logs above a small stream. A ray of sunlight illuminates the spiderweb.
March 9, 2025 at 9:50 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Sunday morning carrot harvest (this is a variety called French Market which grow to golf ball size)
A bunch of round carrots on a bench. A bottle cap for scale shows they are all around the size of a golf ball or smaller.
March 8, 2025 at 7:58 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Digging through the Cabinet papers in more detail and also noticed this about funding for the new advanced technology PRO. Cool cool cool cool cool. There's so much money floating around the existing science system to set up a totally new entity. Nobody's gonna lose their job for this, I'm sure.
Paragraph from science reform cabinet papers saying "The advanced technology focused public research organisation and platform will be funded by reprioritisation within the SI&T appropriations."
January 23, 2025 at 8:14 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Today’s entertainment: the child insisting this must be a “moko māmā”
Two pages from a picture book showing an illustration of a common AoNZ gecko and the text “Ko Moko Pāpā ahau. Kei te piki ahau” (I am Gecko, I am climbing).
January 18, 2025 at 11:06 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Engaging in the traditional Boxing Day sport of setting technological gifts up (like the giant nerds we are)
A black 3D printer on a table, surrounded by packaging, a manual, and tools.
December 25, 2024 at 11:50 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Cool cool cool cool cool
The National Emergency Management Agency and GNS Science are assessing whether the M7.8 VANUATU earthquake at 2024-12-17 2:47 PM has created a tsunami that could affect New Zealand. If a tsunami has been generated in this location it is not likely to arrive in New Zealand for at least 2 hours. This National Advisory has been issued following a rapid assessment of preliminary earthquake information. The situation may change as more information becomes available. We will provide an update when we have completed a further assessment. Updates will be published on www.civildefence.govt.nz. Only messages issued by the National Emergency Management Agency represent the official warning status for New Zealand.
December 17, 2024 at 2:11 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Got woken up by my indoor cat proudly presenting us with a lizard (which she then ate half of), raising the important question of where the hell she found a lizard in our house
A tabby cat crouched over a dead lizard on carpet A closer picture of a dead lizard. It is grey-brown with thick dark black stripes running along its body and about as long as a ballpoint pen.
November 27, 2024 at 5:48 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
It is 17C in Pōneke today with a decent breeze. Love this country
Screengrab of RNZ Live for the Hīkoi saying 'Organisers have encouraged the crowd to have a drink of water, 'and then do it again'. 'He wera rawa tēnei rangi' it's a very hot day.'
November 19, 2024 at 12:49 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Fascinated to know if the person who has plastered these all over Thorndon knows that parking in front of a driveway is illegal, never mind *charging someone rent to park in front of a driveway*.
Picture of a flyer advertising a carpark for rent in Thorndon, Wellington for $60 a week. The carpark is a space on the road in front of a garage, not on private property.
September 15, 2024 at 7:40 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
21st century Pōneke problems: trapped in Ōtari Wadestown library for ten minutes while the kererū that had blundered into the entryway figured out how to blunder its way back out
A large kererū behind a book trolley in a glass-walled room
September 13, 2024 at 11:44 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
As we all know, the thing Callaghan Innovation has lots of right now is baseline funding
Screenshot from RNZ article: "Callaghan Innovation is also debuting a separate programme to encourage businesses to take up AI, offering access to research and expert assistance, as well as potential grants. Both projects were being funded through baselines."
September 11, 2024 at 12:32 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Idly wondering at this point if the AoNZ Flutracking survey population has just got wildly out of step with the general population in terms of precautions taken against airborne illnesses...
The FluTracking weekly interim report for New Zealand, showing that reported cases of fever and cough as a percentage of respondents are flat over May/June/July for 2024, compared to a distinct winter peak at the same time in 2022.
July 21, 2024 at 8:46 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
The full quote is much worse! God forbid, apparently, that anybody be inconvenienced for the safety of other human beings.
A screenshot of a quote from the Minister of Transport saying they want to 'balance the safety of road workers with the need to keep costs under control and not unnecessarily inconvenience motorists'
July 11, 2024 at 9:37 PM
lcsnz.bsky.social
I have a vague memory of @dreddieclark.bsky.social reminding us all how scenic Bolton St Cemetery is but it’s something else to stumble across yourself while out for a walk
A photo of a marble memorial dedicated to Harry Holland, surrounded by trees. It is topped by a statue of a naked man facing away, clutching a cloth which covers his front but not his rear.
July 5, 2024 at 12:14 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Laksa and tom yum both winter faves, plus this great one I got from the paper last year (use paprika AND pork for best results)
A recipe for smoky lentil, bacon and vegetable soup from a newspaper
July 1, 2024 at 7:26 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
This whole article about the Capital Kiwi project is a good pick-me-up but this line is what really caught my attention. Biggest wild kākā population in Te Ika a Māui! thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-0...
A paragraph of text from a Spinoff article about the return of kiwi to Wellington, with the sentence 'Wellington is now home to the largest wild kākā population in the North Island' highlighted.
June 17, 2024 at 2:07 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
I've tracked down the actual thesis - it did not calculate the new actual risk, only estimated that it would be higher.
Screenshot of an excerpt from an academic thesis saying the individual risk of experiencing a landslide-generated tsunami in Milford Sound is 'likely higher' than that calculated by earlier research.
June 14, 2024 at 1:34 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Found this little guy on my garage door when I got home from a walk. What a cutie!
A light brown stick insect, about ten cm long, sitting on red-stained wood weatherboards.
June 7, 2024 at 12:24 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Maternity leave is over and I'm back on the PhD stipend beat with the 2024 edition of the Marsden PhD stipend graph. For new players: the Marsden Fund is Aotearoa NZ's govt blue-sky independent investigator fund, and stipends are to support students working on projects *full-time*. 🧪
A graph showing the NZ living wage, minimum wage, training wage, and Marsden Fund PhD and Masters' stipends from 2010-2024, expressed as dollars in the hand per week.
May 20, 2024 at 2:20 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Productive uses of my lunch break: the AoNZ anti-cycleway media article bingo card. Have fun.
A nine-square bingo card on a green background titled 'Aotearoa New Zealand anti-cycleway bingo', with squares like 'I'm a cyclist and I don't like using cycleways' and 'Roads are meant for cars'. The free space is 'I never see anybody using the cycleway anyway'.
May 2, 2024 at 12:52 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Last time I was in Ōtari there were new signs reminding people to keep dogs leashed as kiwi are in the area (the reserve backs on to Mākara). Incredible what we’re seeing so close to the CBD.
A dark green sign on a wooden post with a picture of a kiwi, asking people to keep their dogs leashed in the area as kiwi live there.
April 22, 2024 at 1:08 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
I usually don’t look at the accident forms our ECE provider sends home too closely but today I noticed that “TLC” is included as one of the possible responses 💚
A form showing a checklist of actions taken in response to an injury/accident at an ECE centre. “Ice pack” and “TLC” have been checked off.
March 20, 2024 at 5:10 AM
lcsnz.bsky.social
Interested to hear from scicomm people and other readers of popsci if this is now common: I read a popsci book last week which had NO in-text citations/references but instead had a 'notes' section with page numbers attached to bolded quotes followed by a citation. This seems...not good to me? 🧪
A book page with page numbers in a column down the left-hand side, each corresponding to a short, bolded quote followed by a citation.
March 6, 2024 at 11:49 PM