Shaun Hendy
@hendysh.bsky.social
2.2K followers 950 following 340 posts
Physicist, complex systems, ex-COVID modeller, he/him Author of "The Covid Response" https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-covid-response
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Reposted by Shaun Hendy
testeeves.bsky.social
What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social olevo.bsky.social led by ever talented @aisrayne.bsky.social

📷 Kevin Parker
Whimsical photo of a karure | kakaruia | Chatham Island black robin courtesy of Kevin Parker. Features as a wee black bird with four leg bands: white over orange on the left leg and red over white on the right leg. Sneaky tufts of feathers peak out from otherwise borb-like body, encouraged by the unseen wind.
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
tepunahamatatini.bsky.social
🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪
Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.
hendysh.bsky.social
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
hendysh.bsky.social
Of course the Listener Letter made it into Krauss’ “The War on Science” (boo), but this means it gets the @shaunvids.bsky.social treatment (yay). TL;DR we need the humanities to teach scientists how to read
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
paulmainwood.bsky.social
A time series for London, but a similar pattern everywhere.

Measles vaccine in UK: 1968.
MMR in UK: 1988.

You can see the impact of each, because MMR boosts uptake enormously. Most of the lives saved by MMR are from measles.

Reversing this will - predictably - kill a large number of children.
hendysh.bsky.social
The Herald may have cut its science reporter, but thank god the speed bump beat is still fully staffed
NZ Herald article ‘Residents in new suburb complain of 22 speed bumps’
hendysh.bsky.social
The bio also refers to her as “Merry” on line 2 if you want an indication of how carefully they’ve been put together. AFAIK SPG is still drawing a salary at UoA too.
hendysh.bsky.social
Merryn Tawhai is an academic - the ABI is a UoA research centre.
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
mluczak.bsky.social
Registrations are now also open for the #netscix2026 conference. Early bird registration available until Nov 20th. netscix2026.github.io#register
hendysh.bsky.social
Yeah, I went to an ipad circa 2020 for lecture recording purposes
hendysh.bsky.social
Are there any chalkboards still in use at UoA?
tslumley.bsky.social
Causing tomorrow's problems with numbers today?
Huge poster "Solving tomorrow's problems with numbers today" and a chalkboard with a woman writing Detail from the right-hand edge of the chalkboard:
sin+10=(-3
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
melanienewfield.bsky.social
I've written more about #vaccines - here's an article which looks at the traditional approaches to making live and inactivate vaccines, then protein subunit vaccines, then what makes #mRNA such an important development. #sciart, although my rabbits need practice...
Title: vaccines late 1800s. Diagrame showing a sad rabbit about to be used to make Pasteur's rabies vaccine and explanation of how this was done by injecting rabbits with rabies, then removing their spinal cords (from dead rabbits) and drying the spinal cords to weaken the rabies virus present.
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
tepunahamatatini.bsky.social
✨ Nicholson Consulting’s 2025/26 Summer Internship is now open for applications! ✨ 🧵
A man relaxes on a beach with a laptop in Lombok.
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
marcdaalder.bsky.social
MPs at the Climate Change and Business Conference sat on a panel titled "Beyond Adaptation: Can we secure a cross-party approach?"

The answer, after a watch-through-your-fingers car wreck of a discussion, was a resounding no.
newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/10/e...
Ex-climate tsar likens squabbling politicians to toddlers
MPs on a climate panel managed to agree on just one point, that govt won't be able to pay for adaptation. The rest was politics.
newsroom.co.nz
hendysh.bsky.social
It’s considered polite to take it home first
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
melanienewfield.bsky.social
Part of the challenge is that mRNA vaccines can sound scary - it's understandable if people are concerned. So I'm writing a series about them, starting with an explanation of what viruses do inside our cells, and how our immune system fights back. theturnstone.substack.com/p/hostile-ta...
Hostile takeover
How viruses hijack the machinery of life, and how our body fights back (12 minute read)
theturnstone.substack.com
hendysh.bsky.social
Yeah, it’s a great ride, but you are pretty exposed for long stretches. This time of year I’d definitely think about some leggings and waterproof overtrousers!
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
legallyfeminist.bsky.social
In my work I often use women MPs as a lens to discuss the impact of online violence on democracy and human rights. I also note that's it's not only women, but keenly felt by gender minorities and rainbow folk. From April:
theconversation.com/a-damning-st...
#nzpol
hendysh.bsky.social
Thanks to @bwbnz.bsky.social @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social and @royalsocietynz.bsky.social for making #TheCovidResponse book tour possible. And thanks to the Canterbury crowd at Scorpio for a lively and engaging Q&A!
tepunahamatatini.bsky.social
Over the last few months, we've been supporting @bwbnz.bsky.social to get Shaun around Aotearoa to talk about this book. Last night he spoke to Rebecca Macfie at Scorpio Books in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Shaun Hendy speaks to Rebecca Macfie in front of an audience in a bookshop.
hendysh.bsky.social
Was the privilege of a lifetime to work with these folks. They each did amazing things under huge pressure day-in-day-out for more than two years.
tepunahamatatini.bsky.social
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a group of scientists and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand dropped everything they were doing and rolled up their sleeves to help the response. This response ultimately saved around 20,000 lives 🧪 🧵
A group photo of the researchers and scientists involved in New Zealand's covid response.
Reposted by Shaun Hendy
tepunahamatatini.bsky.social
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a group of scientists and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand dropped everything they were doing and rolled up their sleeves to help the response. This response ultimately saved around 20,000 lives 🧪 🧵
A group photo of the researchers and scientists involved in New Zealand's covid response.
hendysh.bsky.social
It’s worth noting that there were epidemiologists at the core of Plan B, Great Barrington etc. Simon Thornley contributes to the recent VFF submission by pushing Gibson’s work, for example. Epistemic trespass is necessary, but not sufficient to describe the Covid misinformation engine.