Science communicator Siouxsie Wiles spoke about Covid-19, conspiracy theories and how being a goth teenager led her into microbiology, at the 2021 NZ International Science Festival.

Science communicator and 2021 New Zealander of the Year Siouxsie Wiles is dedicated to informing the general public about the issues that matter.

At this year's NZ International Science Festival held in July, she spoke about conspiracy theories, why she's dyed her hair pink for 21 years and how being a goth teenager led her into microbiology.

Listen to Siouxsie Wiles in conversation with Jesse Bering

Edited highlights from the discussion:

Siouxsie Wiles:

My microbiology origin story is partly related to being a goth as a teenager. You're supposed to kind of like death and destruction, and I was reading Edgar Allan Poe, various things like that. And either I picked it up, or somebody gave me, the Fireside Book of Deadly Diseases. I just found these tales of tuberculosis and plague absolutely fascinating. And I remember thinking "What would it be like to live in those times?" and now we don't have to imagine, although it's not what I thought it was going to be.

I read those books and I thought, wow, this is kind of amazing. I want to understand more about how bacteria and viruses work. And so I ended up going to university to do biology. But the more microbiology courses I took, the more I just got sucked in.

Jesse Bering:

Do you remember the moment where you first heard about bioluminescence?

Siouxsie Wiles:

Bioluminescence is this chemical reaction that glowing creatures use to make light. I've always been that kid who loved glowing stuff. Like I had all the stars on my ceiling, right? I've always loved the idea of fireflies - it's quite mesmerising. During my degree, I got my first glimpse of the science of using light when I got to engineer plants to glow in the dark using the firefly enzyme, and I thought, "Oh my God, that's so cool!"

There was a PhD project that was all about making bacteria glow, acting as pollution sensors. And so that's what I did. And then I guess through the process, I realised you could turn that into a job. If you'd said to me as a kid, "You'll have a job making things glow in the dark" I would have said "Really?"…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details