It’s been a funny old year, this 2025. For a start there’s been the ease with which it’s possible to make sentences that include the words ‘dumpster fire’ and ‘the Earth’. Or sentences involving the words ‘collapse’, ‘end-game’ and similar terms. History tells me this isn’t the first time civilisation has faced such strains. Which … More Season’s greetings – and here’s to 2026
I discover that a while back some of my published work was appropriated by Meta and fed into their AI system. I was never approached for licensing, never paid – they just took my IP without permission and used it for their own commercial gain. To me that alone is reason enough to never use … More Why AI isn’t intelligent – and the AI theft of my work
Mention the name Ernest Rutherford and you might think about splitting atoms, something the straight-talking physicist from Nelson first did during his spare time in 1917-18, blasting particles out of the nucleus of a nitrogen atom. He named these nuclear particles ‘protons’, after chemist Charles Prout. That was a pivotal moment in world history, but … More The importance of being Ernest Rutherford
In the past ten days or so I’ve been involved with a rapid-fire series of interviews and bookshop talks featuring my new book, Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics. It’s out now in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, and is due to be released in the United States on 11 November. One … More Putting the pieces together, using Frank Zappa as inspiration
“If you know nothing more about Rutherford than his existence as the man on the hundred dollar note,and some nebulous idea about ‘splitting the atom’, strap in!” – Benjamin R. Dickson, New Zealand Science Review, Vol. 80, 2025. I’ve had a packed week. My book Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics was released … More An author’s busy week
My latest book is being published next week in the United States, Britain, Australia by Scribe and in New Zealand by Oratia. Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics explores the way our current view of physics emerged over a generation from the late nineteenth century – in turn opening doors for today’s technology. … More Ernest Rutherford: greater than we know
It’s September, and this is my first blog post for 2025. Why? Because reasons. My priority this year has been book writing. And I’m delighted to say that my latest book is being released worldwide in a few weeks by Scribe, and in New Zealand by Oratia Books. It’s a hardback in the UK and … More A new book on Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics
Here we are at the end of 2024 already. Blink, and the year’s gone, it seems. For me it’s been a very busy year – so busy, in fact, that I’ve had no time for blogging and very little for any sort of social media. This year I’ve published three books: (1) the 330,000 word … More Nearing the end of 2024
My long-standing history of Hawke’s Bay is out this month in new edition. It’s been in print and selling steadily since 2017. This new edition is in full colour, with full revision of everything from the 1950s onwards and a major update covering the cyclone that devastated Hawke’s Bay in February 2023 New colour pictures … More The history of Hawke’s Bay – third edition
I have not blogged much in the past couple of years. Why? Many reasons, including workload. There’s also the inescapable social fact that written long-form blogs are well past their heyday. But more crucially the problem has been what Cory Doctorow calls the ‘enshittification’ of internet services. Let me go through all those, starting with … More The future of blogging – and the world
Matthew Wright 
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