Science Media Centre

Innovation has become a major touchstone for policymakers and scientists as New Zealand makes  changes to some of its state science infrastructure to better support research and development  – including restructuring Industrial Research Ltd (IRL) into the nation’s biggest platform for industry, to be called Advanced Technology. The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter [...]

Rugby is central to New Zealand’s sense of national self worth— but this can be a problem given New Zealand’s recent track record of not winning world cup contests, says Associate Professor of Psychology,   Marc Wilson, of Victoria University in Wellington. “We love our rugby,” he said in a public lecture at Wellington on September [...]

Increasing obesity rates in New Zealand present a real health issue, and experts are saying we need to re-think the way we look at weight gain and dieting. Obesity has had much public focus recently, with high-profile health researchers last week calling on the government to act, and Otago University yesterday releasing a podcast examining [...]

How can we gauge the impact on weather of global warming above and beyond natural variation in weather patterns?

The Science Media Centre today held a press briefing to release new information about the chemical make-up of synthetic cannabis products. Crown Research Institute ESR has been testing all available varieties of herbal smoking blends treated with legal, psychoactive synthetic cannabinoids. While the cannabinoid JWH-018 is one chemical speculated to be in the products, there [...]

ONLINE MEDIA BRIEFING: Wed 6 July 10.30 AM Soil, water, energy, air, wildlife and minerals — they underpin our economy, but go largely unrecognised when it comes to tallying up the balance sheet. Recent steps by policy-makers in the UK and locally are making concrete efforts to move away from a purely economic valuation of [...]

What does earthquake damage to buildings and structures during the Christchurch earthquakes mean for building design in the future? A new information paper launched today brings together the science and engineering expertise of several organisations — the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ), the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), the Structural Engineering Society [...]

“Small countries cannot rely on small science,” say backers of a new initiative linking high-powered supercomputers throughout the country.  The National eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) will be launched this week at an event in Auckland. The Infrastructure is a distributed network of efficient, coordinated and accessible computing resources – representing superior computing power for New Zealand [...]

The Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman, today released a comprehensive report on the health and social issues faced by New Zealand’s teenagers. The Prime Minister last year asked his Sir Peter Gluckman to explore the factors underlying adolescent behaviour and to indicate where there may be evidence-based opportunities for changes to policy [...]

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is assessing the carcinogenic hazards associated with exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. They are looking at: (a) occupational exposures to radiation from radar and to microwaves, (b) environmental exposures associated with transmission of signals for radio, television and wireless telecommunication, and (c) personal exposures associated with the [...]

Geothermal energy now generates around 13 percent of New Zealand’s electricity, but scientists gathering this week in Taupo will explore options for vastly expanding the resource’s potential. A two-day workshop (25 – 26 May) “HADES: Hotter and Deeper Exploration Science” will bring together engineers and geothermal specialists from 10 countries to discuss the international context [...]

The Science Media Centre’s latest Heads-Up newsletter is out – bringing you the latest science and tech news and a peek at what’s coming up in the week ahead. Click on the image below to read the Heads-Up.