Science Media Centre

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Dominion Post reporter Kiran Chug covered the story and spoke to Massey University Professor Ralph Sims, an expert who contributed to the report. (The report was also covered in the New Zealand Herald, and a full IPCC press release [...]

“Plenty more earthquakes” to come Canterbury University engineering expert Professor Andy Buchanan wasn’t mincing his words in this week’s Science Media Centre media briefing – he considers it a “fluke” that no one was killed in September’s 7.1 quake in Canterbury. The time of day – the quake struck at 4.35am on a Saturday morning [...]

Stu Oldham writes in the Otago Daily Times about criticism of government’s Draft NZ Energy Strategy, including that it is unlikely that we will reach the target of 90% renewably generated electricity by 2025. There are also concerns that the Strategy’s focus on using petroleum and mineral resources could damage New Zealand’s environment, and its [...]

The government’s Developing our Energy Potential – Draft New Zealand Energy Strategy and Draft New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy document has been open to public submissions for the last three months, with submissions due to close by tomorrow. The strategy document fits energy within government’s stated goal of growing New Zealand’s economy.  It [...]

Wrangling over water issues Polluted rivers, dirty dairying, greening the MacKenzie Country, dams for hydro-power and water allocation — these are just some of the big water issues that have been in the headlines in recent months. Although freshwater is relatively abundant in New Zealand, uneven distribution of water resources and increasingly intensive use have [...]

Grant Bradley writes about a pilot project taking place, in Waikato, to test underground coal gasification (UCG), which makes use of inaccessible coal by turning it into a syngas which can be used to produce energy. The technology is already used elsewhere in the world. An excerpt: (read in full here) “The process has been [...]

Simply tasting carbohydrate has the ability to boost muscle strength, according to research conducted by University of Auckland scientists. Their research found that a carbohydrate solution in the mouth was able to improve performance, without it needing to be swallowed and digested.  The scientists have suggested the effect could be due to neuronal circuits telling [...]

Rebeccah Todd writes in the Waikato Times about research being undertaken by Lincoln’s Plant & Food Research scientists into how the composition of food, as well as how we eat it, affects the extent to which it satisfies us. They have discovered, for example, that chewing less and taking bigger bites is probably better for [...]

An announcement by Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee last week (at a conference of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) in Queenstown) has raised the possibility that Department of Conservation land may be opened to mineral prospecting. The value of untapped minerals in New Zealand has been estimated at around $140 billion, [...]

An increasing number of countries around the world are turning to nuclear power to meet growing demand for electricity, avoid use of fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diversify their energy mix away from a dominant supplier. Australia is following a different path. Does this make strategic sense? Thirty-one countries representing two-thirds of humanity [...]