Science Media Centre

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has asked that the work of the IPCC be reviewed by the world’s science agencies. An excerpt: (read in full here) “Mr Ban said the overall concept of man-made climate change was robust, and action to curb emissions badly needed. “Work will be co-ordinated by the Inter-Academy Council, which will [...]

The Australian Science Media Centre rounded up questions on climate science from journalists and put them to leading scientists in the field. Below is the resulting Q&A. 1) There has been conflicting messages about warming in recent years – is it or is it not getting warmer? Professor Steven Sherwood, Climate Change Research Centre at [...]

Nutrigenomics – what is it exactly? Genes, diet and gut health will be the focus of discussion in Auckland next week as scientists, nutritionists and food technologists gather for a conference looking at what the latest research says about how foods affect gene expression and therefore human health. It is early days for nutrigenomics, but [...]

DNA Pioneer in SMC briefing As New Zealand forensic scientists prepare to mark 20 years of DNA testing in New Zealand the Science Media Centre is pleased to host an online briefing for journalists featuring one of the founding fathers of DNA forensics, Dr Peter Gill. As this Times article explains, Dr Gill was part [...]

Last year saw the start of the ‘Climategate’ email controversy, in which it was claimed that top climate scientists from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia had behaved inappropriately. Since then, an official enquiry has been launched to look into the issue, and our colleagues at the UK SMC gathered comment [...]

Kiran Chug of the Dominion Post reports that a local scientist, Professor Martin Manning, is part of an international team of scientists who are proposing an overhaul of climate change research models. However, the proposal has nothing to do with recent controversy surrounding the IPCC’s 4th report – instead, the scientists involved have been working [...]

In response to intensifying calls for reform of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), five influential climatologists have stepped forward with their views on what ought to be done. Their suggestions, in an Opinions article in today’s edition of the journal Nature, range from reaffirming the current structure with an emphasis on best practise, [...]

Lancet kills MMR paper 10 years on The move by London-based medical journal The Lancet to retract a ten year old paper that suggested a potential link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children effectively ends one of the longest running medical controversies of recent decades. The retraction from The Lancet editor Richard Horton [...]

The 3 News team talk with Gareth Renowden about recent errors in scientific reports on climate change, which are fuelling sceptics’ claims that global warming isn’t happening. Recent claims that the Himalyan glaciers could melt by 2035 were in fact a typo, and other errors have also been found.  Renowden discusses the errors and their [...]

Vaimoana Tapaleao of the NZ Herald reports that, despite recent errors, there is still strong support amongst scientists for the most recent IPCC document. Climate scientist Jim Salinger has said that he still supports the conclusions of the report, and that one or two small errors did not negate the entire document. An excerpt: (read [...]