Science Media Centre

Japan’s approach to earthquake analysis and prediction is flawed and outdated, according to an expert commentary published in the journal Nature. An Japan-based American Seismologist, Robert J. Geller, has written a commentary article in Nature which makes a scathing attack on the earthquake prediction methodologies used by Japanese experts in the years preceding the devastating [...]

International research involving University of Otago researchers has found a new neuronal signalling pathway which could lead to improved treatments better able to limit the brain damage sustained after a stroke has taken place. The research, published in prestigious journal Nature, looked at brain damage in mice following stroke. It found that using a drug [...]

SMC UK: New research on the cooling of the Earth’s surface that occurred in the 1970s suggests that the culprit might in fact have been the rapid cooling oceans in the Northern Hemisphere rather than the increase in sulphate aerosols from pollution and volcanic eruptions which have traditionally been blamed for this hiatus in global [...]

Scientists in China have been studying genistein, a naturally-occurring ingredient of soya beans that they claim could interfere with the production of enzymes involved in sperm production. The researchers, who published their work in the Asian Journal of Andrology (a Nature journal) said: “Following ingestion, soy isoflavones are known to reach the reproductive organs. Thus, [...]

An opinion piece from climate scientists due out in today’s journal Nature says that unless major loopholes in the Copenhagen Accord are patched and a more binding agreement urgently made, the likelihood is high that warming will exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Concerns include the fact that countries are likely to meet the higher [...]

AusSMC: In a world-first study to be published in Nature, scientists have shown in human embryos a new technique developed last year in monkeys to treat maternally-inherited mitochondrial diseases. The study describes the first ever transfer of genetic material between fertilised human eggs which has the potential to ‘treat’ human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disease at [...]

SMC Climate science briefing Confused by the avalanche of climate science papers that have emerged this year? Need an update on where the next IPCC report is at? All your questions will be answered at a briefing for journalists onWednesday, November 11 at Environment House in Wellington. The briefing, held in conjunction with the Ministry [...]

Research by an international team of scientists including Professor Paul Rainey from the New Zealand Institute of Advanced Study has shown something very interesting: bacteria, much like people and many other organisms, hedge their bets against the uncertainties of the future. The paper, titled Experimental Evolution of Bet Hedging and featured as the cover story [...]

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) — in geological formations deep underground — is one of the major options proposed by advocates of natural gas and ‘clean coal’ technology as a way to limit future emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants. A new study highlighted on the cover of this week’s Nature answers important questions [...]

So what happens to the traditional cycle of publishing scientific research in journals when a major player like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decides to go open access for its research papers? Perhaps very little, but if the trend continues it could mean a sea change for the way new scientific discoveries are communicated, a [...]