Science Media Centre

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman, outlines the important role Auckland will play in the future of New Zealand’s science and technology sector. An excerpt (read in full here): Science key to richer country New Zealand’s export economy has been dominated by its primary industries, commodities [...]

Sir Peter Gluckman and several colleagues have called for policy makers to take a long view of the causes of obesity and related diseases. In a commentary article published in the international journal Science Translational Medicine, Sir Peter and associates outline the need for a developmental perspective in curbing obesity rates, particularly in developing countries. [...]

At this morning’s SCANZ conference in Auckland, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, gave a speech about the ever-increasing importance (and difficulty) of the interaction between scientists, media, policy makers, politicians and the public. The full transcript is available below. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I want to [...]

Dan Satherly writes for 3 News about the recent Transitions to Sustainability conference, and some of the major themes at the conference. One of these was that the changes which society needs to make in the coming decades, aren’t going to be easy, as climate change and resource constrains begin to have ever greater effects. [...]

Airing a range of ideas on how to move the New Zealand science system forwards, prominent speakers gathered today in Wellington for the 2010 conference of New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS). ‘Re-setting science and innovation for the next 20 years’ was the theme of the one-day event, co-hosted with the Institute of Policy Studies, [...]

Synthetic biology breakthrough Geneticist Dr Craig Venter was integral to the sequencing of the human genome. Now he claims to have made a breakthrough in his long-running bid to create synthetically generated cells – essentially, artificial life. The aim, he says, is to develop organisms designed with chemical, industrial even medical purposes in mind, an [...]

Q+A’s Paul Holmes interviews the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman about the Global Research Alliance, an international initiative set up by New Zealand to investigate how best to reduce agricultural emissions. The GRA’s first meeting took place recently in Wellington, and Gluckman commented on the GRA and its purpose, as well [...]

New Zealand Association of Scientists President Kathryn McGrath on Dr Peter Gluckman’s maiden speech in his new capacity as Chief Science Advisor. Science should be a great career choice and scientists have much to contribute to New Zealand’s future prosperity – pity about the low morale, resulting from past promotion of aggressive competition between research [...]

Excerpts from a column by Professor Gluckman, director of the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, a leading centre for research on fetal and child health, breast cancer, epigenetics and evolutionary medicine. Read the column in full here. Some excerpts: “Just as many have not adapted to fast food and develop diabetes, it is now clear [...]