Science Media Centre

Mark Hotton writes in the Southland Times about a speech by AgResearch’s Dr Jason Archer in which he outlined several technologies which could help improve New Zealand’s meat production. While New Zealand will never be able to produce meat as cheaply as some other countries, technologies are being developed which could help farmers to sustainably [...]

On Tuesday night I was able to go and see UPLoad 2010.  Titled ‘The Great Broadband Debate’, it covered (amongst other things) the sitrep for broadband in New Zealand, why we need that second undersea cable, and how our lives might be changed by access to the sorts of broadband available elsewhere in the world. [...]

Mark Hotton of the Southland Times writes about the idea, dreamt up by a think tank which explores the relationship between new media and ‘the human condition’, to connect some cows to twitter, allowing their farmer to keep track of their production. The tweets, which are enabled by the cows’ use of robotic milking technology, [...]

Earlier today, Prime Minister John Key announced that the government will be spending some $321 million on Research, Science and Technology, of which $225 million will be new funding. The funding will be spent on a range of initiatives, from actively encouraging commercialisation and technology transfer, to funding additional postdocs and attracting talented overseas scientists [...]

Prime Minister John Key has said that next week’s budget will have a strong focus on science, technology and innovation. Other initiatives include removing bottlenecks in portfolios, and exploring the implementation of sustainable mining. An excerpt: (read in full here) “”The challenge for us is to get more of our firms using science, research and [...]

Andrew Stone reviews the book Sex Bombs And Burgers: How War, Porn And Fast Food Created Technology As We Know It, by Peter Nowak. In his book, Nowak discusses how the industries behind war, food and pornography have indelibly shaped the technology we use, and our culture with it, citing such examples as Lena, a [...]

New Zealand has some fine science and environment reporters reporting for print, television and radio. Based all over the country, from Auckland to Wellington to Christchurch, they help to ensure that New Zealanders are kept up to date with science and environment issues both here and abroad. The Science Media Centre approached some of them, [...]

Claire McEntee of the Dominion Post talks about a new, controversial tagging scheme for livestock which could eventually boost farm productivity and output. The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in the ears of cattle and deer has been made mandatory by 2011.  The use of these, and electronic identification (EID) systems change could [...]

Ben Heather of The Press reports that technology was New Zealand’s third largest export industry last year, leaving behind both wine and meat exports. New Zealand exported over $5 billion in technology last year, and technology firms also weathered the recession better than many other industries. An excerpt: (read in full here) Ernst and Young [...]

Click on the link below to download the SMC Top 10 science stories of 2009 report: SMC – Top 10 science stories of 2009