Science Media Centre

UPDATED: A snapshot of New Zealand’s science and innovation system has laid out where we are doing well and where there is room for improvement compared to other small advanced economies. The Science and Innovation System Performance Report was published yesterday by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and is intended to benchmark performance […]

Researchers studying kārearea – New Zealand falcon – in the North and South Island were surprised to find a clear difference in the birds’ sizes. Massey University’s Professor Steven Trewick led the study, which examined body sizes and neutral genetic markers for Falco novaeseelandiae – New Zealand’s only surviving endemic raptor species. They found the South […]

The impacts of climate change are already visible in New Zealand and will get worse unless drastic action is taken to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases, warns a new report from the Royal Society of New Zealand. The report identifies key areas of risk including: coastal margins; flooding from rivers; availability of and competition […]

The director of genetics at Otago University, Peter Dearden, spoke on Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Morning show about his proposal for a taonga genome project to get New Zealand scientists discovering more about the county’s native species, including animals, plants and insects. You can read more about the proposed project in Assoc Prof Dearden’s post […]

Campbell Live’s Tristram Clayton and Whena Owen interviewed GNS scientists last night about the latest findings on central New Zealand’s ‘megathrust’ quake zone. We already know that New Zealand is earthquake-prone and that the Hikurangi Margin, where the Australian Plate pushes down on the Pacific Plate, is a hotspot. However scientists have now found evidence, after analysing sediment cores from […]

Funding new medicines in New Zealand can take over eight years and recommending a drug as high priority does not necessarily shorten its wait time, a new study finds. New research published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal has found that there are a substantial number of medicines awaiting funding in New Zealand by […]

Rocket Lab, the Auckland-based aerospace company, unveiled its latest innovation at the US Space Symposium this week: a 3D-printed, battery-powered rocket engine. Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck says that the Rutherford engine – named after New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford – is the world’s first battery-powered rocket engine and the first new rocket propulsion system created in 50 years, according […]

A new report authored by researchers at AUT and the University of Waikato has revealed that New Zealand’s appearances are deceiving when it comes to human rights. The report, titled Fault lines: Human Rights in New Zealand, looks at the country’s commitment to six different international human rights treaties and includes interviews with politicians and both domestic and international experts. […]

A magnificent light display – known as the Southern Lights or Aurora Australis – was visible even as far north as Australia on Tuesday night, with the best vantage being in the lower half of the South Island. The curtains and swirls of red, pink and green light are only seen in a few countries nearest […]

The media attention is back on the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) biggest ever aerial 1080 drop in an effort to battle rats and stoats, a major threat to New Zealand’s native bird species. In the latest episode of TV3’s current affairs show 3rd Degree, Samantha Hayes speaks to the DOC’s Graeme Elliot and Landcare Research’s Dr Janine Duckworth to find […]