Science Media Centre

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Victoria University of Wellington professors Tim Naish and James Renwick – ahead of their nationwide speaking tour – outline 10 facts New Zealanders might not know about climate change. An excerpt (read in full). Ten things New Zealand can learn about climate change 1 Wellington has the longest continuous carbon dioxide […]

Dominion Post reporter Nikki MacDonald interviews the Wellington scientists who have found, and patented, a new vaccine for asthma. The research – a collaboration between the Malaghan Institute and Victoria University’s Ferrier Research Institute – was published today in Nature Chemical Biology and shows that the vaccine prevents inflammation of the lungs and airways in mice. If successful in humans, the […]

New Zealand, American and Japanese scientists are combining forces to investigate the boundary between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates under Wellington to better understand its threat to New Zealand. GNS Science announced the collaborative project, which will see hundreds of portable seismographs installed in a line across the lower North Island. Kiran Chug covered […]

Previously unheard-of wasp behaviour documented by Victoria University scientists has gained major media coverage both in New Zealand and overseas. Dr Julien Grangier and Assoc. Professor Philip Lester, from the Victoria University School of Biological Sciences, noted some unusual behaviour displayed by invasive wasps (Vespula vulgaris) competing for food with native New Zealand ants (Prolasius […]

Our understanding of how, and why, the earth’s largest ice sheet lost so much of its ice between 7,000 and 14,000 years ago has significantly improved due to research conducted by an international team of researchers led by VUW scientist Dr Andrew Mackintosh. The research, published in prestigious journal Nature Geoscience this morning, used a […]

The potential impacts of an increase in sea level over the course of the next century were the subject of a Science Media Centre media briefing held today. Listen to audio from the briefing by clicking the player below Part I [audio:https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2010/09/sea-leve-rise-part-1.mp3] Part II [audio:https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2010/09/sea-level-rise-part-2.mp3] Scientists who have contributed to a Royal Society of New […]

It’ll be one of the biggest scientific projects since the Large Hadron Collider was constructed beneath the Franco-Swiss border and could massively advance what we know about the universe and how it was formed. And a global competition to host the Square Kilometre Array project also means New Zealand may get to play a significant […]

A UK-led group of climate researchers claim their research has demonstrated for the first time that human activity is responsible for significant warming in both polar regions. Rising Arctic temperatures and the accelerating retreat of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been widely reported in scientific journals and the popular press. However, these changes […]

A Dutch-led team of European researchers have considered multiple scenarios for tackling global warming and outlined the impact on the planet as various levels of emissions-mitigating strategies are employed. The message: Avoiding warming this century of more than 2 degrees (celsius) will require mitigation efforts at the top of the range currently being considered. Humans […]