Science Media Centre

Buried in sediment under an ancient crater lake in Central Otago, fossilised leaves have helped Kiwi researchers find the long-term effects of increasing CO2 levels on melting Antarctic ice. Preserved in sediment containing no oxygen to aid decomposition, the sediment cores were essentially stacked annual layers similar to tree ring or ice cores. Studying the […]

A new report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, has called for New Zealanders to work together to tackle the “complex problem of the biological greenhouse gases from agriculture”. Methane and nitrous oxide form about half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, but there have been many false starts in dealing with […]

A third medical school, based in Waikato, has been proposed as a joint initiative between the University of Waikato and the Waikato District Health Board. But the plan has drawn ire from the country’s two existing medical schools. The proposed Waikato Medical School would take a community-focused approach, the University of Waikato said in a […]

Researchers in Antarctica have co-opted some unlikely assistants in their examination of microbial communities in the southern continent. Mummified seals, found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica,  have been used by the researchers as a of way changing the environment experienced by microbes. Scientists moved a 250-year old seal carcass 20 meters to an […]

Children taking part in a new initiative called Project Energize show significant health benefits, with Energize children less overweight and obese, having smaller waists, and able to run faster than comparison groups, according to a new report published this week. The Energize programme, initiated in 2005, and funded by the Waikato District Health Board, aims to increase […]

Grant Bradley writes about a pilot project taking place, in Waikato, to test underground coal gasification (UCG), which makes use of inaccessible coal by turning it into a syngas which can be used to produce energy. The technology is already used elsewhere in the world. An excerpt: (read in full here) “The process has been […]