Events

A stunning triumph of biosecurity management, careful quarantine growing conditions and an eye on Aotearoa New Zealand’s priceless art history, comes together in ‘Kauri Ora’, a collaborative project launching 5 May 2022.

‘Kauri Ora’ is a project co-presented by McCahon House, The Kauri Project, Auckland Botanic Gardens and Auckland Council Biosecurity with the support of Te Kawerau ā Maki, and unveils 300 saplings of kauri trees, saved from the ravages of kauri die-back disease on the famous artist’s property in Titirangi.

The Titirangi grounds of McCahon House are home to mature kauri, many of which are immortalised in Colin McCahon’s art. In 2010, the kauri were tested positive for the disease and all of the trees had succumbed, with two being felled immediately. Seeds were later harvested from the 27 remaining trees by arborists from BioSense who collected cones from the tree tops. Viable seeds were then selected and potted, by expert staff at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Now, these special saplings are being offered to the public for a limited fundraiser to raise funds for McCahon House and The Kauri Project. This will be used to fundraise, raise awareness for the harms and potential ways to deal with die-back.

A stunning triumph of biosecurity management, careful quarantine growing conditions and an eye on Aotearoa New Zealand’s priceless art history, comes together in ‘Kauri Ora’, a collaborative project launching 5 May 2022.

‘Kauri Ora’ is a project co-presented by McCahon House, The Kauri Project, Auckland Botanic Gardens and Auckland Council Biosecurity with the support of Te Kawerau ā Maki, and unveils 300 saplings of kauri trees, saved from the ravages of kauri die-back disease on the famous artist’s property in Titirangi.

The Titirangi grounds of McCahon House are home to mature kauri, many of which are immortalised in Colin McCahon’s art. In 2010, the kauri were tested positive for the disease and all of the trees had succumbed, with two being felled immediately. Seeds were later harvested from the 27 remaining trees by arborists from BioSense who collected cones from the tree tops. Viable seeds were then selected and potted, by expert staff at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Now, these special saplings are being offered to the public for a limited fundraiser to raise funds for McCahon House and The Kauri Project. This will be used to fundraise, raise awareness for the harms and potential ways to deal with die-back.

A stunning triumph of biosecurity management, careful quarantine growing conditions and an eye on Aotearoa New Zealand’s priceless art history, comes together in ‘Kauri Ora’, a collaborative project launching 5 May 2022.

‘Kauri Ora’ is a project co-presented by McCahon House, The Kauri Project, Auckland Botanic Gardens and Auckland Council Biosecurity with the support of Te Kawerau ā Maki, and unveils 300 saplings of kauri trees, saved from the ravages of kauri die-back disease on the famous artist’s property in Titirangi.

The Titirangi grounds of McCahon House are home to mature kauri, many of which are immortalised in Colin McCahon’s art. In 2010, the kauri were tested positive for the disease and all of the trees had succumbed, with two being felled immediately. Seeds were later harvested from the 27 remaining trees by arborists from BioSense who collected cones from the tree tops. Viable seeds were then selected and potted, by expert staff at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Now, these special saplings are being offered to the public for a limited fundraiser to raise funds for McCahon House and The Kauri Project. This will be used to fundraise, raise awareness for the harms and potential ways to deal with die-back.

As many as 150 New Zealanders are diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND) each year. The rate of MND in New Zealand is among the highest in the world, but who develops the disease and why? MND can run in families but is most often diagnosed in people with no family history, who are caught totally unaware. In this talk, I will discuss the factors that increase the risk of developing MND; namely genetics and environmental agents. I will also discuss what we know about MND in New Zealand, based on findings from our national genetics study and our programme of human brain tissue research, and put this into context against international findings. Finally, I will detail how collaboration between our biomedical research team, various clinical teams, and the patient care and advocacy group MND NZ, is enabling the establishment of NZ clinical trials for MND.

East Coast LAB (Life At the Boundary) is a collaborative programme that brings together scientists, emergency managers, experts and stakeholders across the East Coast to make it easy and exciting to learn more about the natural hazards that can affect us.

One long standing East Coast LAB initiative is Tsunami Hīkoi Week. A Tsunami Hīkoi is a walk to your tsunami safe location, and each year during the week surrounding the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami anniversary, the community is encouraged to practice their Hīkoi, as a regular reminder of exactly what to do after a long or strong earthquake.

In our digital and virtual age, we are haunted by principles of “beauty” from both European and colonial art that are complex and fraught. As we increasingly incorporate digital representations of people into cinema, how do we account for the racial and colonial underpinnings of the technology and conventions that ground these representations? Most significantly, how can we look to mātauranga design for more equitable and future focused ways of accommodating genuinely diverse representations on screen?

Join Raqi Syed and Missy Molloy as they discuss racial dimensions of screen aesthetics from different angles. Raqi will address these questions with reference to her own work in visual effects and real-time immersive technologies, while Missy will tackle the controversial question of whether women of colour have a place in Jane Campion’s celebrated screen feminism. This lecture will prompt the audience to ask where they stand on these issues?

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Join the Wellington Branch of Forest & Bird for a talk by Melanie Teahan on the Galapagos of the Southern Ocean – New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands which will be directly preceded by a short AGM.

Melanie visited all 5 of New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic island groups in January on an expedition cruise with Heritage Expeditions. She received a True Young Explorer scholarship from Heritage Expeditions to join the 12-day cruise. She will share her stories and photos of highlights from these remote islands, including penguin and albatross colonies, isolated historic sites, and close encounters with sea lions and elephant seals.

Zoom Call to Scott Base
When: Tuesday 17 May at 2pm
This is a chance for your class to listen to the scientists working at Scott Base.
Spaces are limited so it is essential to register.

Since large-scale production of plastics began in the 1950s, around 5 gigatons (Gt) of plastic waste has amassed in landfills or the natural environment. As they age, plastics become brittle through exposure to sunlight and break down to produce microplastics (and even smaller nanoplastics). It is a well-established fact that microplastics are in our oceans, rivers, and soils. Over the past five years, we have also learned that microplastics are floating in the air we breathe.

Dr Laura Revell is an associate professor of environmental physics in the University of Canterbury’s School of Physical and Chemical Sciences. Associate Professor Revell’s research focuses on how greenhouse gases and airborne particulate matter behave in the atmosphere, and how Earth’s climate is affected as a result. She has led numerous climate modelling studies examining how greenhouse gas emissions affect the ozone layer and air quality. Her research group recently reported the presence of airborne microplastics in Aotearoa New Zealand – the first study of its kind – and is studying how airborne microplastics interact with the global climate system.

“Because they are so small and lightweight, microplastics are blown with winds to remote regions that are rarely visited by humans and have been found in the air across a range of locations from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Within Canterbury alone, we have discovered airborne microplastics on the coast and high country, as well as in Christchurch city,” Associate Professor Revell says.

“Initial studies suggest that when inhaled, microplastics are damaging to human health. A second reason to be concerned about airborne microplastics is that they contribute to climate change: microplastics reflect sunlight back to space, but they also trap heat emitted by the Earth.

In her upcoming Tauhere UC Connect public lecture, Airborne microplastics and climate change, on Wednesday 18 May, Associate Professor Revell will discuss “what we know so far about the role of airborne microplastics in a changing climate, along with what is not yet known”.

“I will share results from my research group’s airborne microplastics sampling efforts, as well as the challenges presented by sampling in remote places. Finally, I will share results from preliminary sampling in New Zealand homes during a Covid-19 lockdown, which offer a glimpse into the ubiquity of airborne microplastic in indoor environments.”

Come and hear a GNS Science-hosted expert panel give a retrospective from the future about Taranaki (and the rest of the world's) energy transition. We will discuss what this future might look like, with a focus on our progress towards a zero-carbon 2050.

Our panel will feature representatives from industry and green tech, Iwi, as well as GNS scientists.

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