Guest Work

Climate change and the acidifying, freshening, warming Southern Ocean

Guest Author • Nov 30, 2011

by Matthew Thompson, editor – The Conversation The distinctive, planet-encircling flows of the Southern Ocean have played a role in moderating global warming, but change is at hand with the water heating up, getting less salty, storing more carbon, and growing more acidic. The Southern Ocean, as photographed during the Thomas G Thompson Southern Ocean Expedition. These … Read More

Vitamins: Myths, facts, use and misuse

Guest Author • Nov 10, 2011

By Louis Roller, Honorary Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice at Monash University The belief that supranutritional doses of vitamins will improve quality of life doesn’t match what science tells us. When it comes to using vitamins to supplement diets, there’s a wide gap between what science says and what many consumers believe. A recent study, for instance, … Read More

Milk milk everywhere but not a drop to drink

Guest Author • Oct 20, 2011

By Professor Jack Heinemann, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury Kiwis are drinking less milk but making more of it. Between 1995 and 2007, the amount of milk consumed by New Zealanders decreased 28% or 21 kilograms/capita/year (kg/capita/yr). The proportion of the food budget going to milk also decreased between 1993 and 2008. What has caused this … Read More

Nature vs. nurture: score = one all

Guest Author • Oct 05, 2011

By James Heathers, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney Psychologists have debated whether our interests are a result of nature or nurture for more than 100 years. So, you’ve got your father’s blonde hair and you were raised in a cricket-mad household and you like cricket. But is it your genes or your childhood that’s … Read More

Banning plastic bags: real change, or a cosmetic solution?

Guest Author • Sep 06, 2011

by  Robin Tennant-Wood, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business and Government at University of Canberra From today, plastic bags are banned in the Northern Territory. The ACT will follow suit in November: in 2009 the ACT abandoned its 14-year old ’No Waste by 2010’ strategy and replaced it with a ban on plastic shopping bags. While campaigns against plastic bags … Read More

As we build our world we build our minds

Guest Author • Aug 09, 2011

A guest post by Matt Boyd (formerly Gers). Matt is studying for a PhD in the philosophy of developmental psychology at VUW, and is examining the extent to which there is a symmetrical relationship between genomes and cultures. Context builds us Imagine there is a nuclear apocalypse. All adult humans are killed and technology as we know it is … Read More

The current 'cool' factor in science

Guest Author • Jul 26, 2011

By Jamie Fenton, Young New Zealander of the Year Scientists in New Zealand appear to be popular. Both of the Kiwi bank New Zealanders of the year have been scientists; Sir Ray Avery in 2010, and Professor Sir Paul Callaghan in 2011. Both men, along with Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, are … Read More

Tangaroa's amazing voyage

Peter Griffin • Jul 18, 2011

A research voyage report from NIWA… NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa has just completed a very successful voyage of habitats of significance for marine organisms and biodiversity. ’We were amazed by what we saw,’ says NIWA’s Dr Mark Morrison, programme leader. Over 42 days, split across two voyages, the Tangaroa worked its way down the country and back, working 24 … Read More