Hot off the press

Our brains perceive our environment differently when we’re lying down

Guest Author • Aug 03, 2021

• balance,
• perception,
• senses

David I. Shore, McMaster University   You’re agitated by the sound of a mosquito buzzing around your head. The buzzing stops. You feel the tiny pinprick and locate the target. Whack! It’s over. It’s a simple sequence, but it demands complex processing. How did you know where the mosquito was before you could even see it? The human body is … Read More

Kids set free to roam on their own feel more confident navigating in adulthood

Guest Author • Jul 30, 2021

• children,
• COVID-19,
• navigating,
• roaming

Vanessa Vieites, Rutgers University   The distance from home that kids are allowed to roam and play has shrunk significantly over the last 50 years. That’s largely due to parents’ concerns over safety, especially in cities. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has further restricted children’s independent activity. As a Ph.D. student in psychology, I studied factors … Read More

Fossil tooth fractures and microscopic detail of enamel offer new clues about human diet and evolution

Guest Author • Jul 27, 2021

• evolution,
• fossils,
• New Zealand stories,
• teeth

Ian Towle; Carolina Loch, and Thomas Loho, University of Auckland   Teeth can tell us a lot about the evolution of prehistoric humans, and our latest study of one of our species’ close relatives may finally resolve a long-standing mystery. The genus Paranthropus is closely related to ours, Homo, and lived about one to three … Read More

When an ancient volcanic ‘supereruption’ caused sudden cooling, early humans got lucky

Guest Author • Jul 22, 2021

• Climate,
• Indonesia,
• Toba,
• Volcanoes

Ben Black, Rutgers University and Anja Schmidt, University of Cambridge Around 74,000 years ago, a “supereruption” on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, blasted out an estimated 5,000 cubic kilometres of magma. This was the Toba eruption, the largest volcanic eruption of the past 2 million years. To put 5,000 cubic kilometres of magma in perspective, this is more than … Read More

Do you answer emails outside work hours? Do you send them? New research shows how dangerous this can be

Guest Author • Jul 14, 2021

• digital communication,
• Psychology,
• work

Amy Zadow, University of South Australia   What could be so bad about answering a few emails in the evening? Perhaps something urgent pops up, we are tidying up an issue from the day, or trying to get ahead for tomorrow. Always being online and available is one of the ways we demonstrate our work ethic and professionalism. But the … Read More

A significant number of New Zealanders overestimate sea-level rise — and that could stop them from taking action

Guest Author • Jul 13, 2021

• attitudes,
• climate change,
• New Zealand stories,
• sea level rise

Rebecca Priestley, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Richard Levy, GNS Science; Taciano L. Milfont, University of Waikato; Timothy Naish, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Zoë Heine, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington   Following a recent storm surge in Wellington, some media coverage expressed surprise that 30cm of sea-level rise … Read More

Five shifts to decolonise ecological science – or any field of knowledge

Guest Author • Jul 07, 2021

• decolonisation,
• ecology,
• indigenous,
• Science

Jess Auerbach, North-West University; Christopher Trisos, University of Cape Town, and Madhusudan Katti, North Carolina State University   The COVID-19 pandemic will change a lot about the way knowledge is produced, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine. Social movements such as Black Lives Matter have also increased awareness of significant economic inequalities along racial and geopolitical … Read More

Suburban living the worst for carbon emissions – new research

Guest Author • Jul 06, 2021

• carbon emissions,
• cities,
• climate change,
• suburbs,
• urban planning

Sabrina Zwick, United Nations University   Work, education, entertainment, or simply better connectivity all draw people to cities. By the end of this century around 85% of the world population are predicted to live in cities. There are speculations that the COVID-19 pandemic will slow down this urbanisation trend, but I think it’s unlikely to stop it. Cities remain … Read More

Too few women get to invent – that’s a problem for women’s health

Guest Author • Jun 30, 2021

• inventions,
• medicine,
• patents,
• women

Rem Koning, Harvard Business School   MacArthur Genius and MIT professor Linda Griffith has built an epic career as a scientist and inventor, including growing a human ear on a mouse. She now spends her days unpacking the biological mechanisms underlying endometriosis, a condition in which uterus-like tissue grows outside of the uterus. Endometriosis can be brutally painful, … Read More

Stoatally different! How the ‘science of individuals’ is changing how we see pests.

Guest Author • Jun 30, 2021

• conservation,
• pest animal,
• pest control,
• stoat

Jamie McAulay, Department of Conservation It’s just before midday and starting to drizzle as stoat trapper Ana Richards pulls a rotting stoat carcass from a DOC trap and scoops it into a plastic container, dripping. She’s 4 days into a 6 day trapping trip through Fiordland’s wild Murchison Mountains. From this rugged spur, the stinky … Read More