News

Most people hear “ER” and they think of an emergency room – ambulances, patients, life and death situations. But for the staff at the Science Media Centre, ER stands for “Expert Reactions” and means timely comments from experts responding to breaking news.  When news breaks, journalists often want quotes about the importance … Read More

Jeanne Snelling, University of Otago and Andrew Geddis, University of Otago The preliminary results of New Zealand’s referendum on the End of Life Choice Act were conclusive. Some 65.2% of voters supported the law coming into force, while 33.8% opposed it. Although around 480,000 special votes are still to be counted, the margin is so great there is no chance … Read More

Our Scibloggers have been providing updates on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. This page will be updated as more posts are published. As of 11 February 2020, the virus has been officially named COVID-19. 12 March 2020 Wellington, we have a problem… Now that the WHO has declared a pandemic, what next? Sarb Johal The Psychology Report … Read More

Erin Maessen Six of New Zealand’s ‘space pioneers’ have been commemorated in a new series of stamps launched by New Zealand Post. Designed by Hannah Fortune, and sprinkled with a layer of real meteorite dust, the stamps feature homegrown talent including Beatrice Hill Tinsley, Charles Gifford and Sir William Pickering. New Zealand Post chair Jackie Lloyd said … Read More

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Dr Laura Wallace Scientists have been monitoring a slow-slip event that started in the last week off the east coast near Gisborne. Slow-slip movement model showing direction of movement of GeoNet GPS sites and amount of displacement at the plate boundary. So far we’ve recorded 10-15 cm of movement at the red area. Slow-slip events are quite common in … Read More

Erin Maessen Focusing conservation efforts on 169 islands, including five in New Zealand, could help to combat the global extinction crisis. This is according to the findings of a collaborative study between forty institutions, including universities and conservation organisations, published in PLOS ONE last week. The researchers combined conservation benefit with feasibility to assess 1,279 islands worldwide, whittling … Read More

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Jane Roberts Amid a growing tug-of-war between adherents of evidence-based immunisation practices and a roiling online subculture of suspicion, conspiracy, and misinformation related to vaccines, a beloved symbol of impartiality and free access to information — the public library — may now find itself at the centre of the scrum. Earlier this month, Hoopla — an … Read More

Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie Recently, I was wrapping up some revisions on a phenology paper and to comply with the journal’s style for taxonomy, I needed to know the authority on a species of white violets that a Maine hunting guide had noted in his diaries in the mid-twentieth century. Obviously, I turned to Wikipedia. Ecologists who study phenology (or anything!) … Read More

“Fake news.” Trump drawled during the led up to the 2016 election. You’re probably tired of hearing the phrase, yet he was right; fake news is a concerning issue, but who is its audience? The 2016 US presidential election was fraught with cries of ‘fake news’. As the term was used from almost all political leanings, the question remains: who … Read More

In 1916, Frank Worsley navigated a lifeboat for 16 days through rough Antarctic waters with the almost impossible task of reaching help over 1000km away, then turned around, this time with a rescue team, to return to his fellow sailors who were still stranded. Frank Worsley. Supplied/Canterbury Museum 1981.110.91. Akaroa-born Worsley was the Captain of the Endurance during Sir … Read More

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