News

“Earth heading for ‘Little Ice Age’ in 15 years”, “The Little Ice Age cometh”, and the obligatory “Winter is coming”. They are just some of the headlines that have run around the world following a new analysis of sunspot cycles presented by Northumbria University’s Professor Valentina Zharkova at a conference organised by the Royal Astronomical Society. But as the Washington Post … Read More

Convinced that smoothies really are a superfood?  You may not be imagining it if they contain blackcurrants. The berry, examined extensively by scientists at Plant & Food Research (NZ) and Northumbria University (UK), has been found to positively affect mental performance. The impressive results show, for the first time, an improvement in accuracy, attention and mood after independent consumption of … Read More

One of the missions I originally set for myself on Digging the Dirt was to show that New Zealand was archaeologically exciting and dynamic.  Tonight’s instalment of Marae DIY on Maori TV has to be a great example of this.  As part 2 of a double feature the Marae DIY team are undertaking the restoration of an archaeological site, … Read More

Well here we go again – the stage is being set for another battle of “the environmentalists” versus “the developers”. This time, the battle grounds are numerous, and share one thing in common – conservation land status. As the Government prepares to conduct a stock take of the mineral deposits in conservation land around the country, mining companies and … Read More