Guest Work • Jun 26, 2017 •
By Tim O’Hara, Museum Victoria Over the past five weeks I led a “voyage of discovery”. That sounds rather pretentious in the 21st century, but it’s still true. My team, aboard the CSIRO managed research vessel, the Investigator, has mapped and sampled an area of the planet that has never been surveyed before. The RV … Read More
Guest Work • Nov 02, 2016 •
By Indi Hodgson-Johnston, University of Tasmania Australia and New Zealand were claiming a conservation success this week, when their resolution against lethal “scientific” whaling was adopted at the International Whaling Commission’s biennial meeting in Slovenia. But in reality the non-binding decision will do little to stop Japan’s whaling program. This resolution aims to tighten the loophole … Read More
Peter Griffin • Mar 07, 2016 •
I took incredible pleasure in slowly working through Simon Winchester’s new book Pacific, which serves as a sort of companion piece to his 2010 effort Atlantic. And what better a place to delve into a book about the world’s greatest ocean than in the middle of that ocean – Tahiti, where I was lucky enough to spend a week recently, with … Read More
Victoria Metcalf • Oct 20, 2015 •
*Please see end of post for details of an incentivised research survey on science blogs we’d love you to participate in. I have a crazily adorable house bunny called Acorn, who is about to become a celeb-bunny on another Sciblogs site. Acorn is exponentially more lovely than our previous rabbit, Daisy, who came to us second-hand and possibly treated sub-optimally. Read More
Guest Work • Oct 07, 2015 •
Gretta Pecl, University of Tasmania; Jemina Stuart-Smith, University of Tasmania; Jennifer Sunday, University of British Columbia , and Natalie Moltschaniwskyj, University of Newcastle There are many factors that determine where a marine species will find a place to call home, such as wave exposure, salinity, depth, habitat and where other friend or … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 22, 2014 •
NIWA photographers are well known for their stunning images of New Zealand’s environment. Four of the best discuss their favourite shots and what was going on at the time. Dave Allen, photographer. Camera: Nikon D800 The photo of scientists Tony Bromley and Sally Gray releasing a weather balloon was taken at the tiny West Coast settlement of Hannah’s Clearing, south … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 04, 2012 •
Regular readers will be well aware of my obsession with bioluminescence, that beautiful light produced by things like fireflies and glow worms. So I was excited to see this paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Margarita Zarubin and colleagues have discovered why so many non-symbiotic marine bacteria are bioluminescent. It turns out that … Read More
Rebecca McLeod • Aug 20, 2010 •
Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the blue as you have flown over Cook Strait? Did you know that there is a massive network of undersea canyons off Otago? And have you ever realized just how quickly you can plunge into the deep ocean just off the coast of Fiordland? … Read More
Hilary Miller • Apr 20, 2010 •
A great new video out on TED.com today has Edith Widder describing some clever applications of bioluminescence in deep sea organisms. Some 80 to 90 percent of undersea creatures make light — and we know very little about how or why. Bioluminescence expert Edith Widder explores this glowing, sparkling, luminous world, sharing glorious images and [...] … Read More
Rebecca McLeod • Feb 02, 2010 •
The document outlines how a forum of up to 14 stakeholders will be appointed in each of the defined regions in NZ. These stakeholders will encompass tangata whenua, commercial fishers, recreational users, conservation groups, tourism operators, aquaculture industry, minerals industry… and scientists. Read More