Stories by Alison Ballance

There is a hard-working team of island rangers helping save kākāpō, working day and night, and the chick tally has reached 44, in episode 11 of the Kākāpō Files.

Invented during war, radioactive americium has become a bit of a do-gooder that is in most homes. Find out more with AUT's Allan Blackman in episode 3 of Elemental.

Aluminium is a light, well-known metal with lots of useful properties. Join AUT chemistry professor Allan Blackman for episode 2 of Elemental.

The first alphabetical element in the periodic table is actinium. It is a heavy radioactive element, as we discover in episode 1 of Elemental, with Professor Allan Blackman from AUT.

NIWA freshwater scientist Amanda Valois is co-opting citizen scientists to work out where plastic rubbish in streams is coming from.

In a world-first for kākāpō conservation, a drone (nicknamed the 'spermcopter') has flown kākāpō sperm across Whenua Hou / Codfish Island - the Kākāpō Files was there for episode 10.

More than 160 kākāpō eggs have been laid and the first 21 chicks have hatched, but there is also news of the first chick death, in episode 9 of the Kākāpō Files.

The King Country population of the highly threatened Archey's frog is thriving, thanks to years of rat control.

The chicks that have hatched are off to Dunedin, the females have started mating again, and there is breeding action on Hauturu, all in episode 8 of the Kākāpō Files.

An octopus squeezing through a small space and a squishy ball have inspired a new way of delivering drugs through the skin that is being developed at the University of Otago.

The first two chicks of the 2019 kākāpō breeding season have hatched and the exciting news keeps coming in, in episode 7 of the Kākāpō Files.

Forty eight out of fifty kākāpō females on the southern islands have mated, nesting is well underway and the first AI has been carried out, all in episode 6 of the Kākāpō Files.

Fish ear bones are tiny treasure troves of information about a fish's life, its environment and even local weather.

The most popular kākāpō males will get a chance to do it all over again as the females are encouraged to mate and nest for a second time, in episode 5 of the Kākāpō Files.

Our brand-new 2019 opening theme is made from 20 eclectic sounds of science & nature that have featured on Our Changing World, ranging from birds to robots.

Don't count your kākāpō chicks until they hatch, kākāpō leaky homes and lots more kākāpō sex, all in episode 4 of the Kākāpō Files.

Kākāpō breeding action really kicked off on Christmas Eve and in episode 3 of the Kākāpō Files we discover it is in full swing.

In episode 2 of the Kākāpō Files we find out that when it comes to kākāpō breeding the early birds are, well, very early.

The kākāpō is one of the world's rarest birds, and in the first episode of the Kākāpō Files we learn about the giant flightless parrot's 'love triangle.'

The 'jelly soup' that many New Zealanders experienced at the beach last summer was caused by blooms of salps.

Rare native New Zealand falcons are thriving in some unexpected places, including recently logged pine forests.

Our muscles lose strength and mass as we age, and old age expert Debra Waters says we should do resistance training so we won't develop sarcopenia.

Place names turn out to be a good record of where plants and animals once occurred and where they have been lost.

Scion entomologists are trialling a parasitic wasp that they hope will control a growing nuisance: the giant willow aphid.

Tiny, noisy gas bubbles produced by a tropical seaweed are part of the soundscape of a coral reef.