Stories by Alison Ballance

Te Papa says it will undertake an internal review of the way it manages its collections, and an international external review of its natural history collections.

Scion has developed a bio-based adhesive to make fibreboard that is environmentally friendly and even compostable.

Bags of bone fragments are casting a genetic spotlight on New Zealand's lost natural world, and on the impact of early Polynesians on its biota.

A world-renowned fossil expert is concerned about the impact of a restructure at Te Papa on its important natural history collections.

A humanoid robot called Nao, and swarms of bio-inspired little robots that behave like social insects, wowed crowds at Dunedin's International Science Festival.

Researchers say that liquid fuels made from sawdust from specially planted plantation trees could be a winner in New Zealand.

A southern right whale in Wellington Harbour is a sign that the species is recovering after being hunted nearly to extinction.

In the Water Engineering Laboratory at the University of Auckland, engineers are recreating rivers, to understand how water flows, and how floods behave.

Researchers at Scion hope that thousands of tiny kauri seedlings might include some that are resistant to kauri dieback disease.

A renaissance in native forest bird numbers in the capital is helped by urban bush and Predator Free Wellington efforts.

Seabed 2030 is an international collaboration to map the world's sea floor, much of which is unmapped.

Research reveals new evidence about past, present and future impacts of climate change on Antarctica's ice.

Wasps are a big problem in New Zealand, and scientists hope that knowing the genomes of common and German wasps will help them find novel ways of controlling the pests.

Geologists have discovered that the 2012 eruption of Havre volcano, on the Kermadec Arc, was the world's largest submarine volcanic eruption.

University of Otago researchers are developing the ultimate heat-and-eat: an edible bioplastic food wrap, using waste from the corn and shellfish industries.

Psychologist David Moreau is working with New Zealand schools to find out if exercise combined with a computer game aimed at brain training could help improve kids' brains.

Fifteen Dunedin citizens took part in a University of Otago citizens' jury to discuss legalising euthanasia and assisted dying.

Botanists have banded together to bring native mistletoes back to Wellington city, using seeds rescued from a plant growing on a dying tree.

New Zealand's first underwater observatories are recording the 'creaks and groans' of our largest fault to better understand slow-slip earthquakes.

Geologists on board the JOIDES Resolution research ship are attempting to drill into the flanks of the submarine hydrothermal Brothers Volcano.

An environmental historian charts the transformation of the Otago Peninsula from rich forest to grassy pasture in the book "The Face of Nature."

Olly Hills, aged 11, is a big fan of insects, and author of the field guide 'Cicadas of New Zealand.'

Blake Porter is investigating what happens in our brain when we decide to quit something that is good for us or persist with something that is bad us.

Dilys Johns is an archaeologist who specialises in conserving waterlogged Māori taonga such as ancient waka and wooden gardening tools.

One of Australia's smallest wallabies - the nabarlek - shares an unlikely dental similarity with sharks: the ability to continually replace its teeth.