Our Changing World

Joan Watson was there when takahē were rediscoverd in 1948, and DOC ranger Glen Greaves says the population of the giant flightless bird has just reached 300. Read more Video, Audio

Air pollution is the world's leading environmental risk factor for disease, and it causes early deaths even in clean countries such as New Zealand. Read more Audio

Households in Rangiora are being wired up, inside and out, with small devices that measure wood smoke. Read more Audio, Gallery

Residents on the Kapiti coast north of Wellington are working together to improve biodiversity and create thriving ecosystems in their local neighbourhoods. Read more Audio, Gallery

Guy Jameson has been awarded the Beatrice Hill Tinsley Medal for his work understanding the chemical structure of proteins that are important in diseases such as Parkinson's. Read more Audio

The New Zealand Association of Scientists has renamed their Research Medal to the Beatrice Hill Tinsley Medal, the first New Zealand science award named after a woman. Read more Audio

Geneticist Jean Fleming has won the NZAS Science Communicator Award, and she says that good science communication is about listening as well as talking. Read more Audio

Margaret Brimble has been awarded the Marsden Medal for developing new drugs from natural bioactive substances. One of her new drugs is being fast-tracked in clinical trials. Read more Audio

P53 is a cancer gene with a Jekyll and Hyde personality. It stops cancer tumours growing, but mutant versions of the gene actually cause cancer. Read more Audio

Ecologists are investigating the best ways to replant native plants to restore lost forests and wetlands, and are finding out if underground fungi play a role. Read more Audio, Gallery

Environment Waikato is helping native fish commute up urban streams by providing aids such as ropes running through culverts and pipes. Read more Video, Audio

Conservation groups are replanting native vegetation around Wellington's Miramar Peninsula to provide safe homes for little blue penguins and food for other native birds. Read more Audio, Gallery