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Our Changing World headlines with summaries.
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Voice of the Kākāpō 5: Kākāpō sperm takes to the air
10 Mar 2020The tally of infertile eggs is climbing and the kākāpō team is using artificial insemination - and a drone - to try and counter the problem, in part 5 of Voice of the Kākāpō.
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Voice of the Kākāpō 4: Promise
5 Mar 2020Most of the female kākāpō have bred and the team is carrying precious fertile eggs to the 'egg room' for incubation, in part 4 of Voice of the Kākāpō .
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Voice of the Kākāpō 3: Nest checks
3 Mar 2020Kākāpō breeding is in full swing after an early start, and DOC's Deidre Vercoe and Andrew Digby are checking to see if eggs are fertile, in part 3 of Voice of the Kākāpō.
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Voice of the Kākāpō 2: Whenua Hou, kākāpō island
27 Feb 2020The kākāpō team know all the signs are good for a big kākāpō breeding season - the question is exactly how big and when will it start? Part 2 of Voice of the Kākāpō.
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Voice of the Kākāpō 1: Kākāpō - night parrot
25 Feb 2020The kākāpō is a giant flightless parrot whose fortunes are tied to the rimu tree and to a dedicated team of rangers from the Department of Conservation.
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What we do during an earthquake & why it matters
20 Feb 2020Official advice in an earthquake quake is to 'drop, cover, hold.' But is this what we actually do? And what happens if we do something else?
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The yeasty quest for better beer
Yeast is one of the key ingredients in beer and wine - and local yeasts could add a distinct Kiwi flavour.
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Psychopathic traits - "everybody has them"
Sonia Sly is in search of psychopaths. Are they born or are they made? What are the traits that a psychopath exhibits? And is everyone a psychopath to some extent?
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The science of wildfires
30 Jan 2020Bush fires are growing in severity and frequency. William Ray finds out about the latest research into how fires burn and how people react when flames threaten.
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Rock wren - NZ's mountain 'big foot'
23 Jan 2020The tiny rock wren lives year-round in the alpine zone of the South Island mountains and research shows that predator control is important for the species' survival.
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The power of P - a podcast about probability
17 Jan 2020What if there was a magic number that proved you right? There's no such thing, but we do have the p-value which is the probability that your scientific hypothesis is right.
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Controver-seas: reservations about marine reserves
8 Jan 2020Science communication student Amy Archer, from the University of Otago, investigates recommendations from the South-East Marine Protection Forum for marine reserves on the Otago coast.
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Zirconium - shape-shifting time capsule
23 Dec 2019Zirconium is a shape-shifting tough cookie, that is a tale of gemstones, medical implants and nuclear reactors, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 96 of Elemental.
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Zinc - more useful than you realise
20 Dec 2019Zinc is a very useful metal that turns up in everything from sunscreen to paint, & galvanised metals to cereals, as well as brass instruments, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 95 of Elemental.
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'Where did I come from?' - in search of our origins
19 Dec 2019Damian Christie is in search of his origins - from the beginning of the universe, to human evolution & Polynesian settlement in the Pacific.
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Yttrium - here's that village Ytterby again
16 Dec 2019Yttrium is yet another element named after the village of Ytterby and is important in the development of high temperature superconductors, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 94 of Elemental.
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Ytterbium - yet another element named after Ytterby
13 Dec 2019Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 93 of Elemental.
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Living the high life on shaky ground
Charlie Dreaver investigates the issues around strengthening apartment buildings to make them more resilient to earthquakes.
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Xenon - a stranger in search of strange particles
11 Dec 2019Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights, gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft & plays a key role in the search for dark matter, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep…
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Vanadium - Model T Fords, big batteries & sea squirts
9 Dec 2019Vanadium makes steel stronger & lighter, is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and sea squirts are full of it, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 91 of Elemental.
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Uranium - first radioactive element to be discovered
6 Dec 2019Named after the planet Uranus & associated with Hiroshima & nuclear bombs, uranium is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on earth, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 90…
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Tracking Pacific golden plovers around the world
5 Dec 2019A satellite tracking programme is revealing, for the first time, where New Zealand's Pacific golden plovers or kuriri migrate to breed.
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Tungsten - highest melting point of any metal
2 Dec 2019Tungsten's very high melting point made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs, & as it is in some enzymes it is the heaviest element used in nature, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 89…
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Titanium - light, strong & quite pretty
29 Nov 2019Titanium is light, strong, corrosion resistant & is used to repair broken limbs as it is able to get integrated into the bone, says Allan Blackman from AUT speaking from personal experience in ep 88…
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