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Our Changing World headlines with summaries.
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New Zealand leads world in island conservation
22 Mar 2016A new study shows that getting rid of invasive mammals from islands has an enormous positive benefit for rare native species.
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Southern right whales back from brink of extinction
16 Mar 2016Whaling in the 1800s nearly caused the extinction of southern right whales around New Zealand, and the population is slowly recovering from a low of just 110-or-so animals in the 1920s.
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Hairy elephants and transgenic aphids
17 Mar 2016University of Otago geneticists Peter Dearden and Neil Gemmell continue their discussion of the gene editing tool CRISPR and its use in genomics, conservation and de-extinction.
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New Zealand's prehistoric polar forests
17 Mar 2016A team of Australian and New Zealand fossil hunters on a National Geographic expedition spent weeks scouring sites in Marlborough and on the Chatham Islands for remnants of prehistoric polar forests.
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Using light and electricity to study individual brain cells
Optogenetics uses light to target individual cells, and Peter Freestone is using it to better understand Parkinson's disease and the role of endocannabinoids in how brain cells communicate.
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CarpN Neutral - doing good things with bad koi carp
17 Mar 2016Introduced koi carp are a nuisance in lakes and rivers in the Waikato, and the CarpN Neutral project catches them and turns their bodies into fertiliser for use in native revegetation programmes.
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Antarctic ice unstable in high-carbon scenario
Antarctic researchers warn that the giant East Antarctic ice sheet could melt if carbon dioxide levels exceed 600ppm.
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Agriculture blamed for recent rise in methane
11 Mar 2016Scientists have found that the increase of methane in the atmosphere since 2007 has been caused by agriculture rather than fossil fuel production.
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The CRISPR dilemma
CRISPR is the new buzzword in genetics, and University of Otago geneticists Peter Dearden and Neil Gemmell discuss the potential benefits and risks of the new gene editing tool.
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The 'smarts' behind a smart motorway
10 Mar 2016Bluetooth signals from passing cars and a world-first predictive traffic model that generates travel times and optimum driving speeds are just some of the technology behind the new Wellington smart…
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Truffle-like fungi: what their genes can tell us
10 Mar 2016Truffle-like fungi are related to mushrooms but look like truffles, and geneticists around the world are studying their genomes to understand how they have all co-evolved.
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Survival of the oldest
10 Mar 2016Palaeontologists studying an ancient group of extinct marine plankton find surprising results about which species are vulnerable to extinction.
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Lake Ohau reveals climate history
3 Mar 2016Scientists reveal the climate history hidden in the mud at the bottom of Lake Ohau, reaching back to the end of the last Ice Age some 18,000 years ago.
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A new future for marine protected areas in New Zealand
3 Mar 2016Environment Minister Nick Smith is championing new legislation for marine protected areas, and Raewyn Peart from the Environmental Defence Society has some thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses.
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Poetry and science inspired by Transit of Venus
3 Mar 2016A book of poetry celebrates the inspiration poets, scientists and the Uawa/Tolaga Bay community have drawn from the 2012 Transit of Venus.
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Taiko take off
25 Feb 2016With just 120-or-so known adult birds, 21 new chicks are a very welcome addition to the Chatham Island taiko population.
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Facing the reality of climate change
Climate scientist Will Steffen, at the Australian National University, argues that to limit the impacts of climate change on island nations in the Pacific may require technology that takes carbon…
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An albatross chick's flowerpot is its castle
25 Feb 2016The Chatham Island Taiko Trust has made flowerpot nests for 50 Chatham Island albatross chicks that are part of a pioneering translocation from The Pyramid to the main Chatham Island.
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Booming kakapo numbers
25 Feb 2016The endangered kakapo is in the middle of a bumper breeding year that looks set to be the best ever, and conservationists are looking foward to the resulting population boom.
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Technology and learning
Veronika Meduna joins a school group for a morning at MindLab, using fruit and vegetables to build musical instruments.
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Hangi stones and magnetism
25 Feb 2016Hangi or oven stones are a record of the earth's magnetic field at the time they were heated and cooled, and they show a remarkable history of New Zealand's magnetic field for the past 600 years.
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Antarctica's ice sheets more sensitive to warming
An international team of scientists found that Antarctica's land-based ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising temperatures than they previously thought.
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Cheaper, greener and bendier solar cells
18 Feb 2016Victoria University chemist Jonathan Halpert discusses nano-scale materials he investigates for future photovoltaic cells.
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Eye of the storm - climate change in the Pacific
18 Feb 2016Kiribati president Anote Tong calls on political leaders to help low-lying Pacific island nations to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
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