Southern seas' Stonehenge

Nobel laureate Professor Alan MacDiarmid, 77, will officially open New Zealand's version of Stonehenge - or at least a full-size replica - on Saturday.

Professor MacDiarmid, who is based in the United States but born in Masterton, will also launch the New Zealand programme to mark the World Year of Physics, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein's paper on the Special Theory of Relativity.

Professor MacDiarmid jointly won the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping discover electricity-conducting plastics.

The Kiwi "stone" henge, on a hill in Gladstone, 15km south of Masterton, is part of an astronomical park which includes a Babylonian obelisk and Pacific Island star maps. It will be used to demonstrate how ancient people got practical information on the seasons, time and navigation.

It was built with voluntary labour and a $56,500 science promotion grant.

- NZPA