Latest from Natural Science

Britain launches $19 million science prize

Antarctica losing 159 billion tonnes of ice a year

The Antarctic ice sheet is disappearing at twice the speed of when it was last surveyed, losing 159 billion tonnes of ice to the ocean every year.

Kerre McIvor: Nature in its purest form not for most kids

The (native) bird catchers

Eighty native birds have been caught on Little Barrier Island and delivered to a new wildlife reserve in the Hauraki Gulf.

Secret of why lightning strikes

It is said that lightning never strikes twice. But scientists have long been puzzled as to how lightning even strikes at all.

8 giant prehistoric water monsters

Bones discovered over 30 years ago in the Waipara River in Canterbury have now been identified as the elasmosaurs. Here are eight sea monsters that once cruised in the earth's waters.

NZ Nessie mystery solved

Call it the Cretaceous cold case. For years scientists were puzzled by bones found in a Canterbury river in 1982. Which sea monster did they belong to?

Sheepskin science to bust low value reputation

A research breakthrough could net our economy $125 million each year by combining cutting-edge technology with something New Zealand famously has in abundance - sheep.

Kiwi-developed Antarctic research project unveiled

Planet no longer butt of jokes

Uranus - the planet with the unfortunate-sounding name - has long been the butt of jokes.

David Skegg: We must choose: riches or water?

Unless New Zealand takes urgent steps to slow the expansion of dairying, many more rivers and lakes will be degraded, writes David Skegg.

The worst place to be stung

Throughout history, a select band of the brave has willingly turned into human guinea pigs in the cause of science.

Gywnne Dyer: World's grim future warm and hungry

If you want to go on eating regularly in a rapidly warming world, live in a place that's high in latitude or high in altitude.

Spectacular view of lunar eclipse

Above us, our nearest, potentially habitable planet is being explored by three spacecraft in its orbit and two on its surface.

Grassroots war on pests

Everyday Kiwis could be recruited to help save New Zealand from a swarm of pests costing our economy billions and ravaging our cherished biodiversity, a new report suggests.

Ross Sea resounds to many happy feet

The Adelie penguin population in Antarctica's Ross Sea has boomed to an estimated 30-year high, despite signs that climate change is driving population declines elsewhere on the continent.

Earth suffered double hit

Big Bang breakthrough

American scientists operating a $23 million telescope in Antarctica have announced the discovery of what could be described as the fingerprint of God.