COMMENT: As we head into another sweltering Kiwi summer, the water quality of our lakes, rivers and streams will continue to disappoint and enrage.

COMMENT: It has long been thought sea frolicking has many health benefits.

• Philip Clarke is a Professor of Health Economics, University of Melbourne. Chris Schilling is an associate lecturer, Health

COMMENT: Tiny little specks of land hundreds of kilometres from New Zealand may hold key secrets about the future of our planet.

COMMENT: The days of your sweating over Christmas dinner preparation could soon be a thing of the past

The Star Wars series featured a man-made planet called the Death Star which destroys other worlds with a giant laser.

One of the most-read Lifestyle stories in 2016: What is it about these unlucky chosen few that makes them mosquito magnets?

Things seem to be heating up Campi Flegrei, the 12km-wide caldera west of Naples in Italy.

Mythical planets, nearby Earth-like worlds and unprecedented missions to Jupiter and Saturn. We learned a lot about our universe in 2016.

Retraining the brain to beat stress is the key to losing weight and keeping it off, a leading Australian neuroscientist says.

One of the most notorious forms of breast cancer is to be targeted in a new study by an Auckland University researcher and cancer survivor.

A brewery is promising the best beer of your life thanks to a personalised test using your DNA.

Mozart may enhance a man's performance in board games - while AC/DC may hinder their chances, according to new research.

Don't fall foul of campylobacter this festive season; cook chicken all the way through and wash down surfaces exposed to raw meat.

An end to grey hair and crows-feet could be just 10 years away after scientists showed it is possible to reverse ageing in animals.

Clinics in Britain can now apply to create three parent babies after the fertility watchdog gave the final approval for the procedure.

A new discovery by Kiwi and US scientists could lead to new ways to help New Zealand's agricultural sector slash greenhouse gas emissions.

NIWA marine ecology technician Mark Fenwick has observed the dramatic changes to Kaikoura's crayfish habitats.

So how does Father Christmas do it? One physicist believes she has an answer - and Einstein is the key.

An international team of scientists have found an odd and slightly gross explanation for sticky, glowworm-made "fishing lines" that hang in the famous Waitomo Caves - urine.

It sounds like an idea that should remain firmly in the realm of Hollywood but NASA thinks one day we might need to nuke any Earth-bound asteroids to save humanity.

Kiwi couple donate seven works including pieces by Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Joan Miro at inaugural event.

Changes taking place in Antarctica are significant another to influence those on the other side of the planet, new research co-authored by a Kiwi scientist has found.

A study on diet drinks has revealed surprising results about their effects.

The new US administration is likely to be hostile to science.

Guests at a central London hotel are not only being offered five-star luxury, they're also being given a brain boost.

Persistent, stored water inside of a floating East Antarctic ice shelf could be bad news, making it much more vulnerable to collapse.

Massey University chancellor Chris Kelly said a woman graduate is less of a vet because she has to take time out for marriage and family.

As 2016 draws to a close, the NZ Science Media Centre picked some of the biggest national and international science stories that made headlines

This year is set to become New Zealand's hottest on record, breaking the previous record set in 1998, scientists say.