Intense training amid 35C heat and 80 per cent humidity may sound like hell to most of us, but to elite athletes it could mean all the difference in making it to the podium.

Half of Western European men are descended from one Bronze Age "king" who sired a dynasty of nobles which spread throughout Europe, a study has shown.

New Zealand can and must do more to fight climate change on the home front, say authors of a high-level report out today.

Feel like time is passing you by quicker than ever? Scientists may have discovered why.

ESR Forensics boss Dr Keith Bedford has had oversight of the forensic evidence in virtually every high-profile court case in New Zealand in recent decades.

Being almost too exhausted to write this very article about tiredness is painfully ironic, writes new dad Jamie Morton.

The Earth's climate does change, and over the past 4.5 billion years it has naturally fluctuated between being very cold and covered in ice, to very hot and dry.

The shedding of emotional tears is unique to humans, but our evolutionary, psychological and biological reasons for "crying it out" remain a mystery.

London's first timber skyscraper could be a step closer to reality after researchers presented Mayor of London Boris Johnson with conceptual plans.

The shedding of emotional tears is unique to humans, but our evolutionary, psychological and biological reasons for "crying it out" remain a mystery.

COMMENT: Any move to reduce the impact of poor quality science and base our decisions on genuine, peer-reviewed information is a positive one for NZ.

Forget everything you know about binge-watching TV. Alejandro "AJ" Fragoso has you beat.

New findings could explain why failures in the control of bed bug infestations are so common.

A team of Kiwi researchers have won funding to help tackle a mysterious protein that conspires against treatment for some forms of cancer.

COMMENT: We believe that random funding is a fair and transparent way to choose between equally qualified applicants, writes Kath McPherson.

An Internet investor has enlisted famed physicist Stephen Hawking to help him with a futuristic plan for seeking life in outer space. (April 12)

Popular geologist and palaeontologist Hamish Campbell has co-written two of the definitive books on how New Zealand was formed.

Up to $250,000 worth of scientific equipment might have just been lost with a pair of massive ice bergs which have broken off the Antarctic coastline.

The catastrophic eruption that wiped out the famed Pink and White Terraces may have been triggered by a build-up of magma beneath Lake Rotomahana.

How do you stop cows burping? Or override Parkinson's disease? Jamie Morton celebrates 10 top pieces of Kiwi science and innovation.

Nasa has postponed the launch of its data-gathering balloon from Wanaka because of the weather.

An interactive therapeutic robot, the Food and Drug Administration have categorised them as a class II medical device.

Why is it that by the time millions of us are adults, we are subsisting on diets full of saturated fats and processed sugars?

WATCH: They don't look like much, but these tiny trap-jaw spiders found only in NZ and southern South America are the Beauden Barretts of the arachnid world.

It would take six to eight months' travel by rocket, if the planet is lined up with Earth in the right way.

Here is a list of substances that are more poisonous than their LD50 values might indicate.

Last year, in a lab in Japan, a mouse grew hair.

Scared of looking down more than you used to be?

A breakthrough development in growing skin in labs could mean a lifetime with a full head of hair.