Food is actually an engineered structure, consisting of water, proteins, carbohydrates and fats that each undergo a series of changes during mixing, whipping and cooking.

US researchers have confirmed a strange link between touching rough surfaces and feeling for others, which could help charities raise more money.

Visitors to an upcoming Mars exhibit at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center will be able to explore several sites on the red planet, reconstructed using real imagery from Nasa's Curiosity Mars Rover.

Is your morning routine feeling like more of a battle lately?

With the touch of a button and a whirring sound, the robot was off.

Work on the Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway unearthed a human skull today, which appears to have been buried in a kumara pit.

Earthquakes are a natural hazard - except when they're man-made.

Food that's only touched the floor for five seconds is okay to eat, isn't it?

Leafy suburbs like Parnell might be seen as Auckland's elite neighbourhoods but more affordable areas have the upper hand in something, it seems.

Bugs capable of everything from curing diseases to mopping up pollution are a step closer after scientists created an artificial lifeform in a lab.

The extrasolar planet HD 20782, about 117 light years from Earth.

In 2012 in New Zealand, 3137 deaths, 11 per cent, were attributable to environmental factors.

The team tested the two groups of birds using not only associative learning tasks, but innovative problem-solving tasks.

Award-winning science writer Dr Rebecca Priestley's new anthology of Antarctic science, Dispatches from Continent Seven, starts out with her own experience on the ice.

Study finds people more likely to mingle with people with similar physical traits — including levels of attractiveness.

Psychologists reveal why we close our eyes when locking lips.

Kiwi researchers have used an elaborate stadium experiment to show that beautiful people really are the centre of attention when it comes to how we mingle.

The science behind this and five other long-pondered questions.

We are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at an alarming rate, and we will soon eclipse the only known "thermal maximum".

New Horizons spacecraft has transmitted spectacular images back that reveal surprises. Here's a summary of just a few scientific results to date.

British troops have been testing material so advanced it hides soldiers from infra-red and heat-seeking devices.

The so-called Tully Monster could be the most repulsive looking creature to ever have roamed the oceans.

British astronomers have discovered a cluster of nine "monster" stars 30 million times brighter than the Sun which could change our understanding of the way stars are formed.

COMMENT: UK announced its war against sugary drinks with a 25p (53c) a litre tax on soda. Based on the science available, should we follow suit?

It's one of the most enigmatic specimens ever found. And now, half a century after its discovery, researchers claim to have found its place in the tree of life.

COMMENT: Alan Duff's vitriol and vilification of religion is counter-scientific and unwarranted.

A new drug is being trialled that enables the body's immune system to detect and attack cancer tumours.

Scientists believe by 2045 they will have achieved immortality.

As a daughter who has watched her father lose his battle with cancer, I am empathetic to families who try to access cannabis products illegally, writes Michelle Dickinson.

Pathologists stunned by "staggering" results.