Over the last week downtown Auckland was filled with long black gowns and stiff mortarboards.

Tagging sharks, walking on volcanoes - science is a lot more than being stuck in a lab. Jamie Morton finds out how some researchers spend their days.

When you sit around imagining life aboard the ISS one thing you probably don't want to think about is a space junk slamming into your vessel.

COMMENT: Too many experts aren't confident talking to the media and feel that stepping into the public arena on controversial issues is a losing game, writes Peter Griffin.

It's been one of the warmest starts to the year that New Zealand has ever experienced, but Kiwis should start pulling out their winter woollies.

Some of NZ cleverest minds have been singled out in the KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards. Jamie Morton looks at five of the 12 finalists.

The internationally-renowned Kiwi scientist who is this month to receive the prestigious Crafoord Prize has also just been awarded the University of Canterbury's rare honour of Canterbury Distinguished Professor.

Kiwi scientists are investigating whether the next generation of wireless telecommunication - the much-vaunted 5G - could be harmful to us.

We've already seen cars that can drive and park themselves, but could they become smart enough to tell us if we've left our wallet or phone behind?

A prominent professor says New Zealand needs a commission for science as many scientists are being gagged.

The Aids Foundation is pushing for a pill to be approved here for use in HIV prevention after a similar move was made across the Tasman.

3D printers have been used to make guns, cars and bikinis - but Kiwi scientists have just taken the technology a step further.

A proposal that could see RNZ's award-winning science programme 'Our Changing World' axed has drawn worry and protest from the scientific community.

One of NZ's most prominent scientists, and the winner of the Prime Minister's Science Communication Prize, says too many scientists feel constrained in speaking publicly.

Crater Lake on top of active volcano Mount Ruapehu has been bubbling this afternoon as temperatures rise to the hottest on record.

Lessons of the Rena disaster will be passed on to the world with a new training programme on how to deal with wildlife hit by an oil spill.

Labs are renowned for having food-loving personalities and barrel-shaped bodies.

The Madagascan Darwin's bark spider gives oral sex to female mates up to 100 times during sex. Its reward? Being eaten afterward.

COMMENT: I learned all our calculations for dealing with climate change could be swept aside by a non-linear event. This could be it.

Humans' use of natural glue dates back to 4000BC.

Star-gazers are enjoying their best view of Mars in a decade.

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.