Fat supplies found in a woman's thighs and buttocks are needed to develop babies' brains, scientists have claimed.

It IS rocket science - and Auckland-based Rocket Lab has about 35 jobs to fill as it shoots for it s first flight at the end of the year.

It's being described as a war, an arms race, an unseen struggle where the stakes are being raised and the weapons redefined each minute - the war a faceless cyber-criminal.

China has presented its highest award for foreign researchers to a renowned Kiwi scientist who helped change the face of the country's farming systems.

A NZ scientist is heading a project that uses stem cells grown from patient skin samples to study the process of the incurable and fatal motor neuron disease.

Nearly 40 years after the first IVF birth, scientists are still unsure of the long-term effects of their laboratory Beginnings. Helen Massy-Beresford reports.

At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a "safe operating space" for human beings.

A mechanism that protects the brain when animals hibernate could help scientists develop new treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The goodness in supermarket staples such as milk, yoghurt, cheese and cereal could soon be supercharged thanks to Kiwi-developed technology.

Artificial arteries designed like gun barrels could revolutionise heart bypass surgery and save health services millions, researchers claim.

Hundreds of robotic instruments deployed across the South Pacific have begun to reveal dramatic new insights into the impact of climate change upon oceans in our corner of the world.

A dramatic new image has emerged of the volcanic eruption which has disrupted air travel to and from Tonga.

Coconuts and their many benefits have been endorsed by everyone from Madonna to Harry Belafonte - but there’s much about the tropical wonder-fruit we still don’t appreciate.

Hundreds of travellers and holidaymakers have been left stranded after flights to and from Tonga were cancelled yesterday because of a huge volcanic ash cloud.

Like anything, cricketers are looking for an edge and the most common way to do that is through bat technology.

International researchers are coming together to investigate a powerful force that lurks hundreds of metres deep in the Tasman Sea.

The first new antibiotic to be discovered in nearly 30 years has been hailed as a "paradigm shift" in the fight against the growing resistance to such drugs.

Eight new planets have been discovered orbiting at a distance where oceans and life could exist - and two are the most similar to Earth found to date.

A Kiwi-led research breakthrough could see defective genes replaced with custom-designed DNA - a move that would combat hundreds of different diseases.

Losing our native species is not an inevitability but a choice - and one that could hurt New Zealand in more ways than we realise.

Holidaying star-gazers this week have the chance to observe a huge chunk of ice and gas hurtling through the night sky faster than a speeding bullet.

If your New Year resolution is to be happier, make your priorities fruit, nature, sun and sleep.

1976, young microbiologist Peter Piot was sent to investigate an outbreak of a mysterious virus in a remote part of Congo, he could never have predicted how it would change his life.

Tom Chivers During a conversation with a doctor a couple of years ago, the subject of cancer diagnoses came up, in a tangential way.

A newly discovered beetle has been named after television naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

For many people, getting older brings a catalogue of vision problems that make everyday tasks such as reading and driving a challenge.