Puritans, Goths, avant-garde artists, hell-raising poets and fashion icon Coco Chanel all saw something special in it.

As a young child growing up in the UK, Hong Kong and the US, Dr Michelle "Nanogirl" Dickinson was fascinated by science and superheroes.

Stunt scientist Tom Pringle last night claimed a Guinness World Record by using a potato bazooka to fire nine potatoes through a tennis racket in three minutes.

Maddie Hannah, 8, earned the title of "super-taster" after triumphing at a jellybean science experiment, hosted at the NZ International Science Festival in Dunedin.

A blood test to predict if someone will develop Alzheimer's within a year has been created, in a breakthrough that raises hopes that the disease could become preventable.

Some of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the last 2,000 years have left their indelible mark deep within the pristine ice sheet of the Antarctic, a study has found.

Bruises, cuts and bite marks amid a moshpit's rough and tumble aren't the worst injuries you can suffer at a heavy metal concert.

Trevor Mallard's mind-boggling suggestion to harness science to bring the moa back to life will likely end up being much-a-dodo about nothing, writes John Armstrong.

A young Kiwi scientist has spent the past few days playing chess with Richard Branson on his private island and being served lunch in the pool via a sushi boat.

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

The chances of an El Nino playing with our weather this summer have become more likely, according to a just-released report from the World Meteorological Organisation.

Scientists are searching in an unlikely place for the next big breakthrough - New Zealand's postcard hot springs.

The discovery of 44 critically endangered Archey's frogs just a few kilometres from Whangamata has heartened an amphibian expert.

Cancer was the leading cause of death in New Zealand in 2010, accounting for nearly a third of all deaths, writes Simon Sutcliffe. That's an increase of nearly 13 per cent between 2000 and 2010.

Genes associated with schizophrenia may also make people more likely to use cannabis, a new study has shown.

Driven by exceptionally warm ocean waters, Earth smashed a record for heat in May and is likely to keep on breaking high temperature marks, experts have said.

It will take another three decades for the Southern Hemisphere's humpback whale population to recover from the slaughter of the whaling era, scientists say.

University of Auckland senior lecturer Dr Michelle Dickinson, reveals five ways that science is bringing comic-book superpowers closer to reality.

In the mid-1990s, Gus, a polar bear in the Central Park Zoo, alarmed visitors by compulsively swimming figure eights in his pool, sometimes for 12 hours a day.

Environment category: Colin Ogle is Wanganui's go-to man on all things botanical and has dedicated years to the area's parks and bush.

It's The Hangover-meets-Jurassic Park. While most stag parties involve paintballing, the pub or a strip club, one group of friends spent did some impromptu palaeontology.

An eerie photo of millions of spiders fleeing flooded farmland in Hikurangi last week has gone viral, after it was posted by a popular science Facebook page.

Fillings and the dentist's drill could soon become just an unpleasant memory thanks to a new technique aimed at rebuilding damaged teeth.

The regime governing genetic modification in New Zealand is one of the strictest in the world, writes Bob Forlong.

Albert Einstein may be most famous for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2, but his work also laid down the foundation for modern quantum mechanics.

A ground-breaking development by a Kiwi is expected to reduce death and injury from dangerous button batteries worldwide.