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.

A sea floor diva known as the “disco clam”, which earned its name from vivid displays of flashing light, has revealed the secrets of its dazzling moves.

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.

Research spanning the effects of hormones on a pregnant mother's brain to the potentially negative health effects that pets may have on families can begin.

Bare-knuckle fighting has left its mark on the human face, according to scientists who believe it helped to shape how we look today.

Scientists are being told to use art and poetry to win public support in the battle to curb climate change.

The fossil of a squid-like creature wiped out with the dinosaurs has been discovered in a Hawkes Bay streambed. What makes it such a 'significant' find for NZ?

"Sea," said King Canute, the 11th-century Danish King of England, "I command you to come no further!"

A pesticide made from spider venom has been found to kill insects without harming honeybees.

The creator of 'Big Brother' is to turn the "world's toughest job interview" - for a one-way ticket to Mars - into the ultimate reality show.

An endless video loop of cooking shows could hold the key to robots that can unstack a dishwasher and play Lego with the kids, a New Zealand student of robotics says.

Scientists in America are hopeful of a breakthrough in curing Alzheimer's, following a study that shows a way of bringing back the lost memories of dementia patients.