The US space agency NASA has come up with a startling image of an eclipse.

The closest most of us will get to Antarctica is nature documentaries like Frozen Planet - but the white continent's relevance to us and our future is far greater than we think.

University of Otago microbiologist Prof Greg Cook and the university's new infectious disease containment laboratory have found themselves in the research front line in the international war against tuberculosis.

A climate change campaigner says he is hopeful that the world can avert a catastrophic global warming scenario.

A pathology service has become the first in New Zealand to use a a high-tech barcode tracking system to help eliminate the risk of laboratory botch-ups.

Nasa's Mars rover Curiosity finally caused some real curiosity last week with a photo of what appeared to be a "rat" on Mars, writes Rhys Darby.

The use of twins to reveal the genetic roots of human attributes has had a mixed history, though the technique offers rich scientific pickings.

A group that helped sway Hamilton City Council to stop fluoridating its water is now taking aim at Auckland, Wellington and other centres.

Drones might be best known for their death strikes on Taleban and al-Qaeda hideouts, but their use in the non-military world is spreading rapidly.

Swept by winds reaching up to 320km/h, Antarctica's Dry Valleys rank among the most extreme and uninhabitable deserts on Earth.

The liquefaction that swamped Christchurch East streets with tonnes of silt and sludge has become one of the most enduring images of the city's earthquakes.

Well, it was only a matter of time ... but yes, I'm pleased to announce there's been another sighting of the Agogwe in Africa.

It is a scenario that could have emerged from the imagination of a science fiction writer - killing machines stalking battlefields with heat-seeking weapons so human soldiers do not have to risk their lives.

A new study suggests the number of dolphins being captured and killed in commercial trawling nets could dive if vessels changed their fishing methods.

The priorities are clearly badly wrong, writes Bryan Walker. NZ needs to turn its back on a prosperity resulting in severe threats to the human future and build an economy which flourishes on green energy sources.

Making plastic out of dead animals might seem slightly gruesome but it could turn out to be a real money-spinner for one Kiwi start-up.

Several aspects of Jim Salinger's op-ed "Climate hurtling towards a hothouse Earth" (Herald 24/5/13) are quite misleading.

Another giant space rock is set to sail by the Earth just a few months after our last close encounter - but an expert says asteroid armageddon isn't something we need to worry about any time soon.

The Prime Minister's chief science adviser says a hitlist of 10 big issues for our top brains to tackle will be "transformational", despite criticism that they lack imagination.

Parasites that live inside humans could find life a bit tougher in future, thanks to the University of Otago and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Packing winds of up to 320km, the killer tornado that laid waste to Oklahoma on Monday grasped at the deadliest end of the Enhanced Fujita scale.

Editorial: Science has been a black hole for taxpayers' money. Governments of all stripes agree that science is something they should fund without knowing very much about it.

The first time I met palaeontologist Dan Fisher was in a hotel in the Arctic frontier town of Salekhard, in Siberia.

The National Science Challenges promised to be one of the most exciting experiments ever seen in our science and innovation sector.

Copper coins and a 70-year-old map with an "x" may lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia's history.