Calls are being made to remove dissections from first-year courses as the killing of animals at universities comes under fresh scrutiny.

Start-ups pouring money into research and development will get a cash-flow boost under a tax measure that is seen as a "great response" to the sector's challenges.

It is said that lightning never strikes twice. But scientists have long been puzzled as to how lightning even strikes at all.

Scientists have discovered a pre-historic mainland species of sea lion thought to have been wiped out by Polynesian settlers and replaced by the modern NZ sea lion.

Bones discovered over 30 years ago in the Waipara River in Canterbury have now been identified as the elasmosaurs. Here are eight sea monsters that once cruised in the earth's waters.

A new study has put even more genetic distance between the extinct moa and their old bush mates, the kiwi, but found similarities with a South American bird.

Call it the Cretaceous cold case. For years scientists were puzzled by bones found in a Canterbury river in 1982. Which sea monster did they belong to?

A research breakthrough could net our economy $125 million each year by combining cutting-edge technology with something New Zealand famously has in abundance - sheep.

How do you load a plane quicker? New research suggests a lengthy airport gate queues could be slashed by seating passengers according to their hand luggage.

Researchers in Germany have developed a way of enabling sleepers to control their dreams by applying electric current to the brain which prompts lucid dreams, involving a state of heightened awareness.

Polar bears may hold the answer to the obesity crisis in their genes, new research has shown.

A survey off the North Island's East Coast has uncovered a huge hidden network of frozen methane and methane gas.

It's one of NZ's biggest natural disaster risk zones. Now scientists hope to know more about a rare quake phenomenon happening off the North Island's Poverty Bay.

Kiwi experts are not surprised a manufacturer of toe-sock running shoes has revealed there is no scientific proof that wearing its product has added health benefits.

Kiwi scientists have been left unconvinced by a new US study suggesting the pest didymo is not a recently-introduced foreign invader, but the result of native species responding to environmental change.

Scientists say it’s common for people to see non-existent features because human brains are uniquely wired to recognise faces, so that even when there’s only a slight suggestion of facial features the brain automatically interprets it as a face.

A new study has added further evidence to the theory that we can’t help seeing faces in random data: we’re hard-wired to recognise human faces.

Just how did the ancient Egyptians shift stones weighing as much as 2.5-tonnes with technology no more complex than a sledge?

A study into muscle movements in teen gamers may shed light on links between violent video games and real life aggression.

Dr Jim Sprott, crusading forensic scientist and controversial cot-death and road safety campaigner, has died in Auckland, aged 89.

Tom Pringle has accidentally set his head alight, had a potato cannon explode in his hands and dyed his tongue blue with a mouthful of nasty chemicals.

One of the scientists designing the testing regime for synthetic drugs says trialling novel drugs on humans without testing them on animals first is likely to be considered unethical in NZ.

Stephen Hawking explains why he believes Artificial-intelligence could be the worst thing the human race does to itself - and the last thing it does too.

A Kiwi researcher has helped advance one of science's most intriguing concepts - using our DNA to reveal where we came from.

The damaged hearts of laboratory monkeys have been repaired successfully for the first time with human stem cells.