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.

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 Sun has unleashed three potent solar flares in just under 24 hours, marking the most intense activity yet this year and causing limited interruptions to high-frequency radio communications.

Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

A Canterbury astrophysicist will fly to Europe next week to be presented with the Einstein Medal from the Albert Einstein Society.

Sir Ray Avery's Vigil Monitoring - which is developing a wristband that monitors a patient's vitals and uploads the information - has received funding to help get the invention to market.

Very few people will ever have the chance to see NZ 370km from space, but thanks to two astronauts returning to Earth today Kiwis won't have to make the journey.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man international crew has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Nasa’s Thomas Marshburn have become well known for their amazing photos of planet earth, regularly tweeted out to their thousands of fans. Here are 10 of the best.

The Natural History Museum has about 300 experts on its staff.

Some stroke victims may eventually recover lost hand function thanks to smart new computer system designed to fool the brain.

A self-proclaimed "physics nerd" from Burnside High School is heading to Nasa after winning a scholarship to space camp.

Senior scientists have criticised the "appalling irresponsibility" of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.

It weighs just 80 milligrams, has a pair of wings that flap 120 times a second and has taken 10 years to develop.

NZ authorities are only just waking up to the risks tsunamis pose to our coastlines but they don't know how bad a destructive one could be here, an Australian expert says.

The culture in NZ is, no doubt, a leading element of what has been achieved by Team NZ in bringing this catamaran campaign to its impending pinnacle, Keith Turner.

For one of the boldest experiments ever to hit New Zealand laboratories, the basic theory behind the National Science Challenges is remarkably simple.

The Government asked Kiwis about our big issues in its Great New Zealand Science Project. We look at eight areas suggested as science challenge candidates.

It is one of the most unusual evolutionary ideas yet proposed: humans are amphibious apes who lost their fur.

Today, we know that lifestyle and environment interact with diet to affect our health, writes Charlotte Martin.