Children's tantrums, hoarding and skin picking - psychiatrists will soon be looking at these and more in a new light when their official what's what of mental disorders gets a makeover in May.

A group of patients having major operations will be asked to write about their deepest, most troubling thoughts to see if this helps their surgical wounds heal faster.

10 years ago, it was said we might have no bananas in 10 years, and experts say the logic remains as valid as ever.

Temperatures in the western part of Antarctica are rising almost twice as fast as previously believed, adding to fears that sea levels will rise.

A genetically modified salmon which grows twice as fast as ordinary fish could become the first GM animal in the world to be declared safe to eat.

Three weeks before the ceremony and the [Olympic Stadium] was packed with thousands of people all doing things impressively.

A gifted academic who grew up in Karori has died suddenly in London, devastating her family.

Paying it forward - a popular expression for extending generosity to others after someone has been generous to you.

Isaac Newton would be thrilled. London designers Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves have come up with a light that uses gravity to generate enough power to illuminate an LED bulb.

It is quite likely we will one day create a machine - a robot, if you like - that can "think" faster than we do, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Religious faith undoubtedly has the power to inspire, although in many cases it seems to inspire irrational acts of hatred and violence.

Images from a murder scene are beamed straight to a laboratory, and jurors are given a virtual "tour" of a scene, allowing them to get up close .

A British chemist believes helium balloons should be banned to save the scarce resource.

A set of fossilised bones kept for more than half a century in the dusty storerooms of the Natural History Museum in London belonged to the earliest known dinosaur to roam the land.

Editorial: The use of animals in such a context should not win the approval of the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee.

I lost my virginity in my second year at university. Freak eh? It makes me quite the deviant in today's sexy-and-you-know-it world.

Two scientists speaking at a major freshwater conference have described reversing the fouling of New Zealand's waterways as our largest environmental problem.

Manufacturers of party pills could be prevented from testing their drugs on animals if they cannot prove it is worth the pain they could potentially cause.

A shark that swam from New Zealand to Fiji has returned home for Christmas, rounding off an 11,000km odyssey and amazing the scientists who tracked her journey.

Editorial: Russel Norman is absolutely right to say that scientists must be free to perform their academic duty to report environmental degradation.