A process that could turn harmful gases into useful products like car tyres shows why scientists need to keep challenging our understanding of what are the proteins vital to all life on Earth.

Otago University's Dental School has been recognised as among the top 10 in the world.

Brains, brawn and beauty helped University of Otago medical student Deborah Lambie win the 2015 Miss World New Zealand crown.

Police fear a missing University of Otago student could have been swept away in a flooded river during a tramp in Mt Aspiring National Park at the weekend.

It's no Jurassic jest - meet the Velociraptor's vegetarian cousin.

Parents who refuse vitamin K for their newborns are more likely to also turn down childhood immunisations, a study has found.

New University of Otago research is providing the most comprehensive picture of the nearly 40million-year-long evolutionary history of baleen whales.

New Labour MP Stuart Nash was bankrolled to the tune of $4000 a month by political backers for more than a year leading up to last year's general election.

Analysis of election candidate donations has shown a wide variety of businesses are willing to open their wallets for politicians.

What started as a fantasy about flying back to his student flat after a long night at the local pub has turned into a reality worth an estimated $100 million for a former Dunedin man.

A large student population surrounds Otago University creating an intense, rich, youthful culture. Great ideas spew out of those messy flats. So does spew, writes Matt Heath.

An annual party at a sponsored student flat has been cancelled after more than 3000 people indicated they would attend.

A group of Dunedin flatmates say they picked up 550kg of glass after a party they hosted on their street which attracted 1000 people.

''I try to pick up the broken glass every Sunday morning, but it was just too bad.'' 1000 revellers helped plaster a Dunedin street in glass - to residents' disgust.

A state-of-the-art laboratory near Franz Josef Glacier is being packed up after an ambitious drilling operation came to a premature end before scientists could bore through the high-risk Alpine Fault.

Ask Sir Murray Brennan about an esteemed medical career that has now been honoured with a knighthood and luck is a recurring theme.

A Kiwi researcher is studying how children exercise restraint from tempting lollies - and what it says about their likely self-control later in life.

A researcher's tireless efforts to ensure every Kiwi can have a safe, warm and dry home has been rewarded with the country's largest prize for science.

The death of a 22-year-old student who fell from his skateboard and suffered a fatal head injury has been referred to the coroner.

A team of scientists drilling deep into the South Island's high-risk Alpine Fault have been intrigued to encounter unusually high temperatures just several hundred metres below ground.

The Otago University student behind a "Rack Appreciation Society" Facebook page where members shared explicit pictures of young women says he's sorry.

The University of Otago's reputation has been ''sullied'' by an explicit Facebook page, vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne says.

Women are being urged to come forward to police if they think they have been exploited on a recently shut down Facebook page.

A secret Facebook page where students shared explicit pictures of young women is an example of an underlying "rape culture" at University of Otago, Rape Crisis says.

A team of 100 scientists and engineers has begun drilling a 1.3km-deep borehole into the Alpine Fault to gather information about the inner workings of the fault line.

The University of Otago's ban on pornography in residential colleges is being slammed as an attack on student freedom.