Far and Away
A team of NZ and Japanese astronomers at Mount John Observatory have discovered Earth’s most distant planetary neighbour. The planet – which is about the size of Jupiter – was located 17,000 light years away, in the…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Down Under Distillery on Top
The international success of NZ’s 42BELOW vodka has dealt big brand owners “a hard lesson in what not to do when wooing a global consumer tribe of super groovers with money to burn.” 42BELOW has joined Grey…
“The New Zealand Native Who Helped Open the Door to the Stars”
17 March 2004 – William Pickering, one of the leading figures in US space exploration, died of pneumonia in California aged 92. A graduate of Canterbury University and the California Institute of Technology, Wellington-born…
Good Morning Iraq
NZ company, Argent Networks, has won a US$3.5 million deal to help rebuild Iraq’s telecommunications infrastructure. ArgentEclipse is to be the new customer billing system for the national fixed-line network, which is owned by the Iraqi government….
MetService Nets Big Fish
The NZ MetService has sold a locally made weather graphics system to the BBC for a sum rumoured to be in the millions. The state-of-the-art software package – Weatherscape XT – is the most up to date…
Thunderbirds Are Go!
NZ software company, Virtual Katy, will lend its world-class sound engineering services to London’s Pinewood Studios, for the live-action remake of Thunderbirds. Virtual Katy – which was also used on The Lord of the Rings – is…
International Exposure for Local Brew
This year’s Oscar nominees sipped on organic coffee supplied by Hawkes Bay company Kea Foods at the pre-awards banquet held at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Kea Foods won the contract ahead of suppliers from all over the…
Brave New World
A joint Japanese-NZ research expedition hopes to discover new forms of life 1,850m below sea-level off the north-east coast of NZ. The team will venture by submarine to the Brothers Volcano, where warm, mineral-laden water is believed…
BECA at the Helm
NZ engineering company BECA International has won a lucrative contract from the Marshall Islands government to oversee US-funded construction projects worth US$14 million. Most of the funding has been assigned to new educational and healthcare facilities.
Opus Goes Trans-Atlantic
NZ firm Opus International Consultants has expanded its business in Canada with the purchase of Geoplan Consultants Inc. Opus already has offices in the UK, Malaysia and Australia, and in 2002 won the Trade New Zealand Services Exporter of…
Mother of Invention
Age feature charts former Thompson Twin Alannah Currie’s career trajectory from 80s popstar to the face of MadGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering) – NZ’s most visible opponent of genetically modified crops. Currie is credited with making the…
Play it Safe with Silver
According to research undertaken at Auckland University, silver cars are significantly less likely to be involved in a serious crash than vehicles of other colours. Sue Furness, who led the study, suggests that this “may be…
Talking Turkey
Evolutionary biologists at Auckland University have made ivory tower headlines by providing compelling evidence of the origins of the Indo-European language family. Associate Professor Russell Gray and PhD student Quentin Atkinson applied a complex computer program modelled…
Chameleon Car Coolest of ’03
Alan Gibbs’ Aquada skims into Time magazine’s list of ‘Coolest Inventions of 2003.’ The Aquada also featured in Arthur Lubow’s article ‘Inspiration: Where Does It Come From?’ for the New York Times, alongside the Band-Aid, the…
No 8 Wired
Singapore’s Straits Times focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit driving NZ’s booming science industry. “Over time, the Number 8 wire came to epitomise a culture of adaptability and creativity, a ‘can-do spirit’ of which the Kiwis are…
Trade Takes Off
The successful launch of the Emirates air service in NZ is expected to dramatically increase exports to and from the Middle East. NZ exporters are now able to fly perishable goods such as seafood and flowers…
Inter-national Bank
Australia’s ANZ Group has purchased the National Bank of NZ from Britain’s Lloyds TSB. The AU$5.4 billion deal is the largest takeover in the Asia-Pacific this year, doubling ANZ’s market share to make it NZ’s biggest…
Seeds of Discontent
The controversial lifting of a 2-year moratorium on genetically modified crop trials in NZ has been covered extensively by the Guardian, BBC, and Wired. The issue is a divisive one in a country reliant…
Bring Back Germs
According to a NZ report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, children who suffer from asthma at an early age are less likely to outgrow the disease by adulthood. The figures are drawn from an…
Antarctic Archives
NZ’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences has received international funding to drill more than a kilometre beneath Antarctica in order to gain access to the “untapped record of climate change” held in its sedimentary layers. Otago…
Mad for Merino
A trip to NZ “pulled the scratchy wool from eyes” with the discovery of Kiwi staple, merino. “This is not your grandfather’s wool, most of which could have doubled as a Brillo…
Time Travellers Beware
NZ relativity expert, Professor Matt Visser, attended a Cambridge University discussion on the troublesome issue of time travel, in honour of Stephen Hawking’s 60th birthday. “Most physicists view time travel as being problematic, if not downright repugnant,”…
Tips from the Top
Telecom NZ CEO, Theresa Gattung, interviewed in the SMH after figures from the second annual survey by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency show a “miniscule” improvement in the Australian corporate world’s gender imbalance….
What Will Pinetree Think …
The All Blacks are using Telecom’s most state-of-the-art technology in their bid to win this year’s Rugby World Cup. Coach John Mitchell will be able to view streamed video footage of multiple angles of the game…
Eric “Bueller” Watson
SMH charts the enviable career of Eric Watson; from butcher’s apprentice to multimillionaire businessman and owner of the NZ Warriors, (who bowed out in the semi-finals of the 2003 NRL to eventual winners Penrith). “See Eric…
Fairydown Man Enough for Hillary
NZ outdoor label, Fairydown, is to be re-named ‘Zone,’ after market research revealed Australian men to be uncomfortable with the original tag’s effeminate connotations. Sir Edmund Hillary, who used a Fairydown sleeping bag on his 1953 ascent…
Snap, Crackle and Edge
NZ-born David Mackay makes Time‘s list of ‘World Beaters: People to Watch in International Business.’ After 3 years at the helm of Kellog Co.’s US division, Mackay had brought the cereal company back to its status…
These Wings are Made for Walking …
A team of NZ researchers – led by David Lambert of Auckland’s Massey University – has broken new ground in the field of genetics to reveal previously unknown details about the moa. In a world first,…
Pacific Powerhouse
NZ’s Pacific Retail Group has purchased PowerHouse, the third largest electrical retailer in Britain. PRG is NZ’s major player in electrical appliances, with Noel Leeming, Big Byte and Bond & Bond all operating under its umbrella….
Aquada, Bond Aquada, 0064
International media attention was lavished on The Thames, London, for the launch of NZ-entrepreneur Alan Gibb’s revolutionary Aquada (inspired by inventor Terry Roycroft’s design innovations). The James Bond-style sports vehicle with the amphibian edge can reach up to…
Kiwi Juice Goes Global
Auckland-based kiwifruit juice manufacturers – Nekta International Limited – have made a successful entry into the US market. Sales have “exceeded expectations” since the product was lauched there in June. Nekta is already sold in Australia, Asia,…
Gene-injected Performance
Dr Matthew During of Auckland University is part of a US medical team promoting the groundbreaking use of gene therapy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Speaking in New York, During emphasised that the procedure was…
EasyNZ
Air NZ has responded to increased and heavily discounted competition by introducing a no-frills Tasman Express service. So far, the cheap fares are proving to be a lucrative addition; by mid-August, Air NZ had tripled its average…
Pooling Resources
NZ’s Fisher & Paykel Appliances has formed a technology-sharing alliance with US white-ware company, Whirlpool Corporation. Fisher & Paykel managing director, John Bongard, predicts greater access to global markets to result from the union: “Whirlpool offers us…
Living Large
New research undertaken at Auckland University suggests that the tendency towards obesity occurs in the womb, rather than as a result of our remote-control society. The findings – recently published in the American Physiological Society journal -…
Big Idea: Atomic Imagination
Sir Ernest Rutherford featured in an Independent story, ‘Dawn of the nuclear age.’ “No one has described the atom discovered by Rutherford better than the playwright Tom Stoppard: ‘Now make a fist, and if your fist is…
Ringing Up the Profit
Telecom NZ has made a NZ$703 million net profit for the past year, ending a four-year run of negative growth. The solid progress comes despite a troubled foray into the Australian market.
Tukuitonga Joins WHO’s Who
Nieuean Colin Tukuitonga has resigned as NZ’s director of health to take up a post with the United Nations World Health Organisation. Tukuitonga, a former community health lecturer at Auckland University, will work in non-communicable diseases and…
Edge Therapies in Demand
Virionyx – the NZ company behind an experimental new AIDS drug – has been hired by two US organisations to develop therapies for diseases such as SARS. Said PM Helen Clark, at the opening of Virionyx’s…
NZ Says No to “Suckle Chuckle”
Apparently, the NZ public is “not ready” for the image of a breast-feeding man. The Ministry of Health vetoed an advertisement designed by the Women’s Health Action group in support of World Breastfeeding Week, stating that it…
Space, Time and Einstein
27-year-old Wellington university drop-out, Peter Lynds, claims to have solved a philosophical paradox which has baffled thinkers for 2,500 years. The broadcasting tutor has taken on such heavyweights as the Greek philosopher Zeno and Stephen…
Edge: Intellectual Capital
NZ’s nano-tech Nobel laureate Alan MacDiarmid has been appointed to the newly created James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology at The University of Texas at Dallas. “Alan MacDiarmid’s move to Dallas is an…
Bright Sparks and Smart Studs
A NZ company working in conjunction with Auckland University is set to revolutionise road safety technology. Harding Traffic Systems has developed battery-powered “smart studs” to replace the cat’s eyes currently marking roads around the world. The…
Unemployed at Risk
Research into suicide conducted by the Wellington School of Medicine has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and reported on around the world. The findings – based on the NZ population for three…
Promoting Inter-polar Understanding
NZ Antarctic scientists are joining Bulgarian and American researchers at the Canadian high Arctic this year in a bid to exchange information about their respective poles. By pooling their findings, the scientists hope to better understand the…
Once Were Panelbeaters
NZ’s 2003 “Rich List” is headed by billionaire businessman Graeme Hart, who last year accomplished a daring takeover of Australian food giant, Goodman Fielder. Hart was the subject of the Australian headline; ‘Once were panelbeaters, now cashed-up Kiwis.’…
Words into Mouths – Fingering the Leap to Language
An NYT feature explores the impetus that gave man the edge to evolve from animal to language (the only characteristic that differentiates us from animals). A debate taking in Chomsky and Pinker asks which came first…
Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I’m … 35?!
Canterbury University psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa lumps men of scientific brilliance and criminals in the same psychological boat, claiming that both dwindle in the creative stakes post-35 – typically sapped by marriage! Kanazawa gathered the ages of 280 scientists…
Hi-tech NZ
NZ was named 6th most high-tech nation in an annual survey by the IDC/World Times Information Society Index. The list – topped by Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands – ranks 55 countries in their use of information…
Scientists Ruminate on Ruminants
NZ scientists have joined the fight to save the planet – from methane. The gas produced by ruminants (cud-chewing animals) is one of the leading causes of global warming, well ahead of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide….
Edge Location: Best in Show
A personal navigation system produced by NZ company, Navman, topped the Herald‘s list of best inventions at Sydney’s Consumer Electronics and Entertainment exhibition. The handheld device uses GPS satellite tracking technology to steer tourists around foreign…
What Lies Beneath…
A month-long exploration of the Tasman Sea by NZ and Australian scientists has uncovered hundreds of new species of fish and invertebrates. Previously unknown critters trawling the depths include gelatinous sea cucumbers, fish resembling globs of mucous…
Going Global
NZ company Airways International is currently overseeing expansion plans for Iran’s Qeshm International Airport. “Strategically located in the Straits of Hormuz, in close proximity to Iran, the Gulf countries and Central Asia, Qeshm Island has a vast…
You Have the Right to Remain Nauseous
The smelly brainchild of Lower Hutt physicist Andrew Rakich has become an indispensable item for the LA Police Department. SkunkShot gel, originally sold in NZ to keep marauding dogs away from rubbish bags, is now being used…
A Kiwifruit A Day…
Sales of NZ kiwifruit to SARS zone Taiwan have escalated dramatically after two academics proclaimed the fruit’s resistance-building properties in a Chinese daily. Kiwifruit contain twice as much vitamin C as oranges and a…
Dinner at the Gates
Telecom NZ head, Theresa Gattung, was in attendance at Microsoft’s 7th annual CEO summit held at Microsoft’s HQ in suburban Redmond, USA. She joined a high-powered collective, including Warren Buffet, Ross Perot, Bank One’s Jamie Dimon and…
