Oil and Ice
New Zealand micro-biologist Jackie Aislabie is working on an international effort to fight oil-slicks in pristine Antarctica.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Flying High
The contemporary kite industry is still riding the buzz generated by New Zealander Peter Lynn’s 80’s creation, the kite-powered buggy.
Science Star
New Zealand planktonologist Allison Joy Haywood is one of ten international recipients of a UNESCO-L’OREAL Fellowship for developing research talent.
Environmental Energy
A proto-type has been built for New Zealand’s first alternative power plant, using water to power a dual-cell hydrogen power station designed to supply energy to a timber company.
Classical Stirrer
“By instinct a man of the left and no respecter of reputations,” influential Cambridge Classical scholar Professor Robert Coleman “brought from his native New Zealand a suspicion of the great English institutions and took delight in expressing…
Gene Genie
Edge Gene Therapist and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Jefferson Medical College Philadelphia Matthew During, releases a first and major step forward in the prevention and possible treatment of stomach cancers through a technique involving oral doses…
US Feels the Edge
The US needs a fillip if it is to maintain inventiveness and compete with up-and-coming centres of innovation like New Zealand.
Face the Message
New Zealand tech-designers LifeFX’s Facemail programme spreads the word about a deal with major photo company Kodak.
Bird DNA
“The first ever functional genome sequences from an extinct species have been mapped by scientists at Oxford University. The mitochondrial DNA sequences were obtained from two giant moa and a Madagascan elephant-bird.”
Old Birds
Entering into the debate over cloning, Dr. Alan Cooper of Oxford comments that, despite the moa-mapping efforts of his team, “it is crucial that we do not become complacent and start assuming that we will be…
Foot Gloves
More than 50% of mass-market shoes just aren’t made to go on feet, but a small New Zealand company is an oasis of comfort among the pinching, making shoes that “fit like a glove”.
Actually Into It
New Zealand company Deep Video Imaging teams with Philips to incorporate actualdepth(TM) technology in next generation Philips monitors, creating “a new information display paradigm”.
Johnny Appleseedless
Scientists at the New Zealand Horticulture and Food Research Institute have pin-pointed the gene that creates seedless apples. They hope to develop a commercial variety using the gene to switch off seed production.
LifeFX
Auckland University’s digital-face email-reading technology attracts interest after the institute invested in the Boston-based firm that’s commercialising the product.
Philosophical Spilt
“Western philosophy starts with a conflict between reason and faith. But there is no such dichotomy in Indian philosophy where dharma is a part of philosophy. Everything is substantiated by reason,” says Victoria University Philosophy Professor Jaysankar L….
We Want Waitangi
Canadian victims of the Feb blues want a holiday, citing Waitangi day’s health-giving properties.
Hey Prestwick! An Airport
High-flying New Zealand airport developers Infratil snap up Prestwick Airport in Ayreshire, planning to turn it into a low-cost travel hub.
Wheezy September
Mysterious medical matter: asthma admission in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad all have an unexplained annual peak in the third week of September.
Long in the Tooth – at 26
New Zealand researchers have uncovered the biting truth – periodontal disease, which leads to loss of teeth, can be a problem from as early as 26.
Watch for the Splash
MIR is scheduled to descend into the South Pacific “up to 2000 kilometres (1 250 miles) off the coast of Australia…the same distance off the coast of Australia are New Zealand, the French territory of…
Family Planning, Possums!
David Heath of the Wallaceville Animal Research centre is developing a GM bug that secrets a substance designed to curtail possums’ fertility.
One Blind Mouse
Following the lead of New Zealand company Pulse Data, Israeli firm VirTouch has developed a Braille mouse for blind computer users.
Frucor on the Up
“One of last year’s hot floats” in Australia, Frucor, makers of headline energy drink V, have increased turnover by 55%.
Over and Out
“After six months and more than 400 bidding rounds, the battle for New Zealand’s third-generation mobile radio spectrum is over, netting the Government over $51 million.”
Good Mooves
“New Zealand’s dairy industry enjoys a strong position from which to attain leadership status in the global marketplace, especially with the recently inked merger pact between its two biggest players,” says Alan Jackson of Boston Boston Consulting…
Virtual COO
New Zealand sport-viewtechies Virtual Spectator have appointed veteran sports exec Alexander Brown as President and Chief Operating Officer.
Keep Your Skin On
A New Zealand-developed vaccine “switches off” debillitating skin disease psoriasis.
Baby Step
Researchers at Auckland University have uncovered a gene that may be linked to premature menopause, a condition that prevents up to 1% of women from bearing children.
Blue Star Buyout
International book-giant W H Smith is in negotiations to buy Whitcoull’s, New Zealand’s largest book-sellers.
Blinding Brilliance
New Zealand sociologist James Flynn is unconvinced that increasing IQ results (‘the Flynn effect’), actually means we’re getting smarter: “If people were really getting as smart as the test scores suggest, we should be…
Dolly Good
Ron James, managing director of PPL and the closest thing Dolly has to a father, got his start at New Zealand-spawned pharmo-giant Glaxo. Now PPL is using New Zealand cows in research aiming to produce drugs to…
Major Milk Player
New Zealand’s newly-minted Global Dairy Company has the size to “become a serious challenger to the likes of Nestle, Danone and Kraft” in world diary markets.
Ocoloco in the Wairarapa
Wairarapa company Siliconblue has scooped venture funding for its Ocoloco software, designed to replace physical Web servers with a combination of software and service.
Deadly Thorn
A thorn in your side could prove fatal according to doctors at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. The bug streptococcus pyogenes, present in soil, can enter the bloodstream through small wounds.
Flying Doctor
Mama Daktari spent her life working for the African Medical Research Foundation, co-founded by Kiwi Sir Archibald McKindoe.
Masai Milk
Milk from Asian and African cows is free of the heart disease-linked beta casein protein found in other milk, according to Professor Bob Elliott of the University of Auckland. The healthy hearts of the milk-drinking Masai switched Elliot…
Asparagus are from Mars, Potatoes are from Venus
Lincoln University researchers have successfully grown potatoes and asparagus in soil collected from Mars. “Space-based soils could potentially support future human expansion in the solar system,” according to Professor Michael Mautner. “I wouldn’t say very soon, but…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Design
The revolutionary John Britten V1 bike featured in a story in Germany’s top news magazine Focus on the ‘The Art of the Motorcycle’ exhibition at the new Rem Koolhaas designed Guggenheim, Las Vegas. And in CycleWorld the…
Kreme de la Kreme
New Zealander Donald Henshall is the new president of international development for Krispy Kreme, makers of President Clinton’s favourite doughnuts.
Smart Milk
Breast is best for premature babies according to Christchurch School of Medicine researchers. Brest-fed babies have a slighter higher IQ at ages 7 and 8, compared to their peers raised on the bottle.
Berg Ahoy!
Kiwi Nigel Jolly heads a team of eleven sailing into Antarctic waters in search of a giant iceberg. The crew are hoping to film the berg inside and out.
Controversial Language
The “anthropological treasure trove of the Pacific” is a breeding ground for academic debate. University of Auckland researchers Russell Gray and Fiona Jordan have adapted DNA mapping techniques and applied them to language families, creating a new…
Cold Shoulder
Warming-swarming says Wellington scientist Vincent Gray, whose anti-global warming beliefs challenge scientific orthodoxy.
Whistle-blowing
After ten years of play on an unregulated field, an umpire has been appointed for the New Zealand telecommunications industry.
Flat Out
Chaos and interacting sound waves power new-generation flat speakers. New Zealand’s Soundlab is at the head of the pack, in sound-delivery technology.
Putting Meat on the Table
“Inexpensive frozen New Zealand lamb enabled Glaswegians to put meat on the table during the misery of the 1930’s. Galloway’s “Empire Lamb Shop”, at the end of Jamaica Street, was open just four days a week,…
3G in 3rd M?
The auction of New Zealand’s 3G radio spectrum frequencies has been an on-again, off-again affair – will it take till the third millennium?
Pharming Drugs
“Pharming” is the name for growing drugs in transgenic animals, like PPL’s New Zealand sheep.
PPL Piggies
PPL (Scotland, US, NZ) presented the world with five cloned piglets – the beginning of interspecies organ donation and top five important science event 2000.
First Time
Christchurch Casino has placed a clock in its gaming room – a first for the industry, which usually likes punters to forget the outside world exists.
Who Supervises the Supervisors?
New Zealand economist Tim Hazledine detects over-supervision – a proliferation in the ranks of “pseudo-managers monitoring their underlings”.
Sane Dolly
PPL Therapeutics, the company that brought the world Dolly, hooks up with New Zealand company Celentis to clone cows in a BSE-free environment.
Locally Better
Staying awake with a local anesthetic may reduce surgical complications by 30% states an Auckland University study published in the British Medical Journal.
