Eco-powering Taranaki
Small-scale mixed-source energy generation at Pioneer Village “brings a little closer the prospect of freeing consumers forever from rising power bills and the guilt of contributing to pollution and climate change.”
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Polished Knowledge
“Digital Libraries hold the possibility that we might regain perspective on the billions of pieces of information in the web ocean.” In particular, DL system Greenstone, created by Dr Witten of Waikato University, offers an online…
Hot Shit!
Renewable Energy Corporation, powered by New Zealander Paul Williams’ organic waste energy generation technology, signs to put power-plants next to pig farms in North Carolina. The plants will gasify pig manure and burn the gas to…
Market in (3D) Sight
Prototypes of New Zealand-based Deep Video Imaging’s revolutionary actualdepth monitors are due to be built by early next year.
Blast from the Past
Edge inventor Paul Williams’ gasification technology leads the way in turning waste into energy.
Radio Innovation
Christchurch innovators Tait Electronics make product development company PTC’s annual Awards short-list with teched-up radios, the Orca 5000 series.
In the Xbox
Set to revolutionize gameplaying, Microsoft’s up-coming Xbox will have tools and middleware developed by Auckland-based Right Hemisphere. The New Zealand company has signed with Microsoft to create custom versions of its Deep Paint 3D and Texture…
Deeply Convincing
New Zealand screen-techies Deep Video Imaging are nearly ready to bring their 3-D PC screen closer to market. “People have tried like crazy to get the illusion of depth and the closest you could have is wearing…
Funny Farm
New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research thinks something funny is going on with cow dung…
Smells Good
Scientists at Wellington’s Industrial Research have been getting a bit sniffing about their new “electronic nose”, designed to help detect chemical spills and fires.
Dream Catcher
New Zealand-born psychotherapist Helen McLean turns dreams into reality writing multiple books and creating work-place training based on what your brain does at night.
Climate Change Challenge
“The climate models are only useful if the science is correct, and so far they have simply not been validated. They predict far more temperature increase in the lower atmosphere than satellites are measuring,” says Auckland University…
Vege Contraceptive
Scientists at Canterbury’s Lincoln University are trialling GE carrots as possum birth control.
Renewable Energy
The US could look at New Zealand’s hydroelectricity as a model for cleaning up its act.
Real Safe
Auckland-based Designer Technology’s Mail Marshal is the Pentagon’s security system of choice.
Spray Away
New Zealand – SkunkShot, created by Victoria University scientists, hits the garden with eau de skunk; unwelcome cats and dogs keep their distance.
Innovation I2B
Carter Holt Harvey enters the technology services market with software designed to breed innovation in large corporations.
Dolly, the Next Generation
PPL Therapeutic, the company behind Dolly and the cloned piglets, seeks backing to buy a farm in New Zealand. If all goes to plan, Dolly#2 will be a good kiwi girl.
Breaking in Privacy?
Will new anti-hacking laws breach the bill of rights? Parliament tries to walk the tightrope between security and invasion.
Mega-Catch
New Zealand Envirosafe Technologies’ mega-catch mosquito trap looks like a “harmless, black plastic birdcage”, but, to a mosquito, it looks and smells exactly like a juicy human target.
Whey Better
New Zealand investment and technology turns Israeli cheese run-off from environmental hazard to valuable protein supplement.
Rower Cola
University of Otago scientists says caffeine consumption prior to exercise boosts output, making you rower faster, run further and jump higher without even realising it.
Compudigm is Watching You
Wellington compu-data wizards Compudigm nominated for prestigious 2001 Computerworld Honours (Smithsonian). The nomination recognises the “spectacular success” of Compudigm’s Telstra Sydney Olympics Project.
Oil and Ice
New Zealand micro-biologist Jackie Aislabie is working on an international effort to fight oil-slicks in pristine Antarctica.
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…
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…
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….
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.
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.”
Virtual COO
New Zealand sport-viewtechies Virtual Spectator have appointed veteran sports exec Alexander Brown as President and Chief Operating Officer.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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?
