North By North West
A massive wind farm, comprising 168 turbines that could provide enough electricity for 17, homes has been approved for construction between Port Waikato and Raglan. The wind farm, to be named Hauauru…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Ponoko Perfect
Ponoko, the virtual manufacturing pioneer, has announced that its Personal Factory platform will support the new 3D modelling software, Autodesk 123D. The partnership between Autodesk and Ponoko allows the companies to meet…
Pregnancy Breakthrough
Scientists at Auckland University’s Liggins Institute and the Crown Research Institute AgResearch have helped find a link between a woman’s diet during pregnancy and her child’s chances of becoming overweight. Professor Peter Gluckman, who…
Mother of all Mother Tongues
University of Auckland psychologist Quentin Atkinson has undertaken a first-of-its-kind linguistic analysis suggesting that human language arose only once. Atkinson traced language’s origin by breaking down 54 world languages into their smallest components, called…
Mobile Muscle Power
Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Biomimetics Lab scientists are developing “wearable energy batteries” capable of converting human movement into battery power. These would be light, soft, form-fitting, stretchy materials with mechanical properties that match human muscle….
Downhill Game-Changer
Auckland-based Mike Hodgkinson’s 57kg off-road Mountain Moto is a “game changer” according to motorcycle blog 2Wheel Tuesday, and “takes the best of downhill mountain bikes, paired with a 125cc engine making for an unbelievable…
Revolutionary Gel
University of Otago scientists have developed a ground-breaking gel for healing wounds after sinus injury derived from a polymer named chitosan extracted from crab-shell and squid. According to researchers, the new gel has the…
German for Float
“With its eagerness for wacky rides and a steady stream of adventure-seeking human guinea pigs, New Zealand was the obvious location” for the 2m monorail Swheeb track, writes the Financial Times’ Tarquin Cooper. “The…
Robotic Tai Chi
Christchurch-based gaming company Stickmen Studios and researchers at the University of Auckland have teamed up to customise a robot that will help elderly people stay active through interactive games. The robot is called Eldercare…
Exciting Nano Potential
Victoria University PhD graduates Dr Fern Kelly and Dr Kerstin Burridge have completed parallel research projects pioneering a way of embedding tiny nanoparticles of gold and silver in New Zealand wool. When the precious…
Sound from all sides
New Zealand musician and ribbon-microphone enthusiast Larry Killip has helped introduce Chinese microphones to the English-speaking market. In 23 he discovered a new line of cheap Chinese ribbon microphones that were easy for hobbyists…
Ginseng dilemma solved
Otago University senior chemistry lecturer Dr Barrie Peake has come up with a way to prove that Wisconsin’s ginseng really does comes from Wisconsin, putting an end to fraud in places like China, where…
New migration findings
New research led by Janet Wilmshurst from Landcare Research, and Atholl Anderson, from the Australian National University has found that New Zealand was colonised by humans more recently — and faster — than previously…
Films advancing art
“The most exhilarating show of 2th-century art to be seen in this country right now is by the New Zealand artist Len Lye,” Laura Cummings writes in a Guardian review of the retrospective exhibition…
Human Footprints
The effect of early humans on New Zealand forests is being studied by scientists from Montana State University in a project titled “Ecosystem resilience to human impacts: ecological consequences of early human-set fires in…
Jet-propelled milestone
The Martin Jetpack has been included in Time magazine’s 5 Best Inventions of 21, alongside Google’s driverless Prius and Amtrak’s cattle fat-powered train. New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin spent nearly 3 years developing a…
Wired for drive
Auckland UniServices has launched a technology allowing cars to charge wirelessly, employing the same technology used to charge electric toothbrushes. The company behind the technology, called HaloIPT, is a technology development company founded by…
Cruel to be kind
The Christchurch-based Rare Breeds Conservation Society is aiming to save the critically endangered Arapawa Island boar by killing two of the pigs and extracting semen for later research. Head of the Conservation Society Michael…
Winning waves
State science company Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (WET-NZ) has won a grant of more than NZ$2 million from the United States Government to develop a wave power prototype design. WET-NZ has developed a…
Compressed innovation
Fisher & Paykel Appliances (FPA) has claimed a technology breakthrough that will boost the energy efficiency of home refrigerators by 3 per cent and increase their storage capacity. The company has designed a revolutionary…
Seeing the small
University of Otago scientists have made a “major physics breakthrough”, developing a technique to capture the image of a single atom, the Rubidium 85. The process takes a matter of seconds, starting by dramatically…
Coup for the shweeb
Internet giant Google is granting Rotorua-based company Shweeb Holdings a sum of $1 million to develop a pedal-system monorail for use in “traffic-clogged, skyscraper-strewn cities”. The company has been operating a monorail at an…
Scented feathers
Canterbury University associate professor Jim Briskie is hoping to develop a deodorant for New Zealand’s native birds to stop them falling prey to introduced predators. Briskie says it appears New Zealand birds suffer from…
Mountains rising
New Zealand’s 45 kilometer-long Southern Alps have been the subject of a ten year American study which has been collating data by GPS in order to determine how fast the mountain range is rising….
Comparing hemispheres
New data from evidence found in New Zealand has revealed that the Southern Hemisphere continued to warm its way out of the ice age, even as the north temporarily plunged back into a another…
Mammoth but fragile
Australian scientists have found that eggs from the giant flightless moa were miniscule and vastly disproportionate to the bird. Eggshells identified by DNA as belonging to the two largest, heaviest moa species, Dinornis robustus…
Crunching genetics
Roger Hellens from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research has identified the genetic code for Golden Delicious apples meaning growers will be able to produce crunchier, juicier and healthier fruits. Hellens said: “We will…
Atom Spy Claims
New Zealand-born DNA pioneer and Nobel Prize recipient Professor Maurice Wilkins was investigated by MI5 as a possible atom spy who had passed US nuclear secrets to the Russians. Security service files recently released…
Death of a genius
Thames-born scientist and obstetrician Sir Graham Collingwood Liggins has died at the age of 84. Liggins was described as one of New Zealand’s greatest scientists who undertook groundbreaking obstetrical research. Known to his friends…
Rave reviews for app
Since launching a free iPad application, which went live on July 23, APN News and Media-owned The New Zealand Herald “has earned near-rave reviews, averaging four-star ratings on Apple’s iTunes site,” The Australian’s Lara…
Teenage asthma findings
A team from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand have found that teenagers who regularly took paracetamol were more than twice as likely to have asthma. A study of more than 3, teenagers,…
Wine Search Simplified
New Zealander Martin Brown’s search-engine wine-searcher.com “has done more to transform that commercial landscape than any other, affecting every facet of the way the wine business is conducted, certainly in this country and…
Mobile Learning
Students at Auckland’s Howick College are using free software to convert computer files into mobile phone study notes for a pilot study called ‘mLearning’ which is examining the result of using mobile phones as…
Default pop accent
Auckland University of Technology University culture, discourse and communication masters student Andy Gibson has found that an American-influenced accent is the default when singing pop music. Gibson studied three New Zealand singers and looked…
Deliver or die
Christchurch film company Gorilla Pictures has created an interactive YouTube zombie adventure film for Hell Pizza which was launched online on July 31. The film, called Deliver Me To Hell, has been…
Broadening horizons
A 13,6-kilometre sub-sea fibre-optic cable linking New Zealand, Australia and the US will be ready for service in 213. The US$4 million Pacific Fibre cable will be laid jointly by Pacific Fibre and Asian…
Rex means possibility
New Zealander Hayden Allen, 23, is learning to walk again with the aid of a pair of robot legs after a debilitating car accident five years ago. The device, dubbed “Rex”, is the work…
Igniting efficient burn
Four hundred and fifty tons of New Zealand lignite has been successfully dried in a southwestern Dakota coal drying plant’s first commercial test of the process, which removed 65 per cent of water from…
Mega mobile sale
The New Zealand-based mobile marketing company Hyperfactory, whose clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, Disney, Kraft, L’Oreal and Vodafone, has been bought by Iowa-based media group Meredith Corporation, publisher of Family Circle and Successful Farming, for…
Undersea utterances
Researcher Shahriman Ghazali of Auckland University has discovered that fish communicate with each other in a secret language of grunts, growls, chirps and pops. Predators may even hunt out prey by intercepting fish talk,…
Stopping the skim
BNZ fraud initiatives manager Michael Turner’s software-based technology for reducing credit-card fraud has been patented world-wide. The “liquid encryption number” (LEN) technology is used on all BNZ credit and debit cards, and has cut…
Super Swift and for Sale
Jock Freemantle’s super car company Hulme is now taking orders for 2 of its CanAm cars, which are priced around $64, and can reach speeds of 32kmh. Each car will be numbered and delivered…
Smart Move
Auckland-based technology firm, NextWindow, has been bought out by privately-owned Calgary company, Smart Technologies. NextWindow, which employs 125 staff in offices in New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, makes touch…
Moa Eggshells Tell All
Scientists in New Zealand and Australia have extracted the DNA from the fossil eggshells of 3000-year-old moa. It is the first time that scientists have succeeded in extracting ancient DNA from the fossilised eggshells…
Green Hankshake
New Zealand will share its expertise in green technology with India to help the East Asian country produce clean energy and build an eco-friendly transport system. “New Zealand has a competitive advantage in green…
Revered Geochemist
Port Chalmers-born Smithsonian scientist Brian Harold Mason, who was internationally known for his study of meteorites and moon rocks and who was the first to discover that a rock found in Antarctica came from…
Smooth operator
New Zealand-based bus manufacturer DesignLine, which already has three 37-seater vehicles valued at $784,000 operating as part of a pilot scheme in New York City, may be joined by 87 more buses by the end…
Planet Earth is blue
From Great Mercury Island, 18km off the Coromandel Peninsula, Mark Rocket and Peter Beck of privately-owned company Rocket Lab successfully launched the 6-metre rocke Atea-1 into space. The rocket, which was carrying a 2kg payload of…
Pursuing World Domination
The Christchurch-designed YikeBike has been named one of Time magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009, making the cover of the publication’s Asia edition. “It’s like getting your first Big Wheel all over again — and you don’t even…
Hawaiian theories
New Zealand may have been settled by sea-faring Hawaiians according to a new study of Polynesian canoe designs by Stanford University. The idea that ancient Hawaiians could have made the 4,400-mile journey south shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar…
For the Pros
The New Zealand company behind Europe’s first artificial surf reef at Boscombe in Bournemouth, ASR Limited, has said the reef, now opened to the public, would provide a “substantial benefit” to the beachside community in terms…
Sweet Solutions
Researchers at the University of Auckland are working with dairy company Fonterra to develop a “medical dessert” which is proving to be useful in reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy in cancer sufferers. The ice cream, called ReCharge,…
Dengate Thrush Translates
New Zealander Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has been in charge of reviewing what is being touted as the “biggest change” to the…
Digital industrialists
David ten Have, the 34-year-old CEO of Wellington company Ponoko features on the cover of Inc. Magazine, as part of an article called ‘The Future of Manufacturing’. “Ponoko did not invent the laser cutter….
Dances with fish
New Zealand marine biologist Sunil Kadri, co-founder of Optoswim Technologies, is the O2 X Male Entrepreneur of The Year, awarded in London for technology Kadri created to improve the production of farmed salmon, dubbed…
Flights of Fancy
Christchurch engineer Glenn Martin, inventor of the Martin Jetpack, recently offered a test flight of the machine on eBay at a starting bid of US$30,000 for six flights. The bidding was open to anyone…
