A “swarm” of bug-tracking drones and tiny radars are being developed at the University of Canterbury to help conservation of rare insects in New Zealand, Phil Mercer reports for Voice of America. Researchers hope it…
Humans can be a terrible influence on birds. Crows that live near us end up with high cholesterol, sparrows screech to be heard over oil pumps, and instead of migrating, some storks now just…
The reason for shades of technological white in the creation of robots may be racism, according to new research undertaken by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) and published…
A team of British scientists are set to make the trip to New Zealand this month, all in the hopes of unlocking the secrets hidden in the 600-year-old Canterbury Roll, the only genealogical scroll…
Researchers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand have managed to restore the first ever computer-generated piece of music, which was created by Alan Turing, as reported in The Telegraph. The recording was…
The story of Christchurch’s resurrection is nearly as inspirational as the one that lends the city its name. In the aftermath of a terrible succession of earthquakes between 2010-11, which led to the demolition…
University of Canterbury research has suggested that planting trees in public places could lead to a healthier society. The university research analysed the activities of 12,500 New Zealanders and found people living near parks and…
University of Canterbury graduate Gemma New has been selected by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association as one of two conductors to participate in the 2014/15 Dudamel Fellowship Program. New will be conducting ‘Peter and the…
A kiwi invention is taking the beloved pastime of colouring-in to a whole new, high-tech level, allowing kids’ colouring creations to come to life. New Zealand company Puteko’s colAR Mix app allows users to print,…
Christchurch-born composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood, who is perhaps best known for her Glass Concerts, in which she made use of the sonic and physical characteristics of glass, as well as her Piano…
27 November 2013 – University of Canterbury scientists are using a telescope pointed at the earth’s interior over 2000m below the surface of ice in Antarctica to study tiny particles in the hope of…
A researcher in New Zealand has found that Lego figurines are becoming increasingly angrier. In a study of 3,655 figures produced between 1975 and 2010, Dr Christoph Bartneck, a robot expert at the University…
As the mobile industry evolves, mobile operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) should focus on what they do best, according to New Zealander Vaughan Smith, vice president of corporate development at Facebook, who was…
University of Otago researchers have challenged a landmark US study, undertaken by Yale University, that indicated infants are born with a moral compass that enables them to recognize “good” and “bad” behaviour. The American…
New Zealand is aiming to eradicate smoking across the country by 2025. In an article published in the international Tobacco Control journal, health researchers at the University of Otago have said the government needs to set…
The full skeleton of an ancient penguin that roamed New Zealand 25 million years ago has been reconstructed by experts from the University of Otago and North Carolina State University. Standing about 1.3m tall,…
New Zealand rowing coach Richard Parr, 49, has been hired by the Vashon Island Rowing Club (VIRC) in Seattle. He comes to Vashon from the University of Otago, where he spent the past 15…
As well as remembering things differently, siblings often fight over ownership of the same memory writes the Guardian’s Charles Fernyhough in an article about shared memories and the problems they cause. “A study by Mercedes Sheen…
Dr Damian Scarf, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, and two colleagues have discovered that pigeons can learn abstract rules about numbers, an ability that until now had been demonstrated only in…
DNA evidence has confirmed that the tiny New Zealand storm petrel bird, thought to be extinct for more than 150 years, is still alive, meaning its comeback eclipses that of other “extinct” birds like…
University of Canterbury student Bree Loverich is one of 42 from Christchurch studying free at Oxford University for its eight-week Trinity term, after the British university offered places to those affected by February’s earthquake….
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position,…
University of Canterbury philosophy lecturer Denis Dutton has collaborated with TEDTalks and animator Andrew Park creating a video illustrating the provocative argument about beauty — that art, music and other beautiful…
Rob Thomson, 28, a Canterbury University arts graduate from Christchurch, has completed the longest unassisted skateboard journey ever made, travelling for 462 days over 12,000km from Leysin, Switzerland across Europe, North America and China…
Christchurch engineer Dr Keith Alexander’s Springfree Trampoline has won the “Children’s Product of the Year” in the largest United States consumer product survey, the Product of the Year Awards. Voted top children’s product by…
University of Canterbury professor of philosophy, Arts & Letter Daily founder and author of The Art Instinct Denis Dutton writes a New York Times op-ed about the turn of the century at the turn…
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…
Professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury and author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution Denis Dutton writes an opinion piece for The New York Times on the surprises conceptual…
The humble Eskimo lolly will remain on New Zealand shelves though lambasted by a Canadian visitor who claimed the confectionary’s shape and name was a racist slur against the Inuit. Seeka Lee Veevee…
29 January 2009 – University of Canterbury professor of philosophy Denis Dutton’s latest book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution – which supposes that art appreciation stems first from evolutionary adaptions made during…
Denis Dutton, philosophy of art professor at The University of Canterbury, has published a book building off his standard-bearing art theory website Arts & Letters Daily. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution…
Canterbury University researcher Annie Potts coined the new buzzword “vegansexuality” in a paper published in May. Potts, a director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, surveyed 157 vegans and vegetarians on all…
Leading Sinologist Professor Elisabeth “Lisa” Croll has died from cancer aged 63. Born in Reefton, on the South Island’s West Coast, Croll gained a BA and MA at Canterbury University before completing a second…
British political figure Anne Gilman, “a rebel from New Zealand”, has died aged 76. Gilman was born in NZ and attended Canterbury University, where she founded the student magazine, Canta. Gilman’s daughter, Catherine, describes…
A NZ doctoral student and her Dutch counterpart have initiated a radical new program to involve the humanities and social sciences in Antarctic research. Canterbury University’s Daniela Haase and Machiel Lamers of the University of Maastricht launched…
Historian, author and Victoria University of Wellington emeritus professor Peter Munz has died aged 85. Born in Chemnitz, Germany, Munz was part of the wave of mostly Jewish intellectuals who fled fascist…
Laurence Evans has taken a top position with Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations company. Evans has been appointed president of Edelman’s full-service research firm – StrategyOne – whose client list includes Unilever, Wal-Mart and Wrigley’s….
Canterbury University Professor of Philosophy and Arts & Letters Daily founder, Denis Dutton, was invited to the White House Press Correspondents’ Annual Dinner, as a guest of The Washington Post. The black tie event – a celebrity…
A group of Canterbury University scientists have developed a machine with the potential to revolutionise everything from counter-terrorism and border control to disease detection. Since the early 1980s, Professor Murray McEwan and his CU team have been…
Michele Law is currently working the most challenging assignment of her already distinguished legal career. As a lawyer for the UN Office of Constitutional Support, Law is helping to draft Iraq’s first constitution. The Canterbury University graduate…
The Guardian celebrated NZ-based academic weblog Arts & Letters Daily‘s 100 millionth hit by profiling its founder, Canterbury University’s Denis Dutton. Quoted is Robert Fulford, a columnist with Canada’s National Post: “The idea of Christchurch, NZ, as the…
Joint research by Oxford (UK) and Canterbury (NZ) Universities has uncovered startling new facts about NZ’s native Haast’s eagle. With a weight of 10kg, the Haast’s eagle was 30-40% heavier than the largest living bird of…
Researchers at the Canterbury District Health Board are developing an alertness monitor for drivers, in the hope of preventing fatigue-related accidents. With the help of Canterbury University’s Canterprise Ltd, the group hopes to have the device ready…
New scientific evidence reveals that humans may not be entirely responsible for the extinction of the moa. According to research undertaken in NZ and the US, there were 3 to 12 million moa roaming the forests…
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…
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…
New Scientist profiles the work of Canterbury University psychologist Bruce Ellis, who has recently published a study on the effects of absentee fathers on teenage girls. Ellis has monitored 700 girls from pre-school to high-school, in an…
Canterbury University’s Andy Cockburn is leading a team of computer scientists in redesigning the back button function on computers. In a bid to up the popular button’s efficiency, Cockburn and co. have reprogrammed web browsers so that…
“If the internet could express emotions, a collective groan of despair would have filtered through a quarter of a million modems with the sudden closure of a site called Arts & Letters Daily.”…
David Cohen collects the views of international scholars, including Graham Macdonald of the University of Canterbury, to place and demystify one of the university’s most celebrated former lecturers – controversial Austrian philosopher Karl Popper – on the…
And this web award actually means something: the Webby’s are the internet Oscars. All the more glory to Christchurch-based Arts and Letters Daily which was awarded the People’s Voice award for best…
Two Christchurch based websites are in the running for Webbies – the internet version of the Oscars. They are University of Canterbury Philosophy of Art Professor Denis Dutton’s brain-tickling Arts and Letters Daily…
Roger James in the The Guardian ponders the centenary of the birth of one of the C20th most original (and controversial) thinkers, philosopher Karl Popper. In an affirmation of edge theory Popper’s most influential…
University of Canterbury’s Professor Denis Dutton (Arts and Letters Daily) reviews Bjorn Lomborg’s controversial new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, in the Washington Post: Dutton concludes that the “richly informative, lucid book” containing “bad news for Green…
The Australian Treasury head-hunted Ken Henry from Canterbury University in 1984: now he’s the head of the outfit.
New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think the plants evolved like this to deter the now-extinct moa from making them dinner, but Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly doesn’t…
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