A souvenir to foreshadow a society...
The lotus leaf sets the international benchmark for the ability of its leaves to repel water, but a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand classified some New Zealand natives as ‘superhydrophobic’—species of hebe (Veronica albicans), Euphorbia (Euphorbia glauca) and also the rengarenga lily (Arthropodium bifurcatum). Water droplets on leaves […]...
A new pest-control technique that affects only the fertility of males in a pest population could be a humane, non-lethal and effective solution to damaging populations of possums and rats in New Zealand. Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the Trojan Female Technique uses natural genetic mutations to render males infertile but […]...
Take it from the pukeko, it pays to be honest...
Like all of us, our nation began life cocooned in water. And as the Pacific plate drove into the Indo-Australian, Zealandia emerged from the waves, a new continent rising from the seas as if baptised. Ever since, this land mass has been pelted with rain borne by the westerlies that circle the Southern Ocean, and water […]...
The Alpine Fault ruptures—on average—every 330 years with a magnitude 8 earthquake. Geologists and authorities are racing to quantify what might happen, and how they might respond in the event of the next one, likely to occur some time in the next 50 years....
Since the Immigration Act of 1987, migration from the Indian subcontinent has swelled Auckland’s suburban population, bringing with it a cultural cargo of music and dance that has coloured urban life and changed what it means to be a New Zealander....
Water, our most precious natural asset, offers amenity, a habitat for aquatic species and a focus for recreation. But it also turns the turbines of industry and powers New Zealand’s agricultural economy. Economic development and environmental integrity are at odds in a struggle for control over this great resource. Are we mortgaging our future for […]...
Rust, lichen and wild Central Otago thyme combine forces to consume and cover the last traces of human industry at the Earnscleugh Dredge Tailings near Alexandra. Mined and washed of their gold from the 1890s, the river gravels have become a sanctuary for rare species, and one of the country’s most unusual wildlife reserves....
. . . and why it continues. The view from 25....
