A humble New Zealand mollusc is suddenly in the global spotlight, and now it’s up to New Zealanders to help it claim victory. Biologist Priscila Salloum explains why the snakeskin chiton deserves your vote. Snakeskin chiton, a common mollusc on the New Zealand coast, has beaten off more than a hundred competitors from all corners … Read more
Every year high school biology teachers gather to learn the latest in science. This year there’s a lot to catch up on, Maurice Wilkins Centre organisers Rachel Heeney and Dave Grattan tell The Spinoff. Last year, terms like “elimination strategy”, “flatten the curve” and “sustained transmission” were foreign to the majority of New Zealanders. Next … Read more
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need? Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an episode for the next season of Black Mirror. Her ideas about the future of … Read more
The revelation that our national museum is on the brink of turfing out two world-class scientists casts grave doubt over its commitment to being a natural history museum, writes evolutionary biologist David Winter What is going on at Te Papa? As part of its latest round of restructuring, the museum’s directors asked an international panel … Read more
Human excrement is not just a bunch of dead cells. Most of it is alive, teeming with billions of microbes, explains Vincent Ho of Western Sydney University. What makes up poo? Here’s what studies in healthy adults tell us. Water Our faeces is largely (75%) made up of water, although this differs from person … Read more
Helen Taylor explains why she devotes her research to bird semen, and how an avian sperm race can help save one of New Zealand’s forgotten taonga, the hihi. When I was little, I wanted to be David Attenborough, but here I am at 35 hanging out in the bush collecting bird semen samples and encouraging … Read more
Olly Hills couldn’t find a field guide to native New Zealand cicadas, so he decided to fill the gap in our biological literature. Angela Cuming caught up with the young biologist to talk about his first book. The idea for Cicadas of New Zealand came to Olly Hills the same way many other authors stumble … Read more