New Thinking
World weather patterns will shield New Zealand from radiation spewed out of the stricken nuclear power station in Japan, says GNS Science.
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AgResearch scientists are looking at whether farmers might be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by growing high-yielding pasture plants with a lower nitrogen content.
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This year’s ozone hole season is “slow to kick in,” says NIWA atmospheric scientist, Dr Olaf Morgenstern. In New Zealand the official ozone hole season starts in the second week of September and runs through to November.
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NIWA is looking at the long-term effects of motorways and wood smoke on air quality
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AgResearch scientists are using water balloons to measure sheep burps as part of research into methane emissions.
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AgResearch hopes to show dairy farmers how to reduce carbon emissions on their farms by experimenting with farm inputs on its new $6.5 million dairy research farm at Tokanui.
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AgResearch's former head of climate and environment, Harry Clark, who is setting up the new The Government's new Centre for Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Research, said he would be looking to industry for support beyond its current $50m taxpayer-funding over the next 10 years for the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium.
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An Environment Canterbury-commissioned report, undertaken by ESR, highlights two main sources of faecal contaminants in Christchurch’s Avon River.
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According to Plant and Food Research - if you want to be environmentally chic you need to be concerned about your water footprint.
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The National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is buying one of the world's most powerful supercomputers for environmental forecasting.
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New Science
A 3-year project aims to pilot an in-stream woodchip denitrifying bioreactor to remove nitrogen from drainage water on agricultural land
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The world is more brightly lit now than ever before, spilling light pollution out into the night skies, with the glows on the horizon becoming progressively whiter and brighter.
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Without standards our lives would be chaotic. Developing and revising standards is a continual process at Scion as new technologies and products become available, with many of our scientists actively engaged in national and international standards committees for such things as wood preservatives, biodegradability, packaging, freshwater and biosecurity measures.
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A plan to grow paddocks of genetically modified grass created to cut the greenhouse gases produced by cows is in the pipeline at Crown-owned company AgResearch.
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An ambitious new project to establish a standardised approach to measuring Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions for one of the country’s leading export industries is about to begin.
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Landcare Research scientists Dr Jamie Wood and Dr Janet Wilmshurst along with Professor Alan Cooper and Mr Trevor Worthy at the University of Adelaide aim to learn more of the diets of moa and other large extinct birds and the effect their snacking had on our ecology
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An innovative solution to a billion-dollar problem has been successfully trialled by Scion. A modified form of zeolite, a natural volcanic mineral, looks set to be a new tool in the campaign to mitigate the effects of nutrient run-off in New Zealand's lakes and waterways.
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Radiocarbon dating of Pacific rat (kiore) bones and rat–gnawed native seeds have provided compelling new evidence into the timing of New Zealand
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Results from New Zealand's most comprehensive, independent scientific field trial of genetically modified trees support the argument that GM trees are low-risk and can be safely introduced into the environment, with no negative effects on other organisms.
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Most people turn off the lights to keep creepy critters away. But Scion is turning them on. The Crown Research Institute is trialling yellow lighting systems as a means of repelling insects, research which could reduce the need for methyl bromide treatments at wood processing sites.
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New Value
Wood is the world’s most used renewable resource. We rely on it for building materials, heating sources, musical instruments, modes of transport, clothes and packaging. But, are the full benefits of wood being realised?
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A machine called AECL Theratron T-80 Teletherapy, containing a radioactive source (Co-60), was recently decommissioned by ESR and returned to Australia. Learn about the journey and watch the video.
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GNS Science has won a total of $127,000 for three projects in the 2016 round of the government's Unlocking Curious Minds contestable fund
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Enhancing New Zealand's primary sector economic contributions while improving our environment is the aim of the newest National Science Challenge
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ESR scientists are monitoring the Pacific for airborne radioactivity resulting from yesterday’s underground nuclear event detected in North Korea.
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Arabian Adventures, a division of the Emirates GroupEmirates Group and the region's leading Destination Management Company (DMC), has been awarded the internationally recognised Certified Emissions Measurement And Reduction Scheme (CEMARS) certification by Landcare Research.
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Scion, the Rotorua-based Crown Research Institute, will be highlighting practical technologies at this year’s Fieldays. Two of those technologies convert waste to profit.
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Industrial Research Ltd (IRL) has made a breakthrough that enables the world’s most efficient carbon dioxide capture technology to become commercially viable.
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Research into the sustainable management of New Zealand estuaries and coastal waters has earned Malcolm Green of NIWA the Environmental Science Award at the 2009 Kudos Awards.
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Landcare Research has received two awards for sustainability on the same night but in different parts of the country.
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