DRILLING: An international consortium of scientists is preparing to drill into a crack in the edge of the world -- the South Island’s Alpine Fault. The researchers want to drill over 5km deep in the Mt Cook National Park, west of Lilybank, in a cutting-edge experiment which will give a look at changes within the fault, which is expected to eventually destroy large areas of the South Island in a magnitude 8 quake. By drilling a hole into a fault in the Earth’s mid-crust, the... more>

KIWI: Nelson molecular biologist Andrew Fidler has produced genetic evidence that the sense of smell is much more important in some birds than has previously been thought. Dr Fidler has worked with former colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Bavaria, to show that some bird species rely on smell just as much as fish, or even mammals. Until recently, scientists thought flashy mating displays, melodious songs, and other sound and sight-oriented behaviours meant birds had... more>

ENERGY: Dry winter power concerns may be less of a problem in future, with capacity from planned new power projects in the next decade likely to comfortably beat the expected growth in demand. More than $7 billion is being spent on electricity generation and transmission in the next few years, investment in new electricity infrastructure of a scale not seen since the 1970s, said Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange. Over the next seven to 10 years, Electricity Commission analysis... more>

BIOFUELS: Lincoln University is leading a $4 million research project to produce biofuels on poor-quality land which will not displace food crops or livestock. The university was this week given $4.33m in Government funding for the project, which also involves global fuel company Chevron, in a bid to produce feedstock for biofuels without pushing up the cost of basic foods such as grain and milk. Lincoln’s bio-protection centre is co-ordinating the research to produce affordable,... more>

CONSERVATION: A new gene study by Lincoln University researchers may provide assistance in the battle to protect threatened frog species. Frog populations throughout the world are being depleted by habitat loss and disease. Of Australasia’s 220 frog species, 47 are considered endangered. World-wide, scientists believe about 165 of known frog species may already be extinct. Bruce Waldman, a biologist at Lincoln University, said a new paper to be published tomorrow will outline... more>

ENERGY: Charges may be laid against a former Dunedin city councillor who admitted dropping of parcels of mildly radioactive material to politicians’ offices yesterday. Jeremy Belcher told the Otago Daily Times he was just trying to share information on an alternative energy source when he left the parcels at the Dunedin offices of National MP Katherine Rich and the Green Party yesterday afternoon. The packages, labelled "Uranium. Medium Radiation" sparked a three-hour evacuation of... more>

ENERGY: The improvement in New Zealand’s electricity supply over an unusually dry winter was due more to good management than the lucky arrival of rainfall, the Government said today. A national voluntary power savings campaign will run for its planned six weeks, ending in a fortnight, as South Island hydro lake storage levels remain uncomfortably low despite recent rain. Figures from M-co showed that inflows to the hydro lakes surged from 68 percent of average last Wednesday to 195... more>

CONSERVATION: Wild pigs are being blamed for the deaths of scores of kauri trees from a newly discovered disease carried in the soil in west Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges. Pigs rooting near the base of the kauri trees, many well over 100 years old, are thought to be spreading the soil pathogen known as phytophthora taxon agathis (PTA). The pathogen caused a disease in the trees which rotted the tree collars and eventually killed them. It had the potential to spread to other kauri... more>

CLIMATE CHANGE: New Zealand’s national science academy, the Royal Society, has challenged climate change "deniers", issuing a statement declaring unequivocally that the globe is warming and that humans are to blame. "The globe is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions," the society said, reporting the findings of an expert committee on climate. The society said that measurements showed that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere were well above levels seen... more>

EMISSIONS: The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has released a national survey of public opinion on climate change after sharing it with members. The research "reveals little public support for the scheme as proposed and widespread concern about cost and employment impacts," the institute said. The survey, conducted last month, showed a third of the 1000 or so respondents believed that climate change was happening, but fewer than half of the population was aware of the... more>