Our Changing World

We all get some - but are you getting enough? Claire Concannon investigates the science of sleep and meets a pilot-turned-sleep-researcher helping the aviation industry ensure crew on long-haul flights get some shut-eye. Sleeping isn't clever, evolutionarily speaking. We spend a third of our lives in an extremely vulnerable position, unaware of our surroundings, exposed to threats of predator...

New Zealand's native long-tailed bat, pekapeka-tou-roa, is going strong in Franklin, south of Auckland. But these tiny mammals are threatened by introduced predators, especially cats. Producer Liz Garton goes on a bat hunt and learns about locals' efforts to keep their pekapeka neighbours safe. A recent survey of the long-tailed bat population in Franklin, south of Auckland, showed there were many...

Not everything goes to plan on research trips. And when the trip is to a remote island aboard a navy ship designed to help with disaster relief, and happens to overlap with one of the worst weather disasters in New Zealand... well, things are going to change. Claire Concannon tells the story of Operation Endurance 2023 on Campbell Island. We thought this episode would be different. Maybe filled wi...

This week we're travelling back in time 66 million years ago with producer William Ray, to a time when dinosaurs roamed. Join William as he meets two Tyrannosaurus rex fossils at the Auckland Museum and uncovers the story behind the bones. In 2022 Auckland War Memorial Museum received two new guests: a pair of gigantic fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons. Join producer William Ray as he meets t...

They can hunt, they can fish, they build little nurseries for their babies. Oh and some of them also engage in a bit of sexual cannibalism. Claire Concannon goes on a nighttime stroll in Kirikiriroa Hamilton to meet some fascinating spiders, and learn all about the weird world of spider reproduction. Simon Connolly has watched around 1100 hours of footage of male spiders being placed into plastic...

With the Bug of the Year 2023 competition coming to the closing stages, it's not surprising that things are getting heated. In this breaking news story we learn how voting preferences have caused a rift in the Painting lab. With the inaugural Bug of the Year competition coming to the closing stages, it's not surprising that things are getting heated in some corners. Follow Our Changing World...

What do marine biologists get up to? Some Evans Bay Intermediate school students are learning all about it at the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Lab. Claire Concannon tags along to listen in, and to catch up with Professor James Bell to learn more about his research on sea sponges. Shouts of surprise and excitement ring through the foyer of the Wellington University Coastal Ecology Lab. Four...

Claire Concannon investigates how luminescence and specialised materials could be key to our growing data storage needs, and visits a test site for native vertical gardens that could cloak the walls of Wellington's city buildings. More of us are making use of 'the cloud': we press save, and our precious photos, documents and data are stored, somewhere. But behind this ethereal shopfront...

In the final instalment of our summer science series, we bring you two stories from the ocean. First we have a story on marine noise pollution from Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Science in Society student, Xanthe Smith. Then, we have an episode on pāua from RNZ podcast Voices, presented by Kadambari Raghukumar. In the final instalment of our summer science series, we bring you two s...

We continue our summer science series with an episode from RNZ's The Aotearoa History Show. In the first episode of season two, the show burrows into the story of rabbits and other pests introduced to New Zealand. We continue our summer science series with an episode from RNZ's The Aotearoa History Show. In the first episode of season two, the show burrows into the story of rabbits and other...

As part of our summer science series we bring you an episode of The Otago Chronicles podcast, hosted by Max Balloch. In this episode, Max talks to Associate Professor James Scott from the University of Otago Department of Geology about looking up at the night sky and the hunt for what would've been New Zealand's 10th meteorite. Our summer science series continues this week with an episode of The O...

Two stories about genetics produced by students at the University of Otago's Department of Science Communication. Amanda Konyn investigates whether gene editing has a role in future pest control, while Richard Marks explores why the "eat less, move more" approach to weight loss isn't really working. Each year, science communication students at the University of Otago's Department of Science C...

MethaneSAT is the first New Zealand government funded space mission. A joint project between the United States' Environmental Defense Fund and New Zealand, the project will see a methane sensing satellite launched into orbit. Science journalist Peter Griffin finds out why and how. MethaneSAT - the first NZ-government-funded space mission - is launching a satellite that will detect emissions leakin...

The kākerōri or Rarotongan flycatcher is a South Pacific conservation success story. Once reduced to just 29 birds, it has been rescued from the brink of extinction by a rat control programme managed by the land-owners of the Takitumu Conservation Area in the Cook Islands. Alison Ballance visits to find out more. The delightful little kākerōri, or Rarotonga flycatcher, has been brought back from t...

If the future of healthcare is personalised genomics, how can we ensure that it is used to lessen inequities, rather than strengthen them? This week, Our Changing World speaks to two of the co-leaders of the Rakieora programme - a pilot to develop a New Zealand-specific national database for genomic research. If the future of healthcare is personalised genomic medicine, how can we ensure that geno...

Genome sequencing has become a household term during this pandemic. This week, we explore how it became an important tool in the fight against Covid-19. We've become familiar with a whole suite of words and their meanings over the last three years of this pandemic - coronavirus, variant of concern, mutation. There is one term in particular that many of us probably wouldn't have come acro...

Sunfish are the world's largest bony fish species - and yet scientists know little about their lives. This week, Our Changing World meets a sunfish researcher unravelling mola mysteries and dives into the weird world of sunfishes as a museum specimen is examined and prepared. When you first see a sunfish - also known as a mola - your first question might be: how on earth can that thing swim? Follo...

Summer is on its way, and this week we're exploring both the power and the peril of the sun. First, we visit the Ultrafast Laser Lab to learn about efforts to create better solar panels. Then, we hear about one professor's quest to teach kids about sun safety using an ultraviolet dosimeter you can wear on your wrist like a watch. The sun, our closest star, is an incandescent ball of plasma powered...

Behind the scenes at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, a "menagerie" of specimens is a treasure trove for curator Dr Matt Rayner, who is researching how the Hauraki Gulf's seabirds are faring using clues from very old feathers. "A menagerie" is how curator Dr Matt Rayner describes the land vertebrate collection in the backrooms of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There's a horse&#x...

How do you drill through 600m of thick Antarctic ice? Using hot water, of course. In this episode from the 2020 series Voices from Antarctica, Alison Ballance joins researchers hoping to solve the puzzle of why a giant river of ice has stalled. It's a slow-moving stream of Antarctic ice across West Antarctica, that feeds the world's largest floating ice shelf. So why has the Kamb Ice Str...

Weddell seals have returned to breed near Scott Base in Antarctica after a decades-long absence. On land, they're blubbery lumps. But underwater, they're graceful dancers and ethereal singers. A team of scientists is finding out more about the under-ice lives and habits of Weddell seals. Alison Ballance joins them in this episode from the award-winning series Voices from Antarctica. Dive beneath t...

A team of NIWA scientists eagerly awaits the return of 19 emperor penguins carrying high-tech data loggers and video cameras. What will the data captured reveal about the penguins' secret lives at sea? The emperor penguin mums and dads of Cape Crozier are returning from their fishing trips, bringing back full bellies - and some, treasure troves of scientific data. Follow Our Changing World on Appl...

Revisit the frozen continent with us in this mini rerun of the Voices from Antarctica series. This week, Alison visits Cape Crozier to meet a colony of emperor penguins and the team of scientists studying them. Emperor penguins spend part of the year huddled together on the ice, keeping eggs and then chicks warm. But where do they go once breeding season is over? Follow Our Changing World on Apple...

It's spectacularly spiky and delivers a painful or even deadly sting. Why are a team of conservationists growing and planting up Orokonui Ecosanctuary near Dunedin with more and more native tree nettle, ongaonga? It's all because of a pretty little pollinator called the kahukura, or red admiral butterfly, and its prickly preferences. Claire Concannon visits Orokonui to learn more about the ongaong...

We're saying farewell to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (aka SOFIA) this month. The mission, which was partially based in Christchurch, wraps up after a decade of observing comets, stars, planets, and the moon. In July 2017, Alison Ballance boarded the Boeing 747 with a flying telescope for one of its research flights. Last month, the SOFIA telescope left Ōtautahi Christchurc...