Our Changing World

00:11:59

Summer science: Plants don't know borders

Our Changing World ·

2025/01/01

The summer science series continues with an episode from RNZ podcast Here Now. A love for tropical plants united Canterbury-based botanists Dr Julie Barcelona and Dr Pieter Pelser in the mid-2000s. The pair are renowned for their work on the large and unusual flower Rafflesia, which smells like a rotting carcass. They have found at least three new species on their adventures in the Philippines. Kadambari Raghukumar learns more about their spectacular discoveries.Featuring:Dr Julie BarcelonaDr Pieter

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00:26:13

Summer science: Mice in Predator Free 2050, and...

Our Changing World ·

2024/12/25

Welcome to the summer science series! We're kicking off with two stories made by local podcast producers. First, on New Zealand's quest to become predator free by 2050, are we forgetting about mice? Dan Moskovitz, a student at Victoria University of Wellington, investigates what might happen to mice – and ecosystems as more areas become predator free. Then, a story from Xanthe Smith's Catch On podcast. Many people who consume fish stick to eating the fillets, meaning a substantial chunk of the whole

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00:28:19

New Antarctic methane seeps and what they might mean

Our Changing World ·

2024/12/18

New methane seeps are being discovered in Antarctica, some now appearing in areas that researchers have been monitoring for years. These are areas on the seafloor where methane gas escapes out from under the ground through fissures or cracks. What is the extent of the seeps? How large is the gas reservoir they are being fed from? How much methane is escaping from the sea into the air? Why now? And does this have implications for further warming the planet? A team of NIWA scientists are racing to

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00:26:31

The bacterial world inside New Zealand's 'living fossil'

Our Changing World ·

2024/12/11

New Zealand’s tuatara are the last remaining species of an order of reptile that was alive alongside the dinosaurs 240 million years ago. The rest died out about 65 million years ago, but in Aotearoa the tuatara live on, found on 32 offshore islands and in a small number of ecosanctuaries and zoos on the mainland. Now one researcher is investigating the microbial community that lives inside their gut. Are there also bacterial ‘living fossils’ to be found? And has their gut microbiome changed as a

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00:26:04

Diving into the world of Antarctic glass sponges

Our Changing World ·

2024/12/04

Dive under the Antarctic sea ice near Scott Base into the weird world of cold-water life. Pink sea angels, worms that look like intestines, ocean creepy crawlies that get as big as your hand... and mysterious giant glass sponges. These sponges are one of the strangest, and oldest, animals on Earth: surviving without light, eating bacteria and viruses, and making themselves out of silica they absorb from the water. In most parts of the world, they live at depths too deep to dive, making them tricky

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00:27:48

Pacific Scientific: Samoa's scientists unlocking the...

Our Changing World ·

2024/11/27

For centuries Samoa's traditional healers have harnessed the power of the country's native plants as remedies for village ailments. Now scientists at the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa are putting those plants under the microscope to unlock and understand how this traditional knowledge works. In this episode of Pacific Scientific from the ABC, tour the labs and lush gardens filled with plants that could hold the secret to battling diabetes, HIV, and cancer.

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00:25:32

Bringing ngutukākā back from the brink

Our Changing World ·

2024/11/20

Ngutukākā, or kākābeak, is a popular garden plant in Aotearoa. But in the wild, it is now rarer than kākāpō, with only about 100 individual plants surviving on steep, inaccessible cliffs. The East Coast is one of its remaining strongholds and the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust is on a mission to bring the taonga back. Veronika Meduna joins the inaugural Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Festival to find out more about the community’s efforts to turn State Highway 35 into a Crimson Highway by rewilding this iconic

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00:26:33

A tricky trap for redback spiders

Our Changing World ·

2024/11/13

Invasive redback spiders are highly venomous, threatening both people and New Zealand’s native species. A team of scientists is developing a cunning tool to trap male redbacks, by concocting an irresistible spiderweb perfume. We visit 800 captive redback spiders in the lab, learn about their wild mating habits, and check out the “spider arena” where the redbacks’ signature scent is put to the test.

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00:25:38

The advances in MRI coming out of Gisborne

Our Changing World ·

2024/11/06

The MRI technique advances coming out of the Mātai Medical Research Institute in Gisborne have been described as ‘pioneering’, ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘world leading’. Claire Concannon speaks to chief executive and research director Dr Samantha Holdsworth to learn why, and about their big plans for the future.

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00:26:40

The fight for the forest and the fernbird

Our Changing World ·

2024/10/30

About two hours south of Dunedin, in the Catlins, the Tautuku and Fleming rivers flow into the sea at Tautuku beach. Covered in native bush from headwaters to the ocean, this special catchment is home to many native, and some threatened, plants and animals. But there’s an ongoing battle. Browsing animal such as deer and pigs are destroying the undergrowth, while feral cats and stoats are predating on critters such as the mātātā, the South Island fernbird. We meet some of the people fighting

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00:26:55

Lead bullets - a health risk for humans and kea

Our Changing World ·

2024/10/23

Every year in New Zealand, recreational hunters shoot more than half a million wild game. Most are shot with lead-based ammunition. Now, researchers are investigating what happens to that lead, and how much of it is getting into the food chains of humans and the endangered kea. Alison Ballance speaks to scientists at Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, and kea conservationists and predator control experts at the Department of Conservation to learn more.

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00:26:36

Can birds adapt their nest building for a warming world?

Our Changing World ·

2024/10/16

To keep their eggs safe, some birds build simple cup-shaped nests. Others craft elaborate fully enclosed domes, with porches, fake entrances and ledges. But is this intricate construction of nests a set, encoded behaviour? Or can birds adapt in different conditions? Researchers are keen to learn about flexibility in nest design, to better understand how different species might be able to respond as the climate changes.

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00:26:39

Why we are still monitoring the ozone hole

Our Changing World ·

2024/10/09

Almost 40 years on from the first reports of the Antarctic ozone hole, and 35 years since the Montreal Protocol to ban CFCs came into effect, what’s going on with the ozone hole? How does it form? How do we measure it? And having solved the CFC problem, why are we still monitoring ozone so closely? Claire Concannon heads to NIWA's Atmospheric Research Station in Lauder, Central Otago, to find out.

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00:32:22

Looking after our four-legged friends

Our Changing World ·

2024/10/02

We love our four-legged friends. It’s estimated about a third of New Zealand households share their home with at least one dog, and two thirds of dog owners consider their furry friends to be family members. Some dogs work, others keep us company, make us laugh, get us walking twice a day, and shower us with unconditional affection….. But are we looking after all their needs? Claire Concannon speaks with a dog welfare expert about the science behind how we know our dogs love us, and what to do to

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00:27:07

Anxiety and the brain-body connection

Our Changing World ·

2024/09/25

We all experience anxiety – when our brains look into the future and imagine bad things happening. It’s normal and has helped keep us alive as a species. But levels of anxiety are rising, particularly in young people, and at the severe end of the spectrum clinical anxiety prevents people from going about their lives. This Mental Health Awareness Week we meet a team of researchers at the University of Otago investigating the brain-body connection in anxiety, and how different potential treatments

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00:26:03

The teamwork that solved a life-and-death puzzle

Our Changing World ·

2024/09/18

It’s been almost 30 years since a team joined forces to investigate a particularly aggressive form of stomach cancer that was afflicting one Tauranga whānau. Kimi Hauora Health and Research Clinic in Tauranga and University of Otago geneticists together found the cancer-causing genetic change, helping save thousands of lives worldwide. Justine Murray is at Mangatawa Marae with Maybelle McLeod and Erin Gardiner to reflect on that time, and Professor Parry Guilford discusses those first formative

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00:10:27

Stories from Our Changing World

Our Changing World ·

2024/08/28

Damian Christie of Aotearoa Science Agency talks about some of the genomics research happening around New Zealand.

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00:29:34

Imagining the next generation of robofish

Our Changing World ·

2024/08/14

They will look like fish, swim like fish and even sense like fish. Liz Garton meets a research team designing robofish and smart wetsuits to monitor the state of our oceans.

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00:28:20

Targeting a bacteria, and health inequities

Our Changing World ·

2024/06/19

MÄori and Pacific peoples are three to six times more likely to develop stomach cancer than New Zealanders with European ancestry. Claire Concannon visits a research team taking aim at this disparity.

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00:26:31

Inside Auckland's lava caves

Our Changing World ·

2024/06/05

Caves created by rivers of lava underlie New Zealand’s biggest city. A new research project is documenting Auckland's lava caves, hoping to protect this hidden geological heritage and understand what future eruptions might have in store.

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