New Zealand’s marine search and rescue region stretches from Antarctica to north of Samoa. If someone goes missing without any means of communication, that’s a lot of ocean to search. Now researchers and the New Zealand Defence Force have teamed up to develop and test a low-tech, no-battery device that can be picked up by radar – including that beamed down by satellites orbiting Earth.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
01:30 At Mission Bay Beach Dr Tom Dowling demonstrates the device
03:40 In the University of Auckland’s Space Institute lab the team explain the device design, and how it works.
10:00 Dr Tom Dowling talks about the radar reflector trials in Campbell Island and Omaha beach
13:00 Dr David Galligan, director of Defence Science and Technology on why DST is interested in the device
19:00 The satellites are the second side of the equation. Dr Tom Dowling explains how that works.
20:50 Back at Mission Bay Beach Dr Tom Dowling explains how the radar reflector would be an additional part of a kit on a boat and how it would work to narrow down the search area…
It’s been 30 years since a dramatic series of eruptions at Mount Ruapehu. In that time, there have been great advances in monitoring and modelling volcanoes – but we still can’t look inside a volcano to see exactly what’s going on. Claire Concannon heads to Wairakei, near Taupō, to meet researchers working on the next best thing: recreating Ruapehu’s eruptions in the lab.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:…
Two years ago, the Australasian crested grebe, the pūteketeke, took out the title of New Zealand’s Bird of the Century. But when the Paris billboard got swapped out, and 'Lord of the Wings' ads no longer peppered Wellington's bus stops, who stuck around? Claire Concannon meets two dedicated grebe supporters battling different challenges at two Central Otago lakes.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
00:06 – John Oliver’s pūteketeke campaign
01:15 – Richard Bowman at Lake Hayes
16:45 – Markus Hermanns at Lake Wānaka
Learn more:
Guests:
From the public service sector to businesses to individuals, AI’s uptake across New Zealand has been rapid. And it’s not just large language models. Claire Concannon meets researchers who are harnessing different kinds of artificial intelligence to boost aquaculture, prepare for a measles outbreak and assist in urban conservation. But alongside the benefits sit potential harms. How can we try to minimise them in our AI future?
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
01:00 – Introduction to Dr Andrew Lensen and about AI
06:00 – Professor Bing Xue and applied AI for aquaculture
09:15 – Dr Fiona Callaghan models measle outbreak scenarios
13:30 – Dr Andrew Lensen and the kākā project
18:30 – Social and ethical issues of AI…
This week, an underwater mystery connecting New Zealand and Ireland - the puzzle of the disappearing sponges of Lough Hyne. In the late 1990s/early 2000s James Bell was doing PhD research on the sponge communities that coated the underwater cliffs of this small sea inlet in West Cork. When he returned 15 years later, they had vanished. Why did they disappear, are they starting to recover, and can they be helped to return? Now a Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, these are the key questions that James, and PhD candidates from his lab, have been working to answer.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
00:00 – Divers return, introduction to Lough Hyne and its scientific history.
02:50 – James Bell on his early research at Lough Hyne and the surprising disappearance of sponge communities.
05:15 – Gabi Wood and Kea Witting get ready to dive at Whirlpool Cliffs.
06:30 – James Bell explains the unique tidal regime of Lough Hyne that means it has many diverse habitats.
09:00 – Gabi Wood is collecting water samples to study sponge feeding and nutrient levels.
11:00 – What caused the sponges to disappear.
14:00 – Kea Witting is investigating sponge community recovery.
21:00 – Experiments to help the sponges return…
Need a nature fix? RNZ now has a podcast feed dedicated to our beautifully produced series telling stories from te taiao nature. Check out the Wild Sounds feed – now playing Voices from Antarctica, featuring Alison Ballance reporting from the frozen deep south.
Find and follow Wild Sounds on your favourite podcast platform, or listen on RNZ
In March 2024, a satellite built to detect the potent greenhouse gas methane launched into orbit – backed by New Zealand to a final total of $32 million. MethaneSAT aimed to pinpoint large leaks from oil and gas fields, since plugging these is considered an easy climate win. But an add-on mission was investigating whether the satellite could pick up the smaller, more diffuse methane emissions from agriculture. Our Changing World joined the New Zealand-based team testing this capability – before disaster struck. With MethaneSAT uncontactable and lost in space, what did the mission deliver?
This episode was updated on 6 October to include the correct total figure of the New Zealand's contribution to MethaneSAT of $32 million.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
00:00 – 03:08: Introduction
03:08 – 05:38: A methane-measuring device takes off from the airfield
05:38 – 16:32: Ground-based methane measurements with the EM-27
16:32 – 25:29: What went wrong, and what data MethaneSAT did collect…
In March 2024, a rocket launched from Florida carrying New Zealand’s first science payload to the International Space Station. The small cube, named Lucy, is a protein crystallisation lab developed by Dr Sarah Kessans from the University of Canterbury. Protein crystallisation is often the key first step in figuring out a protein structure, and the unique fluid conditions of microgravity in low Earth orbit helps the process. Working with several collaborators, Sarah is trying to develop a commercially viable crystallisation lab in space. Plus, Dr Brian Russell is creating AI tools to help space companies make critical decisions around astronaut health and safety.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
An elaborate game of carbon ‘I spy’ is happening on the streets of Wellington. With their brand-new mobile carbon lab, Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS) can detect things like carbon dioxide and methane as they drive around. This allows them to pinpoint where emissions are coming from. Plus, with radiocarbon measurements, they can understand what amount of the carbon they detect is coming from fossil fuels. It all helps to ground-truth our estimates of what’s happening in our urban environments.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
Takahē were believed to be extinct not once, but twice. Today their population is just over 500 – still not a huge number, but big enough that new homes are needed for these flightless manu. The latest area to welcome takahē is the upper Whakatipu – in particular, the stunning Rees Valley. But threats remain and keeping on top of predator numbers is key for this comeback bird to survive and thrive in their new home.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
Gas shortages, a reversal of the ban of offshore oil and gas exploration, and a government plan to double geothermal energy in the next 15 years… There’s been a lot in the news recently about New Zealand’s energy supply now and in the future. Claire Concannon speaks to researcher Dr Jen Purdie about our ongoing electrification of industry and transport, about our ‘dry year problem’, and what the future of supply and demand might look like in a changing climate.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
References
New Zealand’s youth vaping rates are among the highest in the world. How did we get here and what will this mean for the future of our rangatahi? A 2018 court case paved the way for a loose regulatory start for vaping in New Zealand, and rapid uptake by those aged 14–24 in the years since has led to concerns that a new generation is now addicted to nicotine. New Zealand researchers are investigating how vaping affects our lungs, and the harms young people are experiencing in terms of social connections and mental health.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.…
More and more of us are reaching for low or no-alcohol beers. As the market grows, the options are also expanding – but brewing beer without alcohol fermentation presents a tricky puzzle. In traditional beer brewing the conversion of sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide through yeast fermentation is a key part of the process. How can you get the same flavour into beer without it? A team at Victoria University of Wellington, including the head of research and development at Garage Project, have begun an interdisciplinary research project to address this. They’re hoping to develop a brand-new yeast strain, one that will recreate delicious beer flavours, but without the alcohol.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.…
Project Tongariro was established as a living memorial for five people who died in a tragic helicopter accident. Last November, the project turned 40 years old. Over those four decades, activities have expanded beyond Tongariro National Park and into the wider area, including urban restoration through tree planting and predator trapping. Claire Concannon visits the Taupō-based projects that Project Tongariro is supporting as they prepare for Greening Taupō Day – their biggest planting day of the year.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
The battle on the frontlines of conservation continues around the motu. This week we head to the central North Island to join some of the staff and volunteers of Project Tongariro. Ecologist Nick Singers is coordinating the fight against the invasive grey willow that’s taking over a wetland area, while Shirley Potter is applying a ‘let’s get it done’ attitude to reforesting a patch of public conservation land near her home in Tauranga-Taupō.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
During World War II, sonar operators discovered a ‘false seabed’ that appeared to move upwards during the nighttime. In fact, the sound waves were bouncing off huge numbers of small critters. This daily movement is the largest animal migration on the planet, consisting of deep-water animals that hide in the ocean’s twilight then move to the surface after sunset to feed. By far the most abundant fish in this crowd are the lanternfishes. New Zealand researchers are investigating what impact lanternfish migration has on the life cycle of fish we like to eat, and how it may also play a huge role in the Earth’s carbon cycle.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
For a long time, nuclear fusion was viewed as a powerful, but unachievable, energy source, because the technological challenges were just too great. But recent advances, particularly in the development of powerful magnets, have reignited the race to create the world’s first efficient nuclear fusion powerplant. Claire Concannon visits one private company just outside Wellington who have joined the nuclear fusion effort, with a unique approach they believe might be the key.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
In May 2024, 100 strange rocky structures were installed along Tauranga's harbour shoreline. These flower-shaped artificial rockpools, nicknamed 'sea pods', provide prime waterfront real estate for marine life – from colourful sea slugs to sneezing sponges. Justine Murray finds out how 'living sea walls' are bringing back biodiversity to urban harbours around the world, and joins a marine scientist to check out what creatures have moved into Tauranga's sea pods.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
In this episode:
00:49 – What is a sea pod?
06:27 – Living sea walls in Sydney with Dr Aria Lee
10:25 – Sea pods around the world and in Tauranga
13:06 – Monitoring marine life in the sea pods with David Culliford
20:50 – Port of Tauranga
21:48 – Looking for critters in the sea pods
…
Speckled, pencil-thin and sporting an underbite: the lowland longjaw galaxias is New Zealand’s rarest freshwater fish species. With just seven known populations, this species is considered nationally endangered. Join producer Karthic SS at a spring-fed stream in the wild Mackenzie Basin to meet the tiny fish, hear from a researcher studying trout-proof barriers, and chat to a ranger who for 20 years has cared for the little fish he calls 'Jaws'.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
Since the 1800s, tuberculosis (TB) has been responsible for an estimated 1 billion deaths. In New Zealand today, we don’t get many cases of TB, but worldwide it is the leading infectious disease killer. In the early 1900s a TB vaccine was developed. Called the BCG vaccine, it’s still used today. While it is the best TB vaccine we have, it’s not actually great at preventing TB infection, only providing some protection for the youngest of patients. However, scientists have discovered that the BCG vaccine can boost people’s immune systems in other ways. Now researchers at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington are investigating these findings further.
Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.
Guests:
Learn more:
