Budget 2013 saw a net increase of around $50 million in science and innovation funding, according to Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce who tweeted the factoid in response to Sciblogger Siouxsie Wiles. $130 million of funding has been committed to boosting R&D efforts in companies and start-ups, $107m of which will come from the […]
MoreThe Government has announced the National Science Challenges – 10 areas of focus over the next four years – $73.5 million in new funding to address them ($133.5 million in total to be spent on research addressing them). The areas of focus are: 1. Aging well 2. A better start 3. Healthier lives 4. High […]
MoreSome of the world’s best known wine growing regions, California’s Napa Valley and France’s Bordeaux region among them, are in for a rough time thanks to climate change. In fact, the sources of the world’s most productive wine regions are likely to alter radically in the coming decades as climate change makes currently prime wine […]
MoreA week into his self-described “barnstorming” tour of New Zealand, arch-sceptic Christopher Monckton seems to be quietly licking his wounds after a string of farcical public and media appearances. The armchair climate change expert has in the past managed to stimulate discussion of climate science on his tours of New Zealand and Australia, even if […]
MoreBy Tony Press, University of Tasmania With the global population now well over seven billion there are few remaining parts of the world relatively untouched by human activity. We assess the current state and future prospects of five final frontiers: rainforests, Antarctica, the Arctic, the deep sea and space. Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest […]
MoreI just stood in the cold on the National Mall in Washington D.C. along with 600,000 people to listen to Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. Factions of the media have analyzed it as a very “progressive” or “liberal” speech. I didn’t take that away from it. For me it was a very American speech. It was […]
MoreHave you seen that show on National Geographic channel? The one where people devote vast amounts of time, energy and money to preparing for the end of the world? Some of them build bunkers to hide out in when peak oil causes massive social unrest around the world. Others are preparing for the aftermath of […]
MoreI popped out for a meeting this afternoon and came back to the office to discover a tornado had torn through the street I grew up in, Waimarie Rd, in Whenuapai, just a stone’s throw from the airforce base perimeter. My parents were out shopping at the time thankfully, but still can’t get back into […]
MoreRight now, hundreds of diplomats and trade experts from around the Asia Pacific region are ensconced at Sky City convention centre in Auckland for top-secret negotations as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The level of secrecy alone is of great concern and to some, anti-democratic, let alone what is actually being concocted in the latest draft agreement. […]
MoreOf all the questions raised by the controversy surrounding scientist Mike Joy’s quotes in the New York Times – and the heated response to them, this is the most important: can Dr Joy back up with evidence his claims about the parlous state of New Zealand’s environment? He can and he has. From the peer-reviewed […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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