Our Changing World RNZ Originals
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- Science
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Stories about science and nature from out in the field and inside the labs across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Winner 2022 New Zealand Radio Awards Best Factual Podcast - Episodic
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The 2023 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes: Communicating volcano science and sampling soils
Meet two winners of the 2023 Prime Ministers Science Prizes. In the wake of the 2019 Whakaari eruption, Professor Ben Kennedy engaged communities with the science of volcano hazards – mahi that earns him the 2023 Science Communication Prize. Meanwhile, Future Scientist prizewinner 17-year-old Sunny Perry has developed a helpful soil map.
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Turning the tide – what it takes to take out rats
Kate Evans visits a passionate team as they carpet a remote volcanic island in Tonga with poisoned bait, hoping to eradicate rats. What does it take to complete this kind of project, what are the chances of success, and what will it mean for the island’s ecosystems if they manage to remove the rats once and for all?
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Summer 34 – Three decades of albatross research
Journalist Rebekah White meets two people who have been counting albatrosses on remote islands in the subantarctic for more than three decades. Their research shows that at least one species is en route to extinction. A few changes to the way we fish could save it.
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Taking on water - marine protection in Aotearoa
New Zealand once led the world in marine protection. Now it looks like we will fail to meet our international promise to protect 30 percent of our ocean estate by 2030. Why is stopping fishing so politically fraught? How might our ideas about marine protection need to change? And why, when our seas are in need, is it taking us so long to learn to talk to each other?
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A tale of two islands – erect-crested penguins
The Bounty Islands are tiny in terms of area – just some bits of granite jutting out of the ocean. But they are huge in terms of seabirds. James Frankham joins a team researching the erect-crested penguins who breed in this remote archipelago. Recent counts suggest the penguins of the Bounties are doing fine. But this is not the case on the Antipodes Islands, and the researchers desperately want to know why.
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The mystery of how godwits sleep in flight
Kuaka bar-tailed godwits make the longest non-stop flights, and researchers are using hi-tech tags to solve the mystery of how and when they sleep.
Customer Reviews
Highly recommend the episode “In search of what’s out there” about marine wildlife, so interesting!
Loved hearing about the whales and all of the life beneath the surface, excellent episode