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Featured Our Changing World stories
Where and when human perception might begin
Even before birth our ideas of the world are likely being shaped by what we see in the womb.
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Could 2026 see the biggest boost in kākāpō numbers yet?
16 Dec 2025Hopes are high for a bumper kākāpō breeding season - and RNZ will be there to cover it.
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Bringing the bounty back to Porirua Harbour
9 Dec 2025A renewed coordinated effort aims to restore the former kai moana bounty of Te Awarua o Porirua, or Porirua Harbour.
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Making the best use of your time
2 Dec 2025What makes a good day, and how can we ensure we have more good days than bad across our lifetimes?
Our Changing World headlines with summaries.
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The Rototurf project to restore freshwater plants
25 Nov 2025Rolling out Rototurf - the project aimed at helping native freshwater plants return to our lakes.
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Turning wood pulp into greener surfactants
18 Nov 2025A team of Auckland chemists have created tiny plant-based particles that can bring oil and water together.
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New find of rare native parasitic plant in Wellington sparks hopes of return
11 Nov 2025They were thought extinct in the region for 100 years, now the race is on to save a rare parasitic plant in the capital.
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The gold clam is here, and multiplying
4 Nov 2025One small clam spreading in the Waikato River may change the entire ecosystem. How? Sheer numbers.
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The low-tech solution that could save lives at sea
28 Oct 2025It's foldable, floats, and can be detected by satellites - and it's being developed by local researchers who started with origami prototypes.
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What makes Ruapehu tick - and boom?
21 Oct 2025How to predict when Ruapehu might next erupt is an important, but difficult, question. A group of researchers thought: why not recreate the volcano in a lab?
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Whatever happened to the pūteketeke?
14 Oct 2025Comedian John Oliver's intervention propelled the grebe to fame. But for some, the 'bird of the century' is no fleeting infatuation.
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More than just ChatGPT: The surprising ways AI is being used in Aotearoa
7 Oct 2025From modelling measles outbreaks to keeping track of Wellington's exploding kākā population, researchers are calling on AI to assist them with a vast array of projects.
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What does a small Irish sea inlet have to teach New Zealand scientists?
30 Sep 2025Lough Hyne is home to an island, a ruined castle - and a marine sponge mystery that Kiwi researchers are helping to unravel.
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Detecting cow burps from space
24 Sep 2025A methane-detecting satellite, supported by $32 million of government funding, is lost in space. What data did it manage to collect before it went dark?
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New Zealand and the low Earth orbit economy
16 Sep 2025New Zealand's first microgravity science experiment went to the International Space Station in 2024. Could it pave the way for more commercial opportunities in space? Video
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Playing 'I-spy' with urban emissions
9 Sep 2025A new lab is cruising the streets of Wellington, homing in on our urban carbon emissions.
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Backcountry takahē make a comeback
2 Sep 2025Twice believed to be extinct, takahē are now returning to our wild spaces.
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Youth vaping: Helping or harmful?
Our youth vaping rates are among the highest in the world. How did we get here, and what might the long-term impacts be?
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Our Changing World: 40 years of Project Tongariro
5 Aug 2025Four decades after being established as a living memorial in response to a tragedy, this community conservation group is focused on the future.
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Lanternfish: Small fish, big impact
22 Jul 2025Researchers are investigating whether tiny lanternfish play an outsized role in controlling fish life cycles and carbon storage in the ocean.
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Could a Kiwi company crack nuclear fusion?
15 Jul 2025The race to produce a new generation of clean energy is on, and one New Zealand company is in the running.
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Our Changing World: Tauranga’s living sea wall
8 Jul 2025Manmade rock pools are creating homes for coastal critters along the Tauranga waterfront.
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Looking after New Zealand's rarest freshwater fish
1 Jul 2025A tiny native fish with the nickname 'Jaws' is under threat from introduced trout.
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A deadly bird flu strain is coming. Are we ready?
17 Jun 2025New Zealand is one the last places in the world where H5N1 has not yet been detected.
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Solving green sea turtle mysteries
10 Jun 2025Scientists are hoping to unravel the secrets of the green sea turtles that spend their formative years along Aotearoa's shores.
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Science heats up in the fire lab
29 May 2025From flaming tornadoes to burning couches, scientists are setting stuff on fire to prepare for our changing wildfire risk.
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Behind the scenes of the spade-toothed whale dissection
22 May 2025It made international headlines last year. What does a scientific dissection of the world's rarest whale involve?
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Burrowing into the mystery of Great Barrier Island's black petrels
15 May 2025A research team monitoring a dwindling population of tākoketai hopes to head to Ecuador to gather clues about why so many birds never make it back to Aotearoa.
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