Solar cell technology developed by Massey University’s Nanomaterials Research Centre will enable New Zealanders to generate electricity from sunlight at a tenth of the cost of current silicon-based photo-electric solar cells.
For the one in five New Zealanders suffering from neurological disorders, and their families, it’s encouraging to know that research is being undertaken by the University of Auckland to explain what is happening in their brains and that one day there may be a cure.
A unique cluster of proteins may hold the secret as to why tuberculosis is elusive to treatment and can lie dormant for many years. Although the TB bug Mycobacterium tuberculosis is carried by an estimated one third of the world’s population, only ten per cent of those infected show clinical symptoms.
Three years on from composing key ceremonial music for the 2004 Olympics, Victoria University's Associate Professor John Psathas’ latest work has received acclaim from critics worldwide.
“Four of my family died in their forties in one year from cardiac problems,” says Suzanne Pitama from the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
It might be assumed that poetry written in the United States, China and Russia in the latter decades of the last century would be significantly different. These were, after all, countries with dramatically dissimilar social, political, economic and technological structures.
If the science of ultra-cold atoms has already put the University of Otago on the map, Dr Blair Blakie is on a mission to raise the temperature. Among the goals of this talented physicist, recently awarded a Marsden Fast Start Research Grant, is to shine some light on what he calls “the ultra cool”: that is to say, on the complex theoretical relationship between Bose-Einstein condensates, which can only be created at ultra-cold temperatures infinitesimally above absolute zero (-273 degrees C), and the surrounding non-condensed Bose gas, often referred to as the “thermal cloud”.
The University of Canterbury's Professor Jack Baggaley’s research work has contributed to the movie world's fascination with extraterrestrial bodies colliding with Earth.
When it comes easily, nobody gives breathing a second thought. But for asthma sufferers and premature infants it’s another story. That’s led to an eight-year quest by Auckland University of Technology's Biomedical Engineering Centre (BioMEC) to help them breathe more easily.
What happens when you ask a small town to exhibit their most treasured art work? What would they show? The goal of NorthTec's Hikurangi Exhibition was to open dialog between professional artists and a community. It exposed the stories that bound the art into people’s lives and what was truly valued.
Carey Baptist College is committed to first class research in religion and theology which makes a contribution to our understanding of Aotearoa-New Zealand and its place in the world.
As sustainability experts express growing concern for the quality of the world’s water supplies, an international research team led by Dr Gregory De Costa from The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand is investigating ways to help alleviate the situation both in New Zealand and abroad.
It can be difficult for medium-size businesses to develop new products and services, but a new Unitec innovation centre is helping business to work together to create new opportunities.
New Zealanders have a long history of active participation in development projects overseen by voluntary development agencies such as Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA). It is part of our culture to want to help others reach their potential, alleviate suffering and create a more equitable world. Traditional appraisal techniques for the success of such development projects typically concentrate on financial indicators.
Active Hawke’s Bay is a SPARC funded project to increase physical activity levels and nutritional awareness of people in Hawke’s Bay. The Awareness survey, the first comprehensive survey on this subject specifically for Hawke’s Bay, has formed the basis for future analysis and should be a useful tool to aid planners in choosing the direction the programmes within the Active Hawke’s project should take.
Whenever I tell people that I teach Pastoral Theology they immediately respond, “Oh yes, that’s all about caring for the sick and dying, and how to be a good pastoral carer in the Church.” Usually their eyes glaze over when I explain that the skills of pastoral care are certainly an important part of Pastoral or Practical Theology, but there is another equally important dimension involving a critical analysis of reality in the light of Gospel values.
For a number of years The Bible College of New Zealand's Dr Bob Robinson has been exploring the reasons behind religious diversity and conflict and researching means of encouraging dialogue. His research began during his years working in Singapore - “a great religious melting pot” - where he did the groundwork that became a PhD awarded by the University of London (and recently published in Britain as Christians Meeting Hindus). He’s now back in New Zealand and teaching in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of Bible College of NZ.