Ecos

SCIENTISTS are using modern molecular tools to help unravel the evolutionary origins of New Zealand's plants and animals. Dr Geoff Chambers and his colleagues at the Institute for Molecular Systematics, Victoria University, Wellington, have investigated...

Mathematical tools developed by Dr Tony Miller of CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences are playing a key role in bringing better vision to millions of people worldwide. Miller's mathematics have enabled spectacle lens company, SOLA International,...

One of the world's most active volcanoes, Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, Italy, has been in the news again. Volcanic ash advisory centres have been tracking the plume from Etna, alerting pilots to the hazards associated with it. Each year,...

Gardeners, farmers, foresters and nursery owners rejoice. A plastic pot that recycles itself could soon be on the market. No longer will seedlings and pot plants need to be inverted and shaken free of their pots before transplanting. Rather, the whole...

Fighting the fire ant Earlier this year, it was discovered that the fire ant -- a tiny but menacing pest originally from South America -- had entered Australia and established breeding colonies in parts of Brisbane. The `red imported fire ant',...

New Zealanders are fond of the notion that their biota is a fragment of ancient Gondwana. So botanist Dr Mike Pole risks being branded unpatriotic for his argument, first published in 1994, that New Zealand's vegetation arrived by long distance dispersal....

Our towns and cities are noisier than ever before. Busier roads and airports, smaller urban subdivisions, apartment living: all are contributing to a noise epidemic that's sweeping Australia. Dr John Davy, an acoustics specialist at CSIRO Building...

HOW MUCH ozone is there protecting us from the harmful ultraviolet radiation emanating from the sun? Not much, is the answer. The ozone layer stretches from about 15 to 30 kilometres above the Earth's surface. This region is far from pure ozone;...