Scientists have disproven the idea that it's okay to scoop up food and eat it within a "safe" five-second window.

Organisers of the annual Great Kereru Count are hoping there won't be any shortage of people keeping their eyes peeled for our quirky native wood pigeon over the next week.

The country's first rocket company is now almost clear to launch, after the Government signed off on the contract.

There's now a version of Aotearoa in space, with the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally approving the name "New Zealand" for an asteroid.

Scientists are now confident White Island's latest eruptive episode has come to a close.

A check for invasive aquatic pests around Auckland's Westhaven Marina has been postponed after the dive team happened upon a slightly bigger foreign marine organism: a visiting leopard seal.

Tool use is rare in the animal kingdom - but a nearly vanished species of Hawaiian crow has mastered it.

It's hard to dodge sugar because we have no idea about how much added sugar is in the food and drink we consume every day, a new report finds.

Scientists create offspring without a female egg, which could eventually pave the way for a baby to be born from DNA of two men.

A new study has raised extraordinary possibility that humans may be able to put themselves into a kind of hibernation state - but in a way that hurts us.

Japanese researchers believe they may be closer to predicting an earthquake, but it hasn't come without criticism.

Two dolphins have been recorded for the first time having a conversation.

The science behind why humans find this bad habit so rewarding.

COMMENT: Misinformation is counterproductive in battling dramatic decline of species in Auckland Islands.

You may want to think twice the next time you invoke the five-second rule for food that's fallen on the floor.

Great Barrier Island: a remote gulf paradise we associate with lush forests, deserted white sand beaches and - this weekend - aliens.

Nasa launches first ever mission to take samples from an asteroid in the hope of preventing the space rock colliding with Earth later this century.

The Pope's astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, is visiting Great Barrier Island today. He talks to science reporter Jamie Morton about faith, science and little green men.

Scientists have discovered something strange deep in the jungle of Madagascar: the "ghost snake".

A reef offshore from Patea is not being explored in order to find life forms that seabed mining could endanger - but that may be one

By comparing global maps from the present day and the early 1990s, researchers have concluded that a 10th of all the world's wilderness has been lost in just 20 years.

How climate change will affect cherished species like tuatara and takahe - and countless others around the world - urgently needs to be assessed, scientists say.

Spending 2 hours a week walking, gardening or playing golf may offset the deadly impact of drinking too much alcohol, research suggests.

An internationally renowned Kiwi chemistry researcher has been honoured by her fellow scientists with a top medal.

A new innovation that looks like something between a tent and a spacecraft could save the lives of marine species if the country is faced with another major oil spill.

Scientists believe they have found all asteroids near Earth the same size as that which killed the dinosaurs, but many other smaller ones remain undetected.

The Storr Lochs Monster was first discovered in 1966, but scientists couldn't study the fossil until now.

Life on Earth has its challenges but what about life on Mars? Can humans ever survive on our neighbouring red planet?

Strange radio activity picked up from the outer reaches of the universe proved the latest false alarm of finding extra-terrestrial life.

Scientists are to create an underwater "earthquake observatory" near the North Island's East Coast that will give detailed information about off-shore quakes like the 7.1 which shook the North Island last week.