ASB is hosting a competition for 7-14 year-olds to come up with the wildest money-making scheme they can think of! Entrants must create a minute-long video demonstrating their idea – or even better, a drawing or even the device in action – and upload it to ASB’s video entry page. For more information, check out the page by clicking here. The page is chock-full of animations and music, so be prepared for a slightly long loading-time. Entries close on the 16th of January 2011, so get… Read more
Still waiting for the hydrogen economy to ignite and save us from the oil squeeze and environmentally unsustainable fossil fuels? New Zealand engineer John Fleming is part of an effort to bypass the hydrogen era and go directly to the nitrogen-hydrogen economy. Pure hydrogen has long been touted as a potentially carbon-free alternative to burning fossil fuels for energy, with former US President George W. Bush the most notable cheerleader. It came with the lure of carbon-free energy and virtually limitless supply. But issues of safety, storage, transportation and production… Read more
Massey University food scientist Roger Lentle wants to tackle the country’s obesity epidemic by creating yoghurt that makes people feel as though they have eaten half a roast pork. Lentle believes he is on to a winner. The only thing missing is evidence his magic ingredient is safe to consume. “We want to formulate something like yoghurt. You take it in the morning and it makes you immediately feel as though you’ve eaten half a roast suckling pig and you don’t feel hungry.” Lentle said it would be a drug free, sugar free answer to New Zealand’s obesity problem, a problem that kills… Read more
University of Otago scientists have made a “major physics breakthrough” with the development of a technique to consistently isolate and capture a fast-moving single atom. A team of four researchers from the university’s physics department are believed to be the first to isolate and photograph the Rubidium 85 atom. The three-year project used laser cooling technology to slow a group of atoms, before a laser beam, or “optical tweezers”, isolated and held one atom. Lead researcher Mikkel Andersen said individual atoms were consistently isolated, which meant “a major step”… Read more
AORAKI/MOUNT COOK One of New Zealand’s greatest gifts to the world of wilderness snow sports celebrated 55 high flying years yesterday. (22 September) The Auster, the world’s first ski plane with retractable skis landed on the Tasman Glacier, flown by Sir Harry Wigley on 22 September 1955. The plane is now a permanent exhibit at Aoraki Mount Cook’s Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre where the milestone was marked yesterday with pupils from Aoraki Mount Cook School. The Auster made aviation history as the first ski plane to successfully make a snow landing using retractable… Read more
Rural Living: In the profound words of architect Graeme North, “there is no limit to human ingenuity.” It was therefore heartening to see during an exhibition of long-standing, which inevitably risks becoming monotonous as a result, that Kiwi ingenuity is alive and kicking. The innovations section of Fieldays this year was full of the kind of lateral thinking Kiwis are renowned for, and all solidly turned into working prototypes, for the public to observe, comment and vote on. The dairy industry has played a prominent role in encouraging those with an inventive streak… Read more
A device used to radio-track animals will be used on humans for the first time during the 23rd Speight’s Coast to Coast race this weekend, in a world-leading move to map competitors’ locations. The units will be used by New Zealand television production company LeggeWork for a documentary on this year’s inaugural World Team Championship race, tracking the competitors’ routes on the gruelling 243 kilometre event. In what is believed to be a world first for endurance sports telecoverage, the competitors’ routes and times during the one-day event will be displayed on… Read more
Us Kiwis are well known for our ingenuity or number 8 wire mentality and after seeing the technology and innovation being showcased during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) I am glad to report that Kiwi ingenuity is on the up and up. At the Wellington to the World (W2W09) technology venture showcase, put on as part of GEW, I was impressed with the offerings launched from Wellington with the intent of going global. Over recent years Wellington has grown a strong reputation as the creative and innovative capital. However, W2W09 showed that Wellington innovation and creativity is… Read more
NEW ZEALAND — A Kiwi company has hooked up with Starbucks to reuse their old coffee sacks for furnishings in their outlets. The Formary will blend New Zealand Laneve wool with fibre from the sacks to create a fabric called WoJo. The fabric — 70 per cent wool and 30 per cent jute fibre — will be used to cover seating in its coffee shops, according to media reports. The fabric will initially be used in British Starbucks and in other markets in Europe, the Middle East and African regions. The Formary co-founder Bernadette Casey said the partnerships showed that “when… Read more
Scientists and engineers from the University of Canterbury will be part of a team working with American scientists designing NASA’s next generation of space vehicles to replace the familiar space shuttles. The futuristic spacecraft will use scramjet engines and travel at hypersonic speeds of Mach 10 or more (12,250kmh-1). They will be able to fly into space like a plane, eliminating the need for the current rocket-assisted space shuttle launch pads. The exterior of the spacecraft will be made from woven material, a composite of silicon and carbide. The knitted material will be blown… Read more
A Kiwi farmer and part time astronomer is over the moon after it was confirmed he discovered a supernova. The Oxford dairy farmer discovered the exploding star which is a rare event for an amateur astronomer. Stu Parker had been scanning the skies searching for an elusive dying star for a long time. “We searched long and hard, we searched thousands and thousands of galaxies over months and months and years sometimes to find one,” says Parker. And the thousands of hours of staring at the heavens paid off. “Yeah it’s great, it’s marvelous it made a big difference and hopefully… Read more
What do Hollywood superstar Ashton Kutcher and humble Kiwi bloke Rudy Heeman have in common? They are both fans of the ‘hoverwing’, a piece of Kiwi ingenuity built by Nelson man Heeman that has put New Zealand’s name on the map, yet again. Heeman’s Kiwi ‘no 8 wire’ mentality has helped him create the ultimate male fantasy – a flying hovercraft made with parts scavenged from his wife’s car, an old gas bottle from a barbecue, and the control lever from his daughter’s scooter. The two-passenger hovercraft, dubbed ‘the hoverwing’, is up for sale on New Zealand’s… Read more
CLEAN-AIR FOCUS: Neville D’Herville says his chimney device burns the carbon before it is released into the atmosphere. Nelson engineer Neville D’Herville reckons he has a simple answer to the city’s smoke problem allowing people to keep their home fires burning. A low-pollutant factory he saw in Mauritius and new air quality laws have inspired him to invent a zero-emissions chimney. The city council banned the use of open fires in Nelson at the start of the year under the first stage of an air quality plan. National environmental standards for air quality mean local… Read more
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