Evolution
Secrets of the subterranean world
Just when it feels like there are few places left on the earth unexplored, Professor Anthony Martin says all you have to do is look down to discover some of nature's deepest, darkest secrets. Audio, Gallery
Breaking Babel
In a city as culturally diverse as Auckland, how is the Kiwi accent changing and evolving? Video, Audio
Great Ideas - Part 6 'Darwin's Origin of the Species'
Charles Darwin's theories did not really 'come out of the blue'- there were others working with the same ideas and theories. Megan Whelan leads a discussion with Dr Rebecca Priestly, Associate… Audio
Books in mosques start a reading revolution: Dr. Rana Dajani
Jordanian molecular biologist Dr. Rana Dajani wanted Jordanian children to read for pleasure; while the average person in the United States reads 11 books for pleasure a year, Jordanians read just… Audio
Truffle-like fungi: what their genes can tell us
Truffle-like fungi are related to mushrooms but look like truffles, and geneticists around the world are studying their genomes to understand how they have all co-evolved. Audio
Chin evolution
Why we humans have chins. That jutting piece of bone at the front of your face makes us unique in the animal kingdom. But nobody really knows why we've evolved to have them! James Pampush studies… Audio
Resurrection Science
Given the rapid advances in genetic technologies it's been speculated that everything from woolly mammoths, to passenger pigeons, to our own close cousins the Neanderthals could soon walk the earth… Audio
New hybrid predators on the rise in USA and Canada
There's a new type of hybrid predator stalking the prairies and forests of the North Eastern United States. It's called the Eastern Coyote but some also call the animals Coywolves because they're… Audio
Richard Newcomb: sense of smell
Chief scientist at Plant and Food Research, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Auckland, and Principal Investigator at the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution… Audio
Rethinking enzyme evolution
Proteins have evolved over many millions of years - but they can also evolve rapidly, in just years, and this offers insights into how evolution itself works Audio
How humans resemble giant pandas
Humans and pandas don't look much alike, but, the bears might help explain one of the most peculiar things about the human body: our upright posture.
Eric Roberts: finding homo naledi
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Oceans, James Cook University, in Townsville, Australia, and part of the team that discovered Homo naledi, a human relative found in a cave system in… Audio
Tom Higham: Neanderthals, denisovans and humans
Professor Tom Higham is deputy director of the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University, and interim director of the Advanced Studies Centre. He is returning to New Zealand as an Allan Wilson… Audio
Condiment evolution
Chris Pires of the Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri is tracking an evolutionary battle between caterpillars and plants that's made our wasabi, mustard and horseradish even… Audio
Scott Edwards: birds and dinosaurs
Curator of Ornithology at Harvard University, who will visit New Zealand in August as an Allan Wilson Centre guest speaker for a series of public talks, Bird Evolution: From Dinosaurs to DNA. Audio
The Vital Question
How did life begin? That's 'The Vital Question' biochemist Nick Lane poses in his new book. Audio
Dinosaur discoveries
Professor of Natural History at the University of Manchester and Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre of Ancient Life Phil Manning, who is speaking about the mummified remains of a… Audio
Curvology
The British science writer David Bainbridge turns his attention to the origins of female body shape in his new book 'Curvology'. Audio
Spider Chatter on the Web
Massey University zoologist Anne Wignall explains how web-building spiders use vibrations to communicate and to make sense of their world. Audio
Why humans fall in love
A team of scientists have delved into psychology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience to try to answer that question of why humans fall in love. Audio