A team that developed a brain cooling treatment for oxygen-deprived babies, a young scientist who created a helpful backseat driver app, a Māori kaiako encouraging her students to weave traditional design and contemporary materials, a paleobiologist communicating about the issues around de-extinction and a researcher investigating how much climate change contributes to extreme weather events: We meet the 2025 Prime Minister's Science Prize winners!

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New Zealand is a land formed by volcanoes, including some still active. Claire Concannon meets a researcher analysing ash deposits to determine if a future eruption might have dangerous levels of hazardous chemicals. Plus, she learns about a voyage to Vanuatu and the Solomen Islands to study the gases and ash of an active volcanic chain there.

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• Researchers continue to study New Zealand’s active volcanoes like Whakaari and Ruapehu to try to understand their patterns of eruptions.
• When Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha‘apai, just north of Tonga’s main island, erupted in 2022 it caused a worldwide tsunami. Ellen Rykers dug into the science behind the phenomenon.
• The work of the National Geohazard Monitoring Centre is to keep on eye on earthquake, volcano, landslide and tsunami hazards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Auckland is built on a network of volcanoes, and underground lava caves.

Guests:

• Dr Jenni Hopkins, Victoria University of Wellington
• Dr Ian Schipper, Volcano Waka Lab

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Phase two of Predator Free Wellington’s groundbreaking project to rid our capital of rats is well underway. They’ve learned a lot from their work on the Miramar Peninsula, but with this new chapter comes new challenges – not just backyards, but a hospital, and even a zoo! Charlie Dreaver meets some of the team out fighting this battle on multiple interesting fronts.

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• The target for Wellington to become New Zealand’s first predator-free city was announced by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka in March, as part of a Predator Free 2050 strategy update.
• In November last year the government added feral cats to the Predator Free 2050 list of targeted predators, likely in response to RNZ’s In-Depth team’s reporting about the destruction they cause, and a pre-election promise.
• Learn more about other large predator removal projects such as Predator Free Rakiura and Predator Free South Westland, and the plan to make Auckland Island predator free.

Guests:

• Zara Koorey, Predator Free Wellington
• James Wilcocks, Predator Free Wellington
• Chirs Jerram, Te Nukuao Wellington Zoo
• Sally Bain, Predator Free Wellington

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Scientists had long been exploring RNA technology as a way to make vaccines before it had it’s breakout appearance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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• RNA interference (RNAi) technology is being investigated to help honey bees fight off the varroa mite.
• US based Dyne Therapeutics conducted a clinical trial study of their RNA-based therapeutic for myotonic dystrophy in New Zealand.
• Our Changing World covered how the new RNA vaccine tech works in 2021.
• Dr Lisa Connor spoke to RNZ’s health reporter Ruth Hill last August after the US made funding cuts to their RNA vaccine research.

Guests:

• Dr Lisa Connor, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
• Dr Rebecca McKenzie, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research

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One peninsula to the north of the Bay of Islands is home to an estimated three thousand Northland brown kiwi. The Pest Free Purerua-Mataroa project aims to reduce predators numbers on the peninsula and defend its narrow neck from re-invasion. Working across a patchwork of landuse and landowners, the team are using AI traps and technology to help catch the remaining pests. But one feral cat continues to elude them, and the ongoing threat to kiwi from pet dogs is proving tricky to solve.

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• Northland kiwi are a genetically distinct subspecies of the North Island brown kiwi, whose numbers are doing pretty good in recent years, due in large part to Operation Nest Egg facilities like the National Kiwi Hatchery.
• Predator Free South Westland is also working across different land types and usages in their bid to remove pests from a huge area.
• Wellington is set to be New Zealand’s first predator-free city, with an ambitious target of ten years.
• RNZ’s Northland reporter Peter de Graaf has been following the situation of dog attacks on kiwi on the Purerua peninsula and kiwi deaths due to cars.

Guests:

• Andy Mentor, Pest Free Purerua
• Zane Wright, Pest Free Purerua
• Mariao Hohaia, Ngāti Rēhia, Tapuaetahi Incorporation
• Grace Walsh, Onekura road trappers
• Tiwai Rawiri, Ngāti Torehina, Pēwhairangi Whānui

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Could the answer to the current fuel crisis be right under our noses? On Our Changing World this week, Sharon Brettkelly talks to some of the scientists analysing ultramafic rocks in places like Lake Pupuke on Auckland’s North Shore and gases from various hotspots around the country, in the hopes that one day hydrogen could power local communities.

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• New Zealand already has hydrogen trucks on our roads and active hydrogen refueling stations. However, some critics say battery technology is a better way to decarbonise. After delays from an international supplier, diesel trucks are being converted to hydrogen in New Zealand. 
• Professor Allan Blackman looks at how the Hindenburg disaster has haunted the development of hydrogen technology and why that might be changing. 
• And Jesse talks with Dr. Linda Wright from the New Zealand Hydrogen Council about if hydrogen could displace diesel.

Guests:

• Kevin Faure, Senior minerals geologist and Team lead National Isotope Centre, Earth Sciences New Zealand
• Paul Viskovic, Geomodeller, Earth Sciences New Zealand
• Thijs van Soest, Isotope Hydrogeologist, Earth Sciences New Zealand

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The World Health Organisation has set an ambitious goal to eliminate cervical cancer. New Zealand health experts are optimistic we can do it, but suggest there are challenges to achieving that aim.

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Learn more:

• Listen to The Panel Plus with Wallace Chapman, discussing the release of the Cancer Society's election manifesto and treatment options for cancer.
• Read about the Matariki Fund's plans to eliminate cervical cancer across the Pacific.
• RNZ's Māori issues reporter Pokere Paewai wrote this article on the need to extend free cervical screening.
• The efficacy of the HPV vaccine was discussed on Morning Report, following a study which showed a 60% reduction in cervical cancer.

Guests:

• Professor Bev Lawton (Ngāti Porou), is founder/director of Te Tātai Hauora o Hine (the National Centre for Women’s Health Research Aotearoa) at Victoria University of Wellington
• Nicola Coom, Chief Executive of the Cancer Society
• Alice Hyatt, cancer survivor

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Today kākāpō breed on three remote islands, each bird wears a transmitter and they are carefully monitored and minded. But the ultimate goal of the kākāpō recovery programme is to restore the mauri of the kākāpō – to have them back in our forests as wild, nameless birds. What are the steps to get there, and how can science help keep kākāpō safe through this transition?

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• Kākāpō need new habitat, could fenced ecosanctuaries be an option? That’s why kākāpō were released into Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in July 2023, to start a trial of how they would do in this new, mainland, North Island habitat. A year later, there had already been a lot of lessons learned.
• One of the possible future habitats mentioned by Deirdre Vercoe is South Westland, where a massive effort is underway to clear stoats, possums and rats from a huge area.
• For all the details about this record-breaking breeding season, listen to the Kākāpō Files podcast.

Guests:

• Deirdre Vercoe, Kākāpō and Takahē recovery programme operations manager, Department of Conservation
• Dr Andrew Digby, Kākāpō and Takahē recovery programme science and technical advisor, Department of Conservation

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So far, 2026 has been the biggest kākāpō breeding season of all time, with more chicks hatched than ever before. The current challenge is to keep them all healthy as they grow into juveniles, and get added to the adult population. But what comes after that? Claire Concannon reports on the future of kākāpō from one of the breeding islands.

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The food you see on the supermarket shelves doesn't end up there by accident. It's often been rigorously tested for likeability. This week on Our Changing World, Liz Garton finds out about the science behind those decisions, given that individual taste can be very varied.

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• Export markets are a key consumer group. Look at who’s eating our food with this story from RNZ’s Farah Hancock.
• Our Changing World looked at how science can help pair foods with the School of Chemical Science at the University of Auckland
• Finding a Psa-V-tolerant golden kiwifruit was one of the success stories from the Consumer and Health sciences team. Claire Concannon looked at the ongoing efforts to prevent the disease from getting to the South Island. 

Guests:

• Christina Roigard, Science Team Leader – Sensory & Consumer Health, New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science Limited
• David Jin, Scientist, Health and Consumer Science Team - New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science Limited
• Dr Roger Harker, Principal scientist - Health and Consumer Science Team - New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science Limited

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