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#WeekendRead
Based on a lifetime of research, Connie Scott’s ideas are gaining traction as farmers and agricultural scientists greet Russell lupins as a potential saviour for merino sheep farming in difficult times. The New Zealand Merino Company (NZMCo) is drafting a new protocol to promote lupins as a high-country fodder crop, and seeking the support of Environment Canterbury, as well as conservation groups and farmers. It’s a bid to stay on the right side of ecologists who see lupins as an environmental time bomb.
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One theory to rule them all
Einstein’s most famous theory sweats the small stuff. And the universe is mostly small stuff. In his theory of general relativity, Einstein calculated that the movement of massive objects through the cosmos would convulse its very fabric, compressing it here, stretching it there, creating a kind of peristalsis in space and time, driven by gravity.
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Butterfly effect
American meteorologist Edward Lorenz was one of thousands of mathematics graduates in the 1940s who trained as weather forecasters during WWII and became hooked on meteorology. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology he was part of the generation of researchers who first attempted to forecast weather using new electronic computers, by-products of the Allies’ code-breaking activities during the war.
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Moon dance
Long-range weather forecasting using the moon was introduced to New Zealand by Clement Wragge in 1910. One of the more colourful characters in early Australian meteorology, Wragge was among the first forecasters to name cyclones. He started with the Greek alphabet, moved on to women’s names, then settled for the names of politicians he disliked. Read more at nzgeo.com.
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#SundayDoco
Antarctica is the ice continent – the coldest, windiest, driest, and highest continent on earth – and a place of strange reversals of the normal order. Here the summer sun shines at midnight, and the winter moon shines at midday. This film follows the strange natural cycles of one Antarctic winter, and it also follows a small team of people as they live through the longest night and the harshest winter. Watch this week's Sunday doco—The Longest Night.
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#NZGeoRadio
IS THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSING?
In the past, south was north and north was south – but now there are reports that patches of the earth’s magnetic field deep under the earth’s crust are weakening and even reversing. You might imagine the magnetic field is a timeless, constant aspect of life, but Earth's magnetic field actually does change.
AUCKLAND WATER SHORTAGE CRISIS OVER
Auckland’s water supplier is now confident it can meet the city’s normal demand and is ending calls for residents to conserve water. It is now operating at 70 per cent capacity and, together with the city’s four other plants, is producing 100 million litres above what is being used each day.
SIEVE TURNS SEAWATER INTO DRINKING WATER
A UK-based team of researchers has created a graphene-based sieve capable of removing salt from seawater. The sought-after development could help millions of people without ready access to clean drinking water. The promising graphene oxide sieve could be highly efficient at filtering salts. It will be tested against existing desalination membranes.
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