While expecting her first child, Dr Clare Reynolds switched from normal fizzy drinks to diet. It was a rational move – the lesser of two evils, she figured – yet when she checked what research had been done, she found surprisingly little. That prompted Reynolds, a researcher at the University of Auckland-based Liggins Institute, to…

New Zealand has a high rate of self-harm among young people, but there are ways to help them cope, writes Victoria University psychology professor and Listener columnist Marc Wilson. “All the people I see hurt themselves,” said the clinical psychologist from the Youth Specialty Service. “What do you mean, like accidents?” I asked. “No, they…

The Federal Government has announced a $69 million boost to help medical researchers in their fight against rare cancers and rare diseases. The funding is aimed at assisting patients who often have few options and poor life expectancy. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government was committed to investing in research to find the answers…

Researchers have shown, for the first time, why exercise has positive health effects across the entire body. The new Australian research, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, reveals tiny protein-filled packages, called vesicles, are used by our muscles and other organs to communicate with each other during exercise. Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research undertook…

The tenth Closing the Gap report to be tabled in Parliament today is expected to show progress in the two health targets — to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031 and halve the child mortality (death) gap by 2018. But only the latter is on track. The Indigenous death rate has dropped by…

In many modern animated movies, the trick to achieving realistic movements for individual characters and objects lies in motion-capture technology. This process often involves someone wearing a tracking suit covered in small, colored balls while a camera captures the position of those colored balls, which is then used to represent how the person is moving.…

In a major breakthrough, scientists have successfully developed tiny nanorobots made of DNA and protein that can be directed at tumours, stopping them from growing. The study was led by researchers at the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and involved the head of the…

A year-long anti-obesity programme in UK schools had no noticeable effect on children’s health. The programme increased physical activity in schools, instituted a healthy eating programme with local sporting heroes and held workshops on healthy cooking for families. Fifteen months after the kids started the programme, there was no difference in weight, body fat measurements,…