Established in 1869 with great vision and foresight from Dunedin’s early settlers, the University of Otago is New Zealand’s oldest university. Today, the university has around 20,000 students, employs more than 3,800 staff, and is a significant educational, economic and cultural force. It has over 150,000 former students and enjoys a prestigious global reputation for outstanding research and scholarship.
The government has backed away from broad hate speech legislation. But the law can be a blunt instrument, and comedians are still better off regulating themselves.
If we want people with complex care needs to prioritise their health, cutting patient fees, providing flexible hours and paying attention to their social circumstances would be a good start.
On the centenary of insulin’s first use, doctors, researchers and people with diabetes are asking why New Zealand lags other countries in funding the latest devices to monitor blood sugar.
New Zealand law allows people to be detained under a compulsory community treatment order – which they can’t refuse. But research shows compulsory treatment can make some mental health issues worse.
Whether or not they smoke, most young people don’t share the tobacco companies’ view that New Zealand’s new smokefree measures will reduce their autonomy or limit their freedoms.
Despite causing hurt and offence, the legality of removing a whale fossil from the West Coast remains unclear. So what rules and laws govern amateur fossil hunting, and should they be strengthened?
Sports sponsorship is the main way children are exposed to alcohol marketing. It increases their risk of drinking at earlier ages, drinking more once they start and drinking more hazardously.
Darse un atracón de comida y sentir después vergüenza y culpa puede ser patológico. En gran medida invisible, el trastorno alimentario por atracón necesita más investigación para un mejor diagnóstico y tratamiento.
More than 130,000 New Zealanders may suffer from binge eating disorder. Largely invisible, it needs more research to help better diagnosis and treatment.
Claims that introduced deer perform the same ecological function as ancient moa are outdated and wrong. Deer destroy forests, and large-scale culling is still the best solution.
Even if the new smokefree legislation did cause some temporary extra illegal trade in tobacco, the best response would still be better law enforcement and border control.
Historical accounts show the upokororo was once common in rivers across the country. It’s now officially extinct, but is there a chance survivors could still be found in remote waterways?
New Zealand has done better than most countries by taking decisive action at the start of the COVID pandemic. Now is the time to build on this with a science-based strategy to manage the next stages.
A thinning of the retina is associated with earlier ageing of the brain. Widely available retinal imaging could help detect cognitive decline in its earliest stages.
As New Zealand emerges from its Omicron wave, increasing hybrid immunity and access to antivirals mean it’s time to shift the focus of COVID management.
Only half of New Zealand’s roughly 4,000 mollusc species have been seen alive. Now geneticists can decode DNA from shells in museum collections to trace the life histories of extinct or rare species.
New Zealand has ramped up biosecurity measures due to an Indonesian foot and mouth scare, but the disease can have huge impacts well beyond the agricultural economy.
Case numbers are falling in all age groups, including over-70s. This is good news as case rates in older people have been a key driver of the steep rise in hospitalisations and deaths in this wave.
Modelling studies estimate the smokefree generation policy could halve smoking prevalence within 14 years among people aged 45 and younger and achieve a more than a five-fold health gain for Māori.