Veronika Meduna

Wellington

Science, Environment and Health Editor at The Conversation

Sci/env editor @ConversationEDU | writer @NZGeographic @AGU_Eos | Books about climate change and Antarctica | you can find me on Bluesky

Articles

The reality behind the gene-edited dire wolf

2 weeks ago | nzherald.co.nz | Veronika Meduna

One of de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences' "dire wolf" pups at three months. Photo / ColossalWhen a snow-white wolf appeared on a recent cover of Time magazine, billed as the resurrection of the fabled and long-extinct dire wolf, the response was swift. Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based US$10 billion (NZ$17.03b) de-extinction company, had succeeded in reconstructing a genome of the dire wolf using ancient DNA from two fossils: a 13,000-year-old tooth and an even older inner ear bone.
Our Changing World: Helping New Zealand’s understated orchids

3 weeks ago | radionz.co.nz | Veronika Meduna

Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts A tiny population of rare native orchids has received a boost with the first-ever reintroduction of lab-grown seedlings into the wild. Cooper's orchid - New Zealand's rarest and most elusive native orchid species - spends years growing underground, before emerging as a leafless stick with brown flowers.
Our Changing World: Helping New Zealand’s understated orchids

3 weeks ago | rnz.co.nz | Veronika Meduna

Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts A tiny population of rare native orchids has received a boost with the first-ever reintroduction of lab-grown seedlings into the wild. Cooper's orchid - New Zealand's rarest and most elusive native orchid species - spends years growing underground, before emerging as a leafless stick with brown flowers.
First Global Comparison of Glacier Mass Change: They’re All Melting, and Fast

4 weeks ago | eos.org | Veronika Meduna

Each year in early March, when summer turns to fall in the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand glaciologists gather at an airfield in Queenstown to embark on a predawn flight along the spine of the Southern Alps. For hours, they twist in the Cessna’s narrow seats to train cameras on glaciers clinging to mountaintops. The images capture the glaciers’ vanishing contours and the shifting snowline—the demarcation between the remains of the winter snowpack and exposed glacial ice.
NZ’s glaciers shrink and retreat at alarming rate

1 month ago | nzherald.co.nz | Veronika Meduna

Lauren Vargo against an aerial view of Hooker Glacier near Aoraki/Mt Cook. Photos / NIWA / Rebekah Parsons-King; Veronika MedunaNearly a third. That’s the amount of ice lost from New Zealand’s glaciers since 2000. Almost 300. That’s the number of individual glaciers that have vanished forever since we started monitoring them regularly about half a century ago.
Remains of carved canoe may be most significant discovery of its kind, NZ archaeologist says

2 months ago | msn.com | Veronika Meduna

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Remains of carved canoe may be most significant discovery of its kind, NZ archaeologist says

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Veronika Meduna

Parts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe (waka) found in the Chatham Islands, around 800km east of New Zealand, could be the most significant discovery of its kind in Polynesia, archaeologists say. The Chatham Islands is an archipelago administered as part of New Zealand.
New Zealand shakes up its research system in bid to boost economic growth

Jan 28, 2025 | science.org | Veronika Meduna

New Zealand’s science infrastructure is in for a major shake-up, with key research institutes reorganized and a greater focus on commercialization. Some researchers are cautiously positive about the plan, announced last week. But others worry it won’t solve an ongoing science funding crisis, will spur additional job losses in the research sector, and will create unreasonable expectations for fast economic returns.
Amid cuts to basic research, New Zealand scraps all support for social sciences

Dec 6, 2024 | science.org | Veronika Meduna

This week, in an announcement that stunned New Zealand’s research community, the country’s center-right coalition government said it would divert half of the NZ$75 million Marsden Fund, the nation’s sole funding source for fundamental science, to “research with economic benefits.” Moreover, the fund would no longer support any social sciences and humanities research, and the expert panels considering these proposals would be disbanded.
Human-induced evolution sees native insect change colour

Nov 25, 2024 | nzherald.co.nz | Veronika Meduna

Jon Waters focused research on insects and colour change. Photo / supplied As we continue to change the planet, animals are forced to adapt. Already, researchers are observing species shifting their ranges in response to warming temperatures; moving to higher ground on mountains, deeper in the ocean and to cooler latitudes. Overfishing of the largest specimens has led to some species maturing at smaller sizes.