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When we are under high stress, we can often reach for foods that are “comforting” (like biscuits, donuts, cake, pastries, and chocolate bars), but these foods may not be the best choice for feeding your brain under stressful and demanding circumstances. Comfort foods are calorie-rich but nutrient-poor. Further, under high stress (and it doesn’t actually matter what has caused the high stress, whether it...

Dr Karen Pollard is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She is also the Director of the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory, and her research interest is stellar evolution and pulsating stars. Origins and early influences Karen started her astronomical journey at a young age. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Karen has lived...

Last week, Mariska Bot and colleagues published a clinical trial in JAMA whereby they randomized overweight or obese adults with subsyndromal depressive symptoms to placebo, micronutrients (400 mcg folic acid, 800IU vitamin D, 30 mcg selenium, 100 mg calcium, and 1412 mg DHA+EPA), micronutrients plus behavioural activation or placebo plus behavioural activation. Their primary outcome was cumulative onset of...

Christchurch is justifiably proud of its strong relationship to the southernmost continent, and punches above its weight in communicating research about Antarctic history to the public, says Dr Ursula Rack. UC polar historian Dr Rack travelled to Washington DC, Columbus in Ohio (USA), Bremerhaven (Germany), Cambridge and London (UK), all cities with strong connections to the Antarctic, thanks to a...

Melting mountain glaciers all around our world are poster children for present-day climate change. But how do climate scientists monitor glaciers ? By doing fieldwork! They go up there after winter to measure how much snow was falling onto the glacier surface (aka accumulation, a positive number), and return after summer to measure how much ice was melting (aka ablation, a negative...

The Elaine P. Snowden Astronomy School is a five-day event for Year 13 students interested in studying Astronomy or Physics at university. The programme runs from 13-17 April and students will spend time at both the University of Canterbury's Ilam Campus and at Mt John Observatory in Tekapo. Applications are now open, closing 8 March. Learn more.

A new weather sensor installed by Geography technician Nick Key at Broken River weather station will expand the data available from the station as it will not only provide most of the standard weather measurements of a traditional weather station, but it is also able to differentiate different forms of precipitation and detect lightning. Both will assist with Dr...

We were flown down to the ice in a USAF ski modified Hercules aircraft (LC130), or ski-herc for short. The flight time was about 9 hours, and an hour and a half before landing we began passing over the Transantarctic Mountains!   After landing, we were driven to Scott Base and given an orientation tour, dinner, and a warm bed. The...

The He Puna Pūtaiao Programme was established by the College of Science in 2013 and is designed to give Year 10 Māori students from selected schools the opportunity to work alongside scientists and learn about scientific research. Puna means to well up or to flow, so symbolically represents youth or rangatahi. Its meaning may also incorporate research because in a...

60 Year-11 students from around New Zealand arrived at the University of Canterbury on Sunday 2 December, settling in at the Rochester and Rutherford Halls of Residence and getting to know each other that night, before kicking off the week on Monday with a tour of the campus, sessions in Antarctic Studies, Environmental Science and Psychology, fish and chips at...