The Wire with Manny

Each new species discovered need a name, however, how do researchers or scientists come up with a name for a species? That’s exactly what a recent study from the University of Otago was looking to find out.  Researchers looked at naming trends for almost 3,000 parasitic worms over he last two decades and found some interesting trends surrounding the naming process of new found species. Joe spoke to one of the authors of the study, Professor Robert Poulin from the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago, on the subject.

On this Wednesday's Wire, Stella spoke with Elise Whitson, shift supervisor of 0800 What’s Up about the state of our youth’s mental health as we transition out of the pandemic

Stella also spoke with Dr Trevor Gee, PhD researcher at UoA about how AI is being used to bring renewable energy to isolated communities in Aotearoa, and the trends of AI use in research.

Frances spoke with Cameron Mulgan on Eurovision, where they discuss the situation in Ukriaine and Putin's Victory Day Speech, the EU oil embargo, elections in Northern Ireland, the Swiss referendum on funding Frontex (the EU's border patrol) and EU tech regulations in the Digital Services Act.

Finally, Stella spoke with Fay Selby-Law, general manager of the National SUDI prevention coordination service about recent recent uncovering new information about sudden infant death.

A new study from The Children's Hospital Westmead  in Sydney has identified that babies who pass away from SIDS have a significantly lower level of a specific enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) that is imperative in the brain’s arousal pathways.

Stella speaks with Fay Selby-Law, General manager of the National SUDI Prevention Coordination Service about the implications of this research on the picture of SIDS in Aotearoa. 

Recently, the Commerce Commission released a report with several key recommendations to tackle the sueprmarket duopoly in Aotearoa. However, consumer advocacy group Consumer NZ says more needs to be done to reduce the price of groceries. As of Monday night they launched a petition urging the government to take action and deliver fairer prices to Kiwis. On the Wire, Christina spoke to Gemma Rasmussen, head of campaigns and communications at Consumer NZ.