Alana Alexander

Toitū Te Tiriti billboard featuring Ellen Tamati wearing a big smile Billboard says: MY MANA MY VOICE MY MANDATE VOTE YES TO MĀORI WARDS

Toitū Te Tiriti billboard featuring Ellen Tamati visible from Parliament Billboard says: MY MANA MY VOICE MY MANDATE VOTE YES TO MĀORI WARDS

@taniawaikatolawyer.bsky.social has posted these on Facebook so I'm sharing the joy here because we all felt Ellen Tamati's mamae.
All of the mana, all of the time.✊✌️🥰
#ToitūTeTiriti
#OneTermGovernment
#nzpol

@sebasalco.bsky.social doing an awesome job repping the team on the research we were lucky enough to conduct on these taonga.

Smart solution delivers on dolphin DNA Creating genomes from DNA is hugely important for managing threatened species –understanding their past and how they have adapted to their environment helps conservationists protect them.

With fewer than 100 Māui dolphins left, and Hector’s also endangered, these rare subspecies are hard to find and even harder to study. But Otago researchers have cracked their DNA, revealing just how vulnerable they are and what it will take to protect them.💙🐬
Read more here🔗:

Innovative DNA assembly process produces high-quality reference genomes for endangered dolphins Creating genomes from DNA is hugely important for managing threatened species—understanding their past and how they have adapted to their environment helps conservationists protect them.

🧪 Great work on Hector’s & Māui genomes with @laninsky.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social

phys.org/news/2025-07...

Head Teacher/Kaiako Kaiārahi Job in North Dunedin, Otago - SEEK Become Kaiako kaiārahi at Otago's only bilingual early childhood centre. Where the team enjoys strong whānau support while providing early learning.

Tēnā koe e te whānau - ka kimihia tētahi tumuaki hou ki tō Te Koha Waimarie (tō taku pēpi) kohanga - tēnā, horahia tēnei pānui ki ngā tāngata e hīkaka ana ki tēnei wero! www.seek.co.nz/job/85125985...

That's appalling & Otago should protect & defend this esteemed & honourable thinker, scholar & Māori academic. I was honoured to learn from Anaru & look to his example at as a Social Worker, Academic Mana Tanē. Anaru has more mana & heart & mind in his little finger! He's obviously hit a nerve?

Our problem is not a lack of young people who want a career in science, our problem is a lack of careers in science

Regulatory Standards Bill - New Zealand Parliament Public submissions are now being invited on this Bill

Submissions are open on the Regulatory Standards bill. The Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee has opened them until 23 June, ie just over four weeks, instead of the more usual six weeks for a bill with a standard six month report back date.

www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/mak...

The good people behind the flu tracker study are searching for new participants, particularly young ones. It takes about two minutes once a week to tell them whether you've had the snuffles or COVID or anything in between. Easy as, plus you're helping SCIENCE.

www.flutracking.net/Join/NZ/inv2...

As a little kid, I was in an elevator at Boston’s Museum of Science, excitedly telling my grandparents about squid chromatophores.

The older man with us turned to me and told me that it *was* amazing, and that that kind of excitement is the mark of a great explorer.

Sir Edmund Hilary, folks.

A Fulbright is what enabled me to travel to the states to study conservation genetics of sperm whales for my PhD, giving me lasting scientific skills, friendships, and understanding of a place that was not my own 💔

Rescinding the Definition of “Harm” Under the Endangered Species Act The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of "harm" ...

📢 📢📢📢📢
Every biologist who cares about biodiversity should provide public comment on this rule proposed by the Trump administration that would REMOVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS for endangered species! This is extremely bad.

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Thanks heaps Rob ❤️

New Genome Assembly Approach Unlocks Secrets of Critically Endangered Dolphins in New Zealand Despite working with degraded DNA, scientists assembled high-quality genomes of New Zealand's dolphins, with insights for conservation.

Scientists have assembled the first high-quality genomes of New Zealand’s Hector’s + critically endangered Māui dolphins using degraded DNA—an unprecedented breakthrough that offers insights for conservation and a new path forward for endangered species worldwide.
whalescientists.com/new-zealand-...

The recap of the study by Sebastian Alvarez-Costes on his new study! Super fascinating and inspiring work 🐬✨

Really proud of @sebasalco.bsky.social's mahi on this one, and grateful to the iwi and hapū who entrusted us with their ngā ika moana taonga. @royalsocietynz.bsky.social, University of Otago, Genomics Aotearoa and ORG.one provided funding, and thanks to all incl coauthors who provided tautoko!

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

When the website for submission collapsed under the weight of our collective anger we were told that we could still bring our fury to the committee by hand, on paper.
But that was not true. Those words are unread, those voices unheard.
Thanks to @duncanwebbmp.bsky.social for fighting this.

#nzpol

Nā @emmahislop.bsky.social te tuhinga nei!

Finding my way back, over and over | E-Tangata “Not everyone knows their iwi. It’s only recently that my son has started talking about being from Puketeraki. You need to see places to feel like you know them, I reckon.” — Emma Hislop.

Kua kōrero pū tēnei tuhinga ki tōku ngākau, nā te mea, he tangata tahiti o tōku ake marae, ā, ka mōhio pū ki ngā pīki whera o te hono anō ki tō ake hapū. Waihoki, e mōhio pū ana ki te tautoko mai a Mauraka, a Kāti Huirapa hoki ki ērā e whai ai i te reo i Ōtepoti ❤️ e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/...

Antarctic trip a dream come true for marine science student Marine Science doctorate student Pluto Liu recently joined the National Geographic Explorer ship to the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia as a visiting scientist.

Stoked to see this wonderful story about @plutoxliu.bsky.social, a wonderful PhD student based in @ceridwenfraser.bsky.social's lab who I've had the pleasure to co-supervise: www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...

Delighted to have contributed to the genomic insights into demographic and evolutionary histories chapter led by @andrewfoote.bsky.social with @mariels.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social Michael Fontaine and Yacine Benchehida

Program | Genetic Conference 2

Keynote speakers include Prof Amanda Black 🦠, Prof Alexei Drummond 🌳, Prof Matt Littlejohn 🐄, Prof Cris Print 🩺 and more!

The conference will also include an Indigenous Early Career Leaders Session and a Precision Medicine Session.

More info here▶️

www.gsa-2025.com/program

If screening is moved back to 60 years, 50% of Māori male and a whopping 60% of Māori female bowel cancers will be missed. My only aunt died of bowel cancer in her early 60s. Screening is so important!

Me tuku pea e au ngā whakaahua o ngā pahū tūtae hei rongoā :p

Nōku te waimarie i tōku nohoanga i America kei ako ana au i taku tohu kairangi. It was my great privilege to start my PhD, in America, back in 2008. The amazing gift of Fulbright made this possible financially but the stipends are too lean to get by if payments missed: people will have to leave

Cover of Forsdick et al. which features a digital illustration entitled Kia taiao ora, kia tangata ora by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White. Isobel Joy's illustration combines the principles of science through a Western lens with Mātauranga Māori understandings of whakapapa. The structures of DNA and a phylogenetic tree are treated with traditional Māori design to bring them into a contemporary, multicultural context. Here the DNA is envisaged as pātiki kōwhaiwhai, a pattern seen on the rafters of wharenui, to represent manaakitanga (hospitality), our connection to the environment, and how nourishment of the environment in turn nourishes the people. Behind is an abstracted phylogenetic tree with a weaving pattern treatment based on raukūmara and poutama designs, to represent connections/whakapapa and learning respectively. Isobel Joy Te Aho White (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Kāi Tahu, Pākehā ki te Cornwall me te Denmark) is an illustrator based in Wellington, with a Bachelor of Design from Massey University, majoring in Illustration. Much of Isobel’s work incorporates Māori design and plant life that is native to Aotearoa New Zealand, and is inspired by her ancestral lineages of healers on both Māori and Pākehā sides.

Recreating @natforsdick.bsky.social 🧵 for #BIOL429_UC

'Current applications and future promise of genetic/genomic data for conservation in an Aotearoa NZ context' available as an OA peer-reviewed report in @docgovtnz.bsky.social #ScienceForConservation series:

www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets... 1/7