Nights for Thursday 7 December 2017

 

7:12 Photosynthesis...in the Lab

A new catalyst created by University of Toronto researchers brings them one step closer to artificial photosynthesis – a system that, just like plants, would use renewable energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into stored chemical energy.  Phil De Luna is currently a Materials Science Engineering (MSE) PhD candidate at the University of Toronto - he joins us to explain how it all works.

7:35 New Horizons

One of the most mysterious outsider figures in contemporary music was Connie Converse, considered now to be one of the first of the modern singer-songwriters. William Dart looks at a recent tribute album of her songs featuring artists from Jeff Tweedy to Laurie Anderson.

8:12 Poetry

Nights' poetry expert James Brown looks to intrigue us tonight with some engaging contemporary poems from the likes of Kimmy Walters and Catherine Wing.

8:30 Window on the World

In the West Bank hundreds of families share a passion for breeding horses. Amid the narrow streets and cramped apartment buildings small stables can be found with owners grooming beautiful Arabian colts and fillies. These new breeders are now making their mark at Israeli horse shows where competition to produce the best in breed is intense. As Palestinian and Israeli owners mingle on the show ground, political differences are put to one side as they share a passion for the Arabian horse. Linda Pressly follows one Palestinian owner and his colt as they navigate their way through Israeli checkpoints to the next big event in the Israeli Kibbutz of Alonim. Winning best in show is the plan but will they even get there?

9:07 Our Changing World

This week on Our Changing World - tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin, is the most mysterious penguin in New Zealand; it lives in remote forests and is hard to study.

9:30 This Way Up

This Way Up looks at how the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning software is being used to protect New Zealand's threatened native birds and there's a visit to the world's largest robotics fair in Japan to find out what this tells us about the future of robots in healthcare, retail, and in the home.

10:17 Late Edition

A round up of today's RNZ News and feature interviews as well as Dateline Pacific from RNZ International.

11:07 Music 101 pocket edition

In this week's Pocket Edition, we join Troy Kingi and his band The Galactic Chiropractors for a live performance, and speak to NZ Herald journalist Joanna Hunkin about her article on the NZ music industry in 2017.