John Gibb

The University of Otago School of Physiotherapy has made plenty of strides over the past century, but yesterday was encouraging university staff members to step out themselves, for a healthy walk.

Organisers of a national industrial heritage symposium being held in Dunedin hope it will mark a ''major turning point'' in the wider recognition of Dunedin Gasworks Museum and the city's industrial heritage.

Social isolation facing war veterans and an anomaly that denies war pension support to a partly dependent parent after a soldier dies in action were among issues highlighted at a Dunedin conference on veterans' health yesterday.

A new era of smart insecticides that do not kill bees may be closer, thanks to a $920,000 grant to University of Otago biochemist Associate Prof Peter Dearden.

After hearing official denials for decades, Vietnam war veteran Ted Gordon feels vindicated by University of Otago research showing New Zealand veterans of that war are twice as likely to develop chronic lymphatic leukaemia.

What on earth can you do in three minutes, apart from boiling an egg?

University of Otago MSc student Jacob Anderson is ''excited'' to have been selected as one of four youth climate change ambassadors to attend a United Nations conference in Warsaw later this year.

Emeritus Prof Basil Jones, former head of surveying at the University of Otago, says the profession has entered an ''exciting'' period of rapid change, but surveyors will retain a crucial role in managing the new technology.

About 300 people will converge on Dunedin today to attend the 50th reunion of the University of Otago School of Surveying, many of them also attending two related national conferences.

Learning to say ''enough'' to growth is the key to avoiding future economic and environmental collapse, former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons urged during a talk in Dunedin yesterday.

On the eve of a final announcement on proposed museum restructuring, former Otago Museum Trust Board member Malcolm Farry yesterday warned of the ''danger'' of senior museum managers being lost.

There is nothing like a working holiday, travelling around eight countries in three weeks, to straighten out your career aspirations.

Internationally respected University of Otago archaeologist Prof Charles Higham is being honoured for his research this week at an archaeology forum in Shanghai, Dunedin's Chinese sister city.

Religious tolerance is not enough and much more can be gained from a more active engagement between people of different faiths, visiting Canadian Muslim academic Prof Ingrid Mattson says.

Planet Earth and its inhabitants are facing a ''perfect storm'' of extreme climatic and environmental challenges and the future will have ''no precedent in the past'', Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has warned.

Axe handle attack survivor Jason Ushaw has done a University of Otago law degree the hard way, and has succeeded, thanks to a great deal of support.