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Catch of the Week
HIHI HAHA: Collecting bird sperm: gosh, science is fun. Scientists working on saving our native hihi (stitchbird) have come up with a risqué way to raise funds – betting on the little devils’ swimmers. After the University of Otago Helen Taylor collected samples from 128 hihi across four of the seven sites where they still exist, a workplace competition has expanded into a full-blown international effort. Place your $10 bet on which bird has the quickest tadpoles at hihispermrace.nz and go into a draw for prizes. Or you could just buy a T-shirt. Taylor explains her work here: tinyurl.com/NZLhihiresearch.
PURE GENIUS: Speaking of sperm, Genius Factory, on TVNZ OnDemand, is a Canadian documentary about an eccentric billionaire who created a so-called genius sperm bank, from which he hoped to create the world’s smartest kids. Robert Graham’s Repository for Germinal Choice claims to have produced 229 children, and in Daryl Stoneage’s film, a few come forward to share what has happened in their lives. He also interviews David Plotz, who wrote the 2005 book The Genius Factory: tinyurl.com/ NZLGenius.