The Engine of The New New Zealand

Science

Science. It’s about really tiny things (nanotechology, atoms and molecules), and really big things (planets, the solar system and the universe); and everything in-between (robots, sustainability, cows, food, Pi, plants, volcanoes, computers, soil, seeds, weeds, wine, the environment, gravity, cats, dogs, snakes, elephants, fertilizer, pasture... You get the picture.).

It’s responsible for hugely pivotal discoveries that have created the world we live in today, and continue to shape it.

Working in science is a rewarding career, because, you can, literally, change the world.

Massey has a huge range of expertise in this area, with 22 majors in the Bachelor of Science. On this site you can find out more about animal science, chemistry, earth science, genetics and horticulture.

Flexibility

The Bachelor of Science at Massey is very flexible, and you don't have to specialise straight away.

It requires a broad underpinning of first-year science papers, but you don’t have to decide on your major until the end of your first year. In the second and third years you can still take a selection of papers from any one of nine possible areas of interest, giving you a great breadth of knowledge.

Who knows... at the end of all that you may discover something new and profound, win a Nobel Prize, and have a unit of measurement named after you. Stranger things have happened — just ask any scientist.

Agriculture, animal, land, food and plant science

Since it was founded in the 1920s, Massey has had a reputation for excellence in the agriculture, animal, land, food and plant sciences.

Find out more about becoming a veterinarian, horticulturalist, a volcanologist, or working in the fields of animal science, food technology and heaps more!

Chemistry

More than any other type of science, chemistry is essential for the understanding and application of many other aspects of science.

It’s about matter, atoms and molecules. Which let’s face it, everything is made of. So it’s actually the study of, er, everything.

There you go then.

Find out what sort of career you might have and how you can do it too.

Genetics

Imagine having skills that can get you working in areas as varied as finding an antidote to a new virus, solving the ultimate murder mystery, or researching adaptive traits of the African elephant.

As unlikely as it sounds, it´s an accurate picture of the potential of a career in genetics. It’s about becoming the ultimate detective.

Formally, it is the area of science that studies inheritance and how traits (genes) are passed on from one generation to another and how new traits (genes) evolve through the process of mutation.

It touches on everything from our understanding of disease – for example, resistance to antibiotics – to the development of vaccines, through crop cultivation and the development of high quality livestock and different breeds.

It also has a very significant application in the area of human health. Increasingly, genetics is being used to diagnose and predict the likelihood of diseases – especially disease associated with aging.

One of the better-known areas of genetics is forensics – the genetic profiling of victims of crime, and potential perpetrators, by the use of molecular biology to study DNA.

While New Zealand is a small player in genetics on the world stage, it can be proud of its strong history in using genetics for developing superior livestock populations. Some of our dairy herds and sheep breeds have been improved over many years, using genetic selection.

An example from forestry is our tall, fast-maturing pine tree plantations, that you’ll see all over New Zealand. These grow quicker and stand straighter than their Californian ancestors.

Find out what sort of career you might have and how you can do it too.

Information Sciences

The old idea of the “computer geek” is long gone.

Today Information Sciences is about figuring out how we can make full use of the new technologies that are constantly being developed and upgraded.

That’s everything from developing cool new software “apps”, to figuring out how productivity and efficiency can be improved by using technology in new and different ways. You’ll never be bored!

Information Technology & Communications (ICT) is everywhere, influencing so much of our lives – so the number of people working in this field continues to grow exponentially and you’ll be able to command a great salary.

Find out what career you might have and how you can do it too.

Nanoscience

Big things have small beginnings.

We can now measure, manipulate, and organise matter on the nanoscale: 1 to 100 billionths of a metre. What does that mean? (apart from scientists having to spend a lot of time looking through hugely-powerful microscopes).

It means there is a revolution in science and technology, on a tiny tiny scale.

Nanoscience has the potential to be one of the defining sciences of this century. Within 25 years, the transistors in a computer’s central processor may be no bigger than a single atom, and microscopic robots may one day be able to deliver targeted medicines to combat or cure virtually any disease—even cancer.

Nano means something very small. It comes from the Greek word nanos (νάνος) which means dwarf. When quantified it means ‘one-billioneth’ – that’s what a nanosecond is – one billioneth of a second.

At the nanoscale, physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and engineering converge toward the same principles and tools. What that means is that you can do things, combine things, make things do things they wouldn’t normally do, then upscale that into real-life applications. It’s changing the way we live, creating more efficient, sustainable materials that aim to make our world a better place to live.

Nanoscience already has applications in manufacturing (particularly in electronics) and medicine, but the possibilities for the future are almost limitless.

Find out what career you might have and how you can do it too.

The strange new world of nanoscience, narrated by Stephen Fry

Natural sciences

Imagine a university degree that could lead to scaling the remote peaks of the Himalayas in search of snow leopards, exploring the Ugandan jungle to observe mountain gorillas, or working with rare native kakapo.

The Bachelor of Natural Science is about taking aspiring scientists like you, and helping you understand how to work towards solving solve real-world problems, such as sustainable food production, biosecurity, climate change impacts and species extinction.

If you like science, but not sure what kind of scientist you want to be, the Bachelor of Natural Science means you don’t have to play favourites. This programme will give you the broad base of knowledge and flexibility to progress into virtually any scientific field you want. But you’ll need to come in with good knowledge and skills at ALL kinds of science rather than just one.

It’s an internationally-comparable degree – based on the University of Cambridge model – one of the world’s top science degrees. It is unique within New Zealand.

You’ll emerge with a broad understanding of the world around you, understanding the underlying reasons why the natural world behaves the way it does, the cause-effect relationship around events taking place in nature, and ways of preserving life for present and future generations.

Find out what career you might have and how you can do it too.

Physics

As Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory would be only too happy to tell you, everything in the universe runs on physics.

Physics looks for answers to the smallest questions—why do these subatomic particles react this way instead of some other way—all the way up to biggest ones, like how the entire universe came into being in the first place.

Knowledge of physics is at the heart of every bit of technology we take for granted today. Civil engineers depend on physics to design bridges that won’t collapse under their own weight. Smartphone manufacturers have to design phones from materials that won’t block radio signals but still keep the device durable. Car designers have to balance the weight of the car against the stopping power of its brakes.

And then there are the people who sit down and figure out how to land a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car on the surface of Mars.

Awesome.

Find out what sort of career you might have and how you can do it too.