Helm's Butterflies, homeopathic suicide and Hillary Clinton's science advisor

Saturday

11:30am
Renowned New Zealand insect man Brian Patrick has just returned from the Whakapapa mountainside, having searched for and found one of our rarest and most beautiful animals, the New Zealand Forest Ringlet, or Helm’s Butterfly. This elusive creature used to be in our backyards but in only a few decades has become very rare. We talked to him on the foothills of Mt Ruapehu.

12:35am
Science report with Vicky Hyde
Vicky Hyde is about to attempt suicide on live TV this Saturday by means of a homeopathic overdose. Will she survive? We think so. Listen in to find out why.
UFOlogists are clambering to sift through the release of the New Zealand Defence Force’s previously restricted documents on UFOs. What’s in there?

Sunday

10:30am
Clinton's science advisor Dr Nina Fedorroff

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have postponed her New Zealand visit scheduled for this week to respond to the earthquake in Haiti, but her science and technology advisor Dr Nina Fedoroff delivered a provocative public lecture.

New Zealand's unease with genetic modification and options for alternative energy production to gets a shake-up.

Hear the short lecture and then the press conference attended by Graeme Hill, and some very unhappy anti-GE lobbyists.

The molecular biologist from Pennsylvania State University is an expert in the genetic modification of plants and discusses the subject in front of a New Zealand audience in the context of ensuring food supply as the world faces the prospect of having to feed an additional 3 billion people by 2050.

1:00pm
Music journalist Nick Bollinger’s 100 Greatest New Zealand albums of all time. We put him on the Barbie and grill him.