Cosmos Magazine

The brain is a highly connected organ, and the white matter pathways seen here are like communication highways, allowing information to flow to different sections. Using MRI scans from a database created as part of the Human Connectome Project, Sydne

SERIOUSLY, COULD THERE BE a better time to consider intelligence, both human and artificial? Sorry to reach for the daggy analogue analogy, but: the best time to plant a tree is 20 year ago. Or right now. At the same time that machine learning – poss

EUROPE'S JUPITER Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission successfully launched on 14 April 2023, headed off to explore some of the Solar System's most mysterious ice worlds. Over the next decade, JUICE will chart the gas giant and its interactions with th

ANOTHER PATIENT is free from HIV, after a stem cell transplant used to treat leukaemia also suppressed the virus. The patient, a 53-year-old male, was previously HIV-positive but has had undetectable levels of the virus in his blood for nine years. H

DEAFNESS, GASTROINTESTINAL and respiratory issues, rheumatism, alcohol-related liver disorders, lead poisoning: the list of afflictions plaguing the life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven fascinates historians and scientists alike. Now, using his hair

REMAINS OF a previously unknown ancient wombat-like marsupial have been discovered in central Australia. Called Mukupirna fortidentata, the animal is thought to share a common ancestor with modern wombats. Flinders University palaeontologists uncover

SCIENTISTS HAVE delved eight kilometres below the ocean's surface to film a fish, and set new records in the process. While exploring the Japan, IzuOgasawara and Ryukyu trenches as part of a decade-long study into the world's deep sea fish population

Many astute readers pinpointed last issue's object: “It's a cloud chamber for capturing evidence of invisible subatomic particles,” Pete said succinctly. Invented in 1911 by Scottish physicist Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (earning him a Nobel prize),

Before the pomp and circumstance of coronation, a younger Charles paid a visit to a newly opened institution with lofty and international goals. While there, he had a chat to scientists who worked with this bulky research tool. It's been around for a

DEEP LEARNING algorithms are being applied to digital video to identify four different pollinator species working in a strawberry farm, and to plot the insects’ visits to flowers. A team from Monash University, led by postdoctoral researcher Malika R

When I started my PhD, I didn't have a background in nanotechnology, and I really struggled to grasp the concepts that exist at nanoscale. I remember talking to my supervisor about one of the concepts that contradicted the whole understanding that I

In August 2013, my first cover as editor of Cosmos magazine – an edition we themed “Decode your brain” – suggested we were on the verge of a new era of understanding how the brain works. As we approach the finish line on this “decade of the brain” –

Oceanographers began going to sea in ships about 200 years ago, with maybe one or two expeditions per year from the UK. By a quarter of a century ago, 15–20 ships around the world were doing the work. Fortunately, in the last 15 years global oceanogr

Even people with long experience of rockart sites would struggle to remain emotionless at Kudjekbinj (goo-jik-bin), a rock shelter about 320 kilometres east of Darwin, in the heart of Arnhem Land. It's a majestic place in the shadow of an imposing es

In an unassuming red-brick building on the southside of Colombia's second-largest city, Medellín, millions of mosquitoes are bred each week to combat dengue fever. One's natural instinct is to recoil at the metallic smell of blood wafting out of a hu

The large tinnie cruises the calm waters, charting a course from the boarding jetty, past moored yachts and waterfront mansions that crowd the shoreline of Georges River at Taren Point, on Dharawal country in suburban southern Sydney. A veil of cloud

The reef-dwelling harlequin mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) went viral a few years ago when researchers discovered that it has the fastest punch of any living animal – 80km/h, used to smash through its prey's exoskeleton. This individual is

Mind reading is a staple of science fiction. In the original Star Trek, for example, Spock would occasionally perform the Vulcan mind meld, in which he splayed his fingers across another person's face while intoning: “My mind to your mind; my thought

The colours are blues, only blues: clear sky and bands of differently deep ocean. The smells are sea-salt and the warm-woodyspicy-sweet of clove oil. The sounds are the complementary noises of a vessel moving in water and water moving against a vesse

To celebrate NASA's Perseverance rover touching down on the red planet in 2021, London's Natural History Museum unveiled a new installation: an enormous replica of Mars. Seven metres wide, this illuminated red globe was suspended from the ceiling in

There's nothing better than a barbecue on a hot day. But actual meat is now not the only grill goods on offer: it seems like new types of meat-free sausages, schnitzels and salami appear on the supermarket shelves every other week. But how are plant-

Craning my neck, I see, floating above me, a massive, softly illuminated, whitish orb. As I step back, its true identity is revealed: blue swims into view, so too shades of brown and green. It's a crystal-clear replica of our home planet. And after n

The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, World War Z, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead… I could keep going but I think you get the gist. Zombies are everywhere in fiction, from movies to TV shows, video games to books. These stories are usually pretty hand-wav

Send us a pic of where you're reading Cosmos to win a limited edition notebook. Under the coolibah trees of Witchelina in far north SA – a former pastoral property, now a nature reserve – Martin Caon relaxes with Cosmos after conducting a fauna surve

Question Whose Law? Decode where t = ◆ Hint: The law was postulated by two French scientists in 1819. ■

NO.25 Codeword requires inspired guesswork. It is a crossword without clues. Each letter of the alphabet is used and each letter has its own number. For example, ‘A’ might be 6 and ‘G’ might be 23. Through your knowledge of the English language you w