Cosmos Magazine

I THINK there were mistakes in Mind Games in Issue 99, page 112. The columns are out of order. Am I right? Paul van Leeuwen Paul, you are indeed right. Puzzles are serious business and we apologise to all readers out there frustrated by this. To the

Editor Gail MacCallum Deputy Editor Lauren Fuge Art Director Kate Timms Graphic Designer Greg Barton RiAus Editor-in-Chief Ian Connellan Science Journalists Matthew Agius, Jacinta Bowler, Imma Perfetto, Ellen Phiddian, Petra Stock, Evrim Yazgin Digit

IT MIGHT have been a scene from a sci-fi movie. Helicopters converging on an object fallen from outer space into a stark, desert landscape. People in gas masks cautiously approaching, checking to see if it's safe. But science fiction it wasn't. This

Two teams of US researchers have successfully transplanted genetically modified pig kidneys into two male patients, both declared clinically brain-dead. Previous attempts to transplant animal organs into humans have often failed because human bodies

THREE EXPERIMENTALISTS have jointly won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in probing the behaviour of electrons. Anne L'Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz helped create the tools necessary to make “films” that capture electrons'

West Australian researchers have recently had a whale of a time tracking the return trip of a southern right whale from the state's south coast to Antarctica. They attached satellite tags to southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) before the anim

Guesses for last issue's object spanned over many eras: “Cockpit of the Bell X-1, flown by Chuck Yeager and the first aircraft to break the sound barrier,” John de Vry suggested; Aiden Blanchfield thought it was a MiG-25 Foxbat – a Russian fighter pl

ANALYSIS OF ancient tree rings from the French Alps has revealed that a massive solar storm – the largest ever identified to date – occurred about 14,300 years ago. The clue was a spike in radiocarbon level, detected by an international team of scien

A MASSIVE planet, 15 times larger than Jupiter, has been directly imaged, revealing a complex cosmic dance involving four celestial bodies. The exoplanet was found in a star system called HIP 81208, 477 light-years from Earth. Astronomers knew that t

More multi-year El Niño and La Niña climate events might be in our future. A new study in Nature has found that the Pacific Walker Circulation – an air cycle which drives the El Niño Southern Oscillation – has changed over the last 800 years. “The ov

New research predicts El Niño and La Niña events are likely to get stronger over the next few decades before possibly weakening towards the end of the century. The predictions are based on simulations using climate models from all over the world, pub

As 2023 saw extreme flooding on almost every continent, University of Melbourne researchers have developed a computer model which forecasts floods faster than ever before. “This … enables highly accurate modelling to be used in real-time during an em

The Friends of the Red Handfish (FORH) organise their first community information session for a Monday night. It's a modest affair, held in a Besser-block community hall with fluorescent bar lighting and teal nylon seats. There's tea and biscuits, ch

At 11 and nine years of age, Xavia (left) and Marley (right) Furner have seen more of Australia than most adults. Growing up in Far North Queensland, their playground was the sea, their favourite activities snorkelling and free diving. When COVID hit