Cosmos Magazine

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

THE INTERNATIONAL Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared the Java Stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) extinct. This small species of ray is the first marine fish extinction as a result of human activity. The species was known only from a si

SYDNEY-BASED SCIENTISTS who developed an immunotherapy to treat melanoma have been named joint Australians of the Year for 2024. Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer are the co-medical directors of Melanoma Institute Australia, where their co

The natural environment affects the sounds of languages over time, according to new study in the journal PNAS Nexus, which shows how the physical properties of the air can influence how we produce and hear speech. By investigating the average sonorit

A SEABIRD fitted with a tracking device has been observed zipping around a typhoon five times, covering a distance of 1,146km in 11 hours. The streaked shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas) has a usual speed of 10–60km/h in flight, at altitudes below 1

Two rare, well-preserved fossil lampreys have been found in northern China, dating back 158–163 million years to the middle of the Jurassic period. One of them (Yanliaomyzon occisor) is 642mm long: the largest fossil lamprey found. Lampreys are an an

Your guesses for last issue’s object all hovered around the same theme. “Bunsen burner,” Judith Yamada wrote in. “The gas attachment is the clue.” Mike Richardson agreed, but with a twist: “I’m thinking Mr Bunsen, as in Bunsen burner, built this to h

Researchers have achieved the first live birth of a chimeric primate: a monkey with cells from two genetically distinct embryos from the same species. Previously, researchers have genetically manipulated stem cells to induce chimerism in rat and mous

A SURPRISE discovery of human remains “fundamentally changed” the story of our species’ migration into Europe. It suggests that Homo sapiens likely made it to northern Europe by 47,500 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals. Until now, the oldest H

Ready your pencils and crack out your crayons. Can you draw this creature from our description – without knowing what it is? I live in the rainforest of a small island in Malaysia. I’m a mammal with a tail, two arms, two legs and sharp claws. I like