→ If you’re truly storm-phobic, you could consider living somewhere with fewer of them. In Australia, quiet spots include South Australia, Perth and further south in WA, even Tasmania; these areas are certainly not storm-free, but have fewer and less

NATURE The circuses of Ancient Rome saw some bizarre animal battles: rhino versus hippo, crocodile versus bear, as well as human gladiators against crocodiles, elephants and, in one case, an ostrich. Happily modern science can stage similar clashes i

How will the universe end? Scientific questions don’t get much more fundamental than this – and yet we don’t know the answer. Or more precisely, we have a number of answers, with the correct one depending on which cosmological theory proves to be tru

PSYCHOLOGY There are competing theories as to why some people see ghosts. The most scientifically-based of these is represented by psychology professor Michiel Van Elk from Leiden University in the Netherlands, who has studied ‘paranormal’ experience

1 The famous ‘Wow!’ signal was discovered by Dr Jerry R. Ehman on 15 August 1977 using Ohio State University’s radio telescope, nicknamed ‘Big Ear’. The signal came from the Sagittarius constellation and had some of the characteristics that SETI rese

CLIMATE It is well-documented that Earth’s axis of rotation and tilt – responsible for the changing seasons on our planet – change over time. But an international research team headed by Seoul National University in South Korea has concluded that sin

ENTYMOLOGY You may often find dead flies on their backs, but they do not necessarily die that way. Instead, this common death posture is because flies – and many other insects – are relatively light, and crucially their centre of gravity is at the to

Several major Power-to-X plants are emerging in Europe that convert water into hydrogen that can be used to produce climate-friendly fuel. → The shipping industry that carries our goods around the world is responsible for 2-3% of the planet’s CO2 emi

One side of the Moon is always hidden from us. In May, China is planning to launch the first probe to sample the far side of the Moon, aiming to reveal how Earth got its satellite – and perhaps provide us with a nearly free source of energy. Global w

The number of intelligent civilisations in our galaxy, the Milky Way The number of stars forming per year in our galaxy The proportion of these stars that have planetary systems The number of these planets that have an environment suitable to include

UNIVERSE On 27 September last year, the Parker Solar Probe roared past the Sun at a speed of 635,266km/h – that’s 700 times faster than any airliner. It was the closest a craft has ever gone to the Sun, and easily the fastest speed any human-made cra

A monkey drops from a branch on to the back of a sika deer. The nihonjika deer, as they are known in Japan, barely notices its rider, and it is not uncommon for Japanese macaques to mount deer – the monkeys remove parasites from the deer’s fur, and s

A The ice of a glacier begins as snow falling on the surface. As more snow lands on top, the pressure increases, and together with meltwater it gradually transforms the fine, ramified crystals into solid ice. B The iceberg slowly melts in the sea. So

In the uppermost 15-20km crust of our planet, the four most abundant elements are oxygen, silicon and magnesium, and then – fourth – is iron. Australia is the world’s iron capital. We account for more than a third of world iron-ore production, and pr

1 Iron has the chemical formula Fe and can replace coal in a power plant in the form of a powder made from old scrap metal. The iron powder burns at temperatures of around 1800°C. 2 When something burns, it is fuelled by oxygen (O2 ). The burning of

UNIVERSE Many discoveries are not made the moment data arrives from a craft or telescope, but are teased out possibly years later by new analysis techniques or even just a very determined researcher. The Kepler space telescope operated for nine years

UNIVERSE Two huge ice worlds clash in a devastating cosmic collision, leaving a cloud of dust and a hot rotating object about a hundred times the size of Earth. It sounds like the opening of a space fantasy movie, but this is what a team of astronome

1 Scrap iron from end-of-life bicycles, ovens and washing machines is melted at 1500+°C in a furnace. The flow of molten and liquid iron is then fed into a chamber under the furnace. 2 In the chamber, the thin stream of molten iron is bombarded with

The classic story of humankind tells that our species has its origins in eastern Africa some 200,000 years ago. But in many ways, like so many dinosaur models, this story was based on small fragments of ancient bones and teeth around which the narrat

ANIMALS In recent history (as it is hard to judge the whole course of human history in this regard), the animal that has killed the most people to eat them is the leopard. The leopard is widespread in most of South-East Asia and large parts of Africa

WHERE: BROOME, WA; longheld Indigenous knowledge > 1980s It’s a one-way trip on the Broome Explorer Bus to Gantheaume Point, then a hike over the top and a scramble down its north side before you walk back along Cable Beach to the bus-stop for town.

NATURE For once this is a wildlife danger issue which doesn’t directly affect Australians. But were you to be holidaying abroad in bear country, and accidentally woke a bear from hibernation, there is a risk that it will attack, and anecdotes indicat

Famous for: Co-founding the SETI Institute, which has been searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life since 1984. A stronomers discover new exoplanets almost every day – worlds that are orbiting alien suns outside our Solar System. And as the ex