Cosmos Magazine

Global science, from a unique Australian perspective.

Call & return

Cosmos Magazine

From the Editors

DIGEST • Science news from around the globe (and even further)

4bn-year-old Bennu dust lands gently in the Utah desert • NASA's first asteroid sample returns to Earth after a seven-year journey.

“Bonus sample” in OSIRIS-REx canister

Malaysian cave art tells a violent story • Dating charcoal drawings reveals their colonial context.

Scientists find high killer T-cell response in critical COVID-19 cases • Finding could inform new vaccines.

Genetically modified pig kidney donated to live human

Bend and snap: tiny origami robots fold to control flight • Agile microfliers can change shape in milliseconds.

Unveiling the secrets of electrons • Nobel Prize awarded for studying electron movements in the tiniest of split seconds.

Size matters: Quantum dots take prize • Planting the seed for nanotechnology.

Hot Jupiter-like exoplanet expels a spiral cloud of helium • Heat of host star evaporates atmosphere of giant planet.

Focus: Fossils

Aussie first: southern right whale's round trip tracked

Turn up the heat

High flyers

Ancient tree rings reveal largest ever solar storm 14,300 years ago • Spike in radiocarbon points to extreme space weather.

Exoplanet is first found in a quadruple system

BoM calls it: El Niño and positive IOD underway • Summer of severe heat predicted for Australia.

Weakening atmospheric circulation could mean longer El Niños

How will El Niño change in the future?

Why we won't have a super El Niño this year • But they will occur more often as we heat the world.

This super-fast flood simulator could save lives

First recorded total failure of emperor penguin breeding colonies • 2023 is predicted to be worse.

Cutting edge • An expert on the structure of disordered solids, Amelia Liu is trying to shatter one of the biggest mysteries in science.

Everything we do now counts • 2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record. Climate scientist Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick looks at what comes next – and how to navigate these overwhelming times.

Doing drugs differently • What could pharmaceutical R&D look like if Australia – and the world – prioritised public health over profit? Clare Watson reports.

Yirlinkirrkirr baleh? Bininj Kunwok: “Grasswren where?” • The reappearance of a small, elusive bird that flits between clumps of spinifex grass and rocky outcrops in Australia's Top End has ignited the imaginations of Western ecologists and First Nations people alike.

BORN TO RULER? • Think you're “just bad at maths” and can get by without it? And what do mathematicians actually spend their time doing? Petra Stock talks to number professionals about their work, and why they're not as odd as some might think.

Starry, starry night • The Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition isn't just about pretty pictures. Look closely: some of these images contain new knowledge of the universe.

Burning questions • What's known about the science of fire? What data do we have, and how has it changed our approach to fire over he last decade? Bianca Nogrady reports on the researchers learning about the phenomenon we both fear and need

Friends of the Red Handfish • When your neighbour is struggling, the community rallies around them – even if that neighbour is a fish, writes Keely Jobe.

Right line fever • Birds do it, bees do it – even humans instinctively understand and respond to vectors, such as when we catch a ball or take a shortcut. But as Robyn Arianrhod...