Cosmos Magazine

Cosmos Magazine is an award-winning literary science magazine, published in Australia but with a global reach. Cosmos Magazine presents the exciting world of science in a way that everyone can enjoy, with beautiful pictures and clear explanations of the latest developments. Discover the universe around you and what makes it tick.

From the Designers

Cosmos Magazine

From the Editors

Google's protein-folding AI AlphaFold has nearly cracked all proteins • AlphaFold has just released 200 million protein structures, revealing the 'protein universe'.

Turning white blood cells into medicinal microrobots with light • Neutrophils could one day be used to deliver drugs in the body.

A DISPOSABLE PAPER BATTERY THAT RUNS ON WATER • A few clever inks can make paper electric.

A good dose of salt calms the anger of the gods • Lightning doesn't have a taste for salt.

Australia's newest Cray supercomputer is online in Perth • Taking data from the Square Kilometre Array telescope is big business.

DO ARACHNIDS DREAM OF INVERTEBRATE SHEEP? • Jumping spiders may have a REM-sleep-like state.

Cosmic 'heartbeat' detected in fast radio burst billions of light-years from Earth • The new FRB is the longest lasting with the clearest pattern known.

Bone density doesn't bounce back • Six months in space is a decade on Earth.

THE BUGS IN YOUR TEABAG COUNTED WITH EDNA • Yes, you are drinking arthropods in your tea.

FOCUS: COVID

Could AI help predict epilepsy in children, leading to earlier treatment? • Epilepsy is thought to affect about 250,000 Australians.

WHEN FOOD HAS A FACE, PEOPLE PREFER NOT TO EAT IT • “No, not the buttons! Not my gumdrop buttons!”

ICONIC INVENTION

UKRAINIAN BECOMES THE SECOND FEMALE FIELDS MEDAL RECIPIENT • Maryna Viazovska is one of four to win the prestigious award.

Curved-space robot defies known laws of physics • The discovery has implications for locomotion without propulsion.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOL SWINGS INTO ACTION • Analysing pendulum videos, the AI identified variables not present in current mathematics.

The Jurassic world of the vampire squid • How these cephalopods survived across two mass extinction events.

Which of these is a deep-fake? Your brain knows the answer before you do • The uncanny valley still exists in EEGs.

Food scientists find 50 flavour compounds in soy sauce • The simple salty sauce is surprisingly complex.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE BRAIN GAME • Small genetic changes separate modern humans from ancestral brain development.

Chaos is more common in ecology than we thought • Insects are particularly chaotic - who knew?

While our ancestors went to land, this fishapod went back into the water • Fossils of a 400-million-year-old fishapod show it began the transition but was more adapted to water life.

On the surface • Our best collection rates are so far in the order of 350ml of water per square metre of surface per day, but we’re developing the materials to improve this.

The NEXT genomics revolution • Single-cell sequencing is unlocking the secrets of disease - and drug therapy - one cell at a time. Joseph Powell tells us what its future holds.

Theory of natural election • Over recent months Cosmos took nominations from around the world, before running a poll to crown Australia's inaugural Mammal of the Year. It's a fun celebration of our special species, but in a year when six mammals have had their conservation status threat level increased, as EUAN RITCHIE writes, it's also a chance to reflect on how much we have to lose …

[A.I. Art] • As the tech develops, "Al art" is creating headlines around the...