Cosmos Magazine

Global science, from a unique Australian perspective.

PETER YATES

Cosmos Magazine

From the Editors

DIGEST

IceCube scientists snap first neutrino “image” of the Milky Way • Machine learning produces the first particle portrait of our home galaxy.

More than a game: puzzles may reduce dementia risk

Droplets that can spot cancer and improve DNA testing • Welcome to the new field of micro elastofluidics.

Tickled pink: neuroscientists tickle rats to find brain's play centre • Study pinpoints brain region linked to laughter and play.

Physicists confirm existence of “demon” particle

Next tipping point? Atlantic circulation could stop this century • Ocean current system collapse will affect us all.

Australian Mammal of the Year top 10

James Webb watch

Frustrating new states of matter

First step achieved in quantum computer plan • Microsoft provides evidence of an elusive quasiparticle.

Neolithic French community had “striking” health and nutrition • Two family trees reveal a late Stone Age way of life.

This galaxy is missing dark matter

Robot preachers receive lower donations, study shows • Do congregations trust robotic religious leaders?

Flightless pterosaur ancestor found in Brazil

Focus: Football

Armoured archosaur opens new chapter on dinosaur evolution

Guess the object

For better vaccines, scientists mess with DNA to form origami • Next-gen cargo delivery – on the nanoscale.

$600k to put brain cells on computer chips

Proton battery: hydrogen without the gas • Powering tiny fans today, your house tomorrow.

How did NASA lose and recover Voyager 2? • Tiny craft travelling for decades can still phone home.

Fanning the flame • Mathematician Valentina Wheeler is working on how to describe flame – so we can model how fire fronts merge, or why bubbles pop.

Fossil forensics • Palaeontologist Aaron Camens is using virtual technologies to help fill in the missing links in Australia's fossil record.

Archaeology byancestor • for the first time by Indigenous archaeologists, a dig team at a key site in Vanuatu is tapping into the Pacific's ancient past. Prianka Srinivasan was there to witness something special.

Rebelling against resistance • Antimicrobial resistance poses a grave threat to public health, and scientists are looking for new ways to combat the rise of superbugs. Manuela Callari reports on the vanguard of current research, from the high-tech to the unexpectedly ancient.

FUTURE POSSIBLE • In 2006 we asked scientists to predict life in 2020. Bron Willis reports on how those predictions stack up – and has another group of scientists look ahead to 2040.

A chemist's guide to optimism • Not all science is equal in the sustainability stakes, but as Ellen Phiddian reports, a new generation of chemists are still focused on solving problems – but now they're going clean and green as well.

It all depends on how you look at it • There's no easy way to characterise perspective, no matter how far down a dictionary definition list you read. But the way we consider things will likely prove vital to our collective future.

POSSUM • The ancient relationship between mountain pygmy possum and the bogong moth reveals the complexity of global climate change – and the lengths we may have to go to save some species from extinction. Kate Evans reports on the risks for – and resilience of – this alpine adventurer.

BO SONIC OM • An Australian startup feels the need for speed – and it's going to have a red-hot go, writes Jamie Seidel.

A menagerie of robotic animals • They're cute and nostalgic, but do robot animals...