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.

What’s not to love?

FROM THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA

COSMOS MAGAZINE

FROM THE EDITORS

BEHIND THE SCENES IN THIS ISSUE

Gondwana in amber • Fossil trove sheds light on ancient antipodean ecology.

Homo erectus keeps getting older • Researchers make an important find in fossil-rich South Africa.

Spring in your step? • In theory, it could make you run an awful lot faster.

The warming of Australian estuaries • Rate of change has environmental and economic implications.

Plants help make their kids strong • Research suggests we can intervene without GM.

IN FOCUS: SPACE

Exploring the potential of hot qubits • Researchers address a practical constraint to quantum computing.

From lions to elephant seals, females outlive males • That’s despite the fact males don’t age faster.

Hubble turns 30 • To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s significant anniversary, Alan Duffy – astrophysicist and lead scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia – shares his favourite images and explains how they changed the way we understand the universe.

Long-living tropical trees do the heavy carbon lifting • Study points way forward for rainforest regeneration and management.

AI creates a protein symphony • Scientists measure radioactive signature in vertebrae rings.

Bomb tests help reveal whale sharks’ age • Scientists measure radioactive signature in vertebrae rings.

Crazy beast fossil discovered in Madagascar • Mammal lived with dinosaurs on Gondwana.

Plants grow brightly with mushrooms • Scientists say DNA creates sustainable sunlight.

MENAGERIE A real blue dragon

Survival in the Atacama Desert • Cyanobacteria extract water from rocks – and change them.

Attracting girls the lemur way • A fruity-smelling perfume seems to do the trick.

Scientists crack 58-year-old quantum mystery • Fluke discovery could revolutionise nuclear magnetic resonance.

Does the Earth move before earthquakes? • It has, but it’s not clear whether it will happen again.

GUESS THE OBJECT • Whatever it is, there’s a fair bit about this object that you don’t need to work too hard to know.

Is anybody down there? • As we continue to scan the skies for signs of alien intelligence, Paul Davies makes the case for turning our gaze Earthward as well.

A brief tour of Africa

THE VIRUS DETECTIVES • When a cure for COVID-19 comes, it will be thanks to a global network informed by years of detailed research in genomics, virology, pharmacology and immunology. As FIONA McMILLAN reports, scientists are collaborating to find answers at unprecedented speed.

HOW CORONAVIRUS TAKES OVER CELLS • Virus replication is a deadly wonder of cell chemistry

A CLOSER LOOK

1 May 2020: 3,175,207 cases; 224,172 deaths

LIVE FAST, DIE LAST • In complete defiance of one of nature’s most fundamental laws, a species of tiny, frenetic bat is living 10 times longer – and healthier – than it should. ANDREW BAIN talks to the research team embarking on the project of a lifetime to find out how they do it – and whether we might do it too.

MAKING THEMSELVES BETTER WITH AGE • What was learned from an eight-year-long, molecular-level study of ageing in long-lived Myotis myotis bats?

GOING INTO BAT FOR BATS • They’re seen as coronavirus...