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Megafauna once roamed across Australia with some species reaching massive sizes. But ancient bone fragments are sometimes too damaged for palaeontologists to be able to assign them to a species – so they came up with a new way. Better understanding species distribution through time could help determine why the megafauna vanished between 50,000 and […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. This article by Prianka Srinivasan was published in June 2024. In the physical realm, Tuvalu is under threat. The Pacific nation, made up of nine atolls dotting a 676-kilometre stretch of ocean midway between Hawai‘i and Australia, is one of the lowest-lying […]

Bougainville, an autonomous archipelago currently part of Papua New Guinea, is determined to become the world’s newest country. To support this process, it’s offering foreign investors access to a long-shuttered copper and gold mine. Formerly owned by the Australian company Rio Tinto, the Panguna mine caused displacement and severe environmental damage when it operated between […]

At the end of a dark hallway in the Australian National University’s (ANU’s) School of Music in Canberra, is a room with more than 40 historical keyboards and replicas. These instruments play with unique historical qualities ready for interdisciplinary analysis, including from the sciences. Unlike hands-off museum collections, each of the instruments in the ANU’s […]

On September 16, 2023, an unusual seismic signal shook the world. It appeared like clockwork every 90 seconds and lasted for 9 consecutive days. A month later, a similar signal reappeared and lasted for another week before disappearing. Scientists have since determined that these seismic anomalies were triggered by 2 massive landslides which ripped through […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. In June 2024, Cat Williams reported on the postgraduate science students working with Indigenous families to put Noongar knowledge on the map. “Western technological societies continue to fail ­biodiversity,” Stephen Hopper tells me bluntly. A world-renowned ecologist and professor of biodiversity at […]

According to Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, the latest emissions data show “we are on track to reach our 2030 targets” under the Paris Agreement. In 2024, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions were “27% below 2005 levels”. That’s great news, right? Well, yes and no. Australia continues to rely on changes in land […]

CHRISTCHURCH. June 3: Marine heatwaves are becoming annual events in New Zealand and the resulting mass mortalities of marine creatures and the impacts on ecosystems rival those seen on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef “Marine heatwaves can have concerning effects, with heat stress pushing marine organisms towards or beyond their thermal tolerance limits,” says Dr Vonda […]

The nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, Andromeda, probably won’t collide with our home galaxy as previously predicted. Andromeda is also known as Messier 31, or M31, and about 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. Like our own home galaxy, Andromeda is a spiral. It is slightly larger at about twice the diameter […]

Researchers have developed a new way to train a 4-legged robot to clamber its way across a parkour obstacle course. Experts say the capability puts its designers at the forefront of robot technology. The acrobatic AT-AT could reach speeds of up to 2m/s while navigating the route completely on the fly.  “Acrobatic skills such as […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. In June 2024, Drew Rooke looked into the groundbreaking research that is deriving medicines from the depths to transform our lives on land. On 5 June 1981, the US Center for Disease Control published an article in its regular newsletter, Morbidity and […]

A vaccine targeting gonorrhoea will soon be rolled out on the NHS. This will make England and Wales the first two countries in the world to offer such a programme. This move comes amid a sharp rise in gonorrhoea cases in England and increasing concern about antibiotic resistance. In 2023 alone, there were over 85,000 […]

Brian Schmidt was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with his colleagues for discovering that the universe’s expansion is picking up speed. Up to that point, cosmologists had assumed that the expansion of the universe would eventually slow down. The work of Schmidt and his collaborators had profound implications. It meant that something […]

Archaeologists using new methods have unlocked more mysteries of ancient human development hidden under the surface in southern Africa. And it involves no digging. Southern Africa is a treasure trove of ancient human artefacts and fossils. South Africa’s 120,000-acre Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site has the highest concentration of prehistoric human remains in the world. […]

Machine learning is pulling back the curtain on sex trafficking — revealing how fake job ads are used to lure victims into exploitation. The UN describes human trafficking as: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people by force, fraud or deception to exploit them for profit.” It says the extent of the crime […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. This article was written by Deborah Devis and published in March 2021. All manner of unusual jobs exist in science, but perhaps one of the most remarkable is the expertise of Phil Bell, of the University of New England. Bell is a […]

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo passed a law in January 2025 to lead efforts to establish the largest tropical forest reserve in the world. It will be set up as a 2,600km long green corridor the size of France – 540,000km² – situated in the Congo Basin. The green corridor will follow […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. This article was written by Karlie Noon and Duane Hamacher, and published in March 2021. In Nuenonne traditions of Bruny Island, Tasmania, the Sun is a man named Punywin and the Moon is his wife, Venna. In the beginning they travelled from […]

An Australian study has revealed an ingenious tactic used by wheat to withstand drought conditions – it calls in reinforcements. The plant sends out a chemical signal to attract specialised soil bacteria which release beneficial compounds that help it resist drought and continue to grow. The researchers behind the discovery say these bacterial species act […]

The world is being inundated with microplastics. They are in our drinking water, soil, and air. They’re deep in the Mariana Trench, on the top of Everest, and in our bodies. Now, they are being found in fully protected marine areas. A new study led by Brazilian and Australian scientists reveals that even Areas of Integral […]

A beaver glides through a restored wetland in London. Falcons raise chicks atop Chicago skyscrapers. Platypuses paddle through creeks on Sydney’s fringe. Leopard frogs soak up the sun in Las Vegas. Behind these scenes is a rising ecological movement: urban rewilding, where cities become havens for once displaced wildlife. A new study led by the […]

CHRISTCHURCH May 29:  Improving healthcare in the face of increasing demand means embracing digital twins and other technology, say Kiwi researchers. “Despite growing demand and abundant data from medical devices and systems, healthcare still lacks effective automation, says University of Canterbury’s (UC) Distinguished Professor Geoff Chase. Effective healthcare automation hinges on accurately predicting how patients […]

In a surprising discovery, it’s been found that ammonia released from the guano of the Antarctic’s millions of penguins may help buffer that continent’s heating due to climate change. Researchers say they’ve found it adds to the formation of cloud-seeding aerosols! Which means the decline in penguin populations could further accelerate climate change. Penguins are […]

We are taking a look back at stories from Cosmos Magazine in print. In December 2020, James Bradley explored how we test intelligence in fish, and how we treat this diverse, enigmatic community. Earlier this year, while on a field trip in the Cocos Islands, I took some time out and went snorkelling. I was […]