Science Illustrated

Only $65 for 1 year! That’s 8 issues of for just $8.12 a copy (normally $9.99)! Every issue of Australian Science Illustrated includes news and features on: • New science discoveries• Astronomy, cosmology and the universe• Plant and animal biology• A

Gas in the M106 galaxy is burning with the intensity of 10 million suns, so fierce that it produces two additional ‘arms’ to the galaxy. M106 contains a supermassive black hole which sends shock waves in the direction of pockets of gas, heating them

American scientists have revealed how the dreaded Zika virus attacks stem cells in the brains of unborn babies. This discovery could lead to a new weapon against incurable brain cancer. MEDICINE Zika virus is notorious for affecting development of br

ZOOLOGY When a male peacock spider flirts with a female, he shows off his colourful abdomen, held high above his head. However, he must remain constantly alert, as the female is much larger, and tends to see him as a snack rather than a mate. Biologi

TECHNOLOGY Engineers from Rutgers University in the US have paved the way for harvesting ‘blue energy’ wherever river water flows into an ocean. Blue energy is generated by positive sodium ions flowing from a container with salt water through a membr

ZOOLOGY Biologists have measured the cardiac rhythm of a blue whale for the first time, and the results are remarkable. The whale was able to lower its pulse rate to only two heart beats per minute when it was submersed in the water to feed. Scientis

“I was once swimming when a thunderstorm began, and I’ve heard that this is dangerous. But how does lightning spread in water? Do fish die?” METEOROLOGY Lightning most frequently strikes on dry land, but thunderstorms still pose a major threat to swi

ZOOLOGY Socially-minded insects use chemicals known as pheromones to communicate. Pheromones are typically produced by the queen of an anthill or a bee hive when she wants to initiate major changes and construction projects. Workers – be they ants or

ASTRONOMY The greater the mass of a planet, the more difficult it becomes to launch a rocket from the surface into space. In practice this means that the payload a rocket can lift into space is reduced with greater planet mass. Earth has a mass of 5.

Mystery 1 WHO IS OUR DIRECT ANCESTOR? Mystery 2 HOW DID WE CONQUER THE WORLD? Mystery 3 WHY ARE WE THE ONLY ONES LEFT? Mystery 1 WHO IS OUR DIRECT ANCESTOR? Take a tooth from a rhino, add one ancient 300kg ape, two extinct human species and a team of

Meet the animals with eyes as large as footballs, seeing with UV vision and more: The dragonfly can travel 100 body lengths per second. To keep track of things, the fly has developed highly sophisticated vision. A dragonfly’s eyes take up most of the

A steel spacecraft 50 metres high lands on the surface of Mars. Red dust rises into the air as flames from the craft’s engines slow it to land safely. A few hundred metres away is the small Mars colony that astronauts have spent years building in the

The green revolution Science Illustrated brings you the latest scientific ideas to create a greener world. You get home from work after sunset and switch on the light, the TV, and your reverse-cycle air-con against a winter chill. Any solar panels wi

A human body gives off 0.5 to 1g of skin scales a day – enough to feed thousands of house dust mites for a year. The mites don’t need to drink – they can absorb moisture through their skin, so they thrive particularly in homes with higher air moistur

PAIN PATHS If we injure a hand, we feel acute pain a fraction of a second later, but over time the pain changes as other pain receptors are activated. Pain and sensory nerves stretch from the spinal cord into the skin. The thickness of these nerves d

P. HAWTIN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON/SPL ■

Fifty years ago, a drill began to bite its way towards Earth’s interior to discover what lay beneath. But it only managed to achieve a depth of 12km, leaving many questions unanswered. Now scientists and engineers are ready to try again, with a new s