Australia’s rocket launch site selections
Stroll through prehistoric Victoria
Red Centre geological tours
THE SCIENCE OF EVERYTHING
Journey to the asteroids
ISSUE 104
g n i Savour s e i c e p s
ildlife? w e l b a vulner t s o m tralia’s s u A e v ng sa i d l i w e r Will
ISSN 1832-522X
AU $17.00 NZ $19.00
OUR NEW NORMAL
Surviving climate change
GROWING A CURE
Organoids are transforming medicine
GRAIN AND GRIT
Australia’s rich wheat history
CONTENTS REGULARS
FEATURES
08
28
CAN GEOLOGY HELP REVIVE RED CENTRE TOURISM?
DIGEST
Dispatches from the world of science 09 Tardigrade super powers 10 Cut grocery carbon bills 12 Focus: Curious creatures 17 Guess the object 22 Atomic-scale quantum sensor 23 Penguin wing evolution
While the science of Australia’s Red Centre is complicated, Glenn Morrison wonders if it can draw visitors to central Australia.
38
UNLIVEABLE AUSTRALIA
Australia is a land of droughts and flooding rains. Bianca Nogrady investigates how we find safety in a climate-changed future.
24
NEXT BIG THING
Naomi McClure-Griffiths explains how hydrogen can create incredibly detailed images of our universe.
44
WILD PLACES, WILD SPECIES
Time is running out for many iconic Australian animals. John Read is a conservation ecologist seeking solutions through rewilding strategies.
26
FAVOURITE PLACES
Get up close and personal with leopards as Declan Morris explores Loskop Dam Nature Reserve.
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44
VICTORIA THROUGH PREHISTORIC TIME
Travel through time using fossils and geological clues with Evrim Yazgin.
FROM TOP: TOURISM NT/THE SALTY TRAVELLERS, SAMANTHA HAEBICH/ GETTY IMAGES PLUS
28
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COSMOS 104 SPRING 2024 62
GRAIN AND GRIT
Wheat is Australia’s golden harvest. Rachel Williamson shares stories of resilience and determination from farmers and scientists.
82
68
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH ASTEROIDS
Follow Richard A. Lovett on a journey to the asteroids to find out where spacecraft Lucy is now.
74
INSECT CONSCIOUSNESS
Amalyah Hart enters a world of intricate research designed to explore the complexities of insect consciousness.
82
WHALE TALK
Drew Rooke wonders whether we can ever truly decode the secret language of whales.
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88
READY TO LAUNCH
Why would anyone want to launch a rocket from Australia? Because they can, reports Jamie Seidel.
FROM TOP: AMANDA COTTON/ CETI MEDIA, ZAID DILLON GILMOUR SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, AUSTRALIA
ZEITGEIST 94
GROWING A PERSONALISED CURE
A five-year-old’s brains are behind research to cure genetic diseases. Denise Cullen explores personalised medicine.
98
SOLVING LIFE’S ORIGAMI
The artificial intelligence program AlphaFold is proving to be a gamechanger for biological research, Imma Perfetto reports.
102
DEAD AIR
Matthew Ward Agius pulls unseen killer particles out of thin air.
106
THE DAILY GRIND
Grinding is an example of the growing popularity of mechanochemistry. Ellen Phiddian examines a new twist on an old-fashioned mortar and pestle.
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110
MINDGAMES
Fiendishly fun puzzles.
112
CURIOSITY CORNER
Fun challenges and facts to share with kids.
114
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nanotube storage, artificial hearts and groundcherries.
geology help revive Red Centre tourism?
28 COSMOS MAGAZINE
INGO OELAND / ALAMY
Can
GEOTOURISM
Ellery Creek Big Hole in the MacDonnell Ranges.
Walking or driving Australia’s Red Centre is a great way to learn about geology. But even geologists agree the science is, well, complicated. Cosmos journalist Glenn Morrison takes to the hills around his Alice Springs home to ask what geotourism might bring to central Australia.
F
rom the leaves of nearby acacias, wet bulbs of late-afternoon sunlight drip like treacle. Sunset. My wife Fiona and I hurry up Euro Ridge on Section 1 of the Larapinta Trail, a wilderness hike winding 223km from Alice Springs west to Mt Sonder. Behind us, the Alice Springs landscape looks more of an enormous stadium than the work of water and tectonics over the ages. In the geology to our west is also something of the Colosseum; some call it God’s amphitheatre. Fiona halts suddenly a few metres ahead on the shale and gravel path, waves me still. An eagle rests beyond her. Carefully, Fiona withdraws her mobile from Gore-Tex and clicks. Precious moments go by before the eagle lifts its wings – perhaps two metres tip to tip – to lurch from its rocky perch into a layer of warm air rising from the valley to our north. The silence that follows brings an aching stillness. cosmosmagazine.com 29