Measuring the microbes that feed on the dead can determine the time of death when maggots and flies fail.

Corpse-eating bacteria a forensic tool

Machine vision that can peer around corners using laser light; using microbes that feed on the dead to determine time of death; why people sneeze in sunlight; testing spacecraft and cargo before leaving for the red planet; banning killer robots; and a new book looks at how to survive the possible impacts of climate change.

This week in Cosmos Magazine 18 January 2016

The surprising pleasure of pondering questions we cannot answer.

Review: Even more things that nobody knows

From Napier's bones to the Curta: the ingenious, all-but-forgotten inventions that led to the electronic calculator.

Evolution of the calculator

Ceramics are hard and heat-resistant, but they are also brittle and difficult to forge into intricate shapes. 3-D printing has solved those problems.

3-D printing delivers smash-proof ceramics

Gut microbes are essential for health, but they also have a reputation for controlling our moods, and making us sick. It turns out we have more control over them than we thought.

Chemical messengers could make poo transplants obsolete

Earlier this month, the biggest explosion ever recorded was dubbed a 'superluminous supernova'. Now its strange behaviour is forcing astronomers to reconsider what it might be.

Is this giant supernova a new type of cosmic object?

Examining the chemistry in Christie's crime novels.

Agatha Christie's poison pen

3-D printing smash-proof ceramics for hypersonic aircraft; the strange behaviour of the biggest explosion ever recorded; the lethal chemistry in Agatha Christie's crime novels; controlling gut microbes to make poo transplants obsolete; the evolution of the calculator; and in our latest book review we discover the surprising pleasure of pondering questions we cannot answer.

This week in Cosmos Magazine 25 January 2016

LIGO chirp - Two black holes colliding

Cosmos is a leading literary science magazine, published in Australia but with a global reach. It makes the world of science accessible to everyone. At Cosmos, we aim to deliver the latest in science from a considered perspective. Online, we deliver weekly digital editions to our subscribers. Our editorial team, along with a bevy of contributors, collaborate to investigate the latest science news, discoveries, developments, events and more.

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