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news features opinion fiction reviews gadgets media room	Online news Saturday, 2 January 2010 Ten things that cause mass extinctions It's normal for a species to go extinct, but occasionally many thousands go extinct at the same time in a 'mass extinction' - here are ten possible causes. read more Eight spin-offs from space Sending stuff into space is not cheap and NASA gets through vast sums of money. How do they justify the expense? One way is to highlight the many technologies developed for the space program, but which now benefit society. read more Other news Eight creatures that live on the edge The top ten feature articles of 2009 Eight asteroids and comets Eight weird instances of animal sex Eight designs stolen from nature Top science news stories of 2009 View all news COSMOS magazine: current issue On sale in newsstands now! COSMIC ROULETTE Was Charles Darwin the genius behind the great revolution in science, or did he merely state the obvious? Richard Conniff reads between the lines. Also in this issue: THE END OF EVOLUTION - The forces that drive evolution are disappearing, says Steve Jones, who argues that we are undergoing a 'grand averaging', totally new in history. Also in this issue: SNOWBALL EARTH - 800 million years ago, a climate lurch left Earth entombed in ice and almost devoid of life. But could it have been the catalyst for complex life? Subscribe now to Cosmos magazine! View the full contents Online features Dead Sea needs world help to survive by Ahmad Khatib \| The Dead Sea may soon shrink to a lifeless pond as Middle East political strife blocks vital measures needed to halt the decay of the world's lowest and saltiest body of water. read more Global warming: growing threat to arctic reindeer As rising temperatures and development strip the Arctic of food and grazing land for reindeer, so too do the indigenous Sami people risk the loss of an important part of their culture. read more Read more features Selected COSMOS magazine features Islands of fire by Heather Catchpole \| New Zealand, on the southern fringe of the Pacific's Ring of Fire, is a simmering hotbed of volcanic activity, says Heather Catchpole. While eruptions have largely avoided populous areas, much of Auckland is actually sitting on a ticking time bomb. read more Of mice and men by Mark Davis \| Immunology is stuck in the lab and needs a major overhaul to remain relevant. Now is the time for a study of the immune system on a grand scale, something akin to the Human Genome Project. read more Read more features Fiction Proof of Life Running an artificial intelligence inside your head is all fun and games until someone loses an I. read more Under The Shouting Sky Saturn hung overhead, a great pastel yellow ball. It took a special kind of imagination to see the planet for what it really was. read more Read more fiction Reviews Science and Islam The Dark Ages, a period lasting one thousand years in the Western world that was devoid of art, literature, science and technology, coincided with the ‘golden age’ of Muslim thought. read more The Discovery of Global Warming The book begins with a few key scientists who have found unusual results within the murky, ill-defined field of climate and weather studies. read more Read more reviews	COSMOS newsletter! Sign up to the COSMOS newsletter Enter your email address Receive regular updates highlighting the latest in science from COSMOS. Unscientific poll Which scientific discipline do you find most interesting?: Physics and space Environment Maths Medicine Geology and palaeontology Biology Chemistry

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