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 Cosmos Magazine A new bottom lineWhat is the collective impact of 6.7 billion human beings on one planet? David Suzuki ponders the problem of exponential population growth.  Are we alone?There could be more than 200 extraterrestrial civilisations humming away in our galaxy right now. Cosmos wonders where they are.  Weird worldsCould planets made of diamond or iron exist? While hundreds of exoplanets have already been discovered, it could just be a matter of time before we find some truly bizarre ones.  The mysterious colour purpleChina's Terracotta Army was unearthed in 1974, but the mystery of a pigment on the warriors continues to intrigue archaeologists, chemists and physicists today.  Beware the spinal trapRead the article that got Singh sued by chiropractors: Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all, but research suggests the therapy has mixed results and can be lethal.  Why a carbon tax is betterWhy create a complex new market for emissions trading, asks Alan Finkel, when a carbon tax would be simpler, fairer and deliver immediate benefits for the environment.  Tipping point?Are we approaching a juncture where technology will accelerate exponentially and we'll merge with machines? We review the radical concept of the singularity.  We are the robotsA powerful artificial intelligence won't spring from a sudden technological 'big bang', it's already evolving symbiotically along with us, says AI leader Rodney Brooks.  Black harvest: the battle against wheat rustA global scourge is spreading that could devastate food supplies. To fix the crisis comes Norman Borlaug, the man who saved the world before ... and needs to again.  Why geeks can save the worldThe average person looks at the numbers of disease victims in Africa and goes numb. Bill Gates looks at them and runs a moral algorithm.  Cosmic collisionsThere's a suspicion among scientists that, not only may we be able to detect parallel universes, but that they may occasionally collide with our own universe.  Sacred stones: unravelling StonehengeStonehenge is one of the world's best known monuments. But why it was built remains a riddle – one that the first archaeological dig in 40 years sought to solve.  Ice world: the catalyst for life?800 million years ago, a dramatic climatic lurch may have left our planet entombed in ice. But this snowball Earth could also have been the catalyst for complex life.  Survival of the human speciesAlmost all of the species that have ever lived are now extinct. Could we be next?  Civilisations: why they failEven great and powerful civilisations have fallen because of choices they made to ignore their impact on the environment. 
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