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 Cosmos Online The nature of warLandmines, chemical agents and hunting for bushmeat all take a heavy toll on wildlife during war, but on occasion animals can fare surprisingly well in times of conflict. What can we learn from these examples?  Grapes of wrathAustralia's renowned red wines result from a happy union of the right soil and the right climate. But what will happen as global warming starts to heat things up?  Unnatural selectionThe power and beauty of the natural world is everywhere in the wilds of Africa, as is the possibility of tragedy and death.  Slicing the cost of solar powerThe expense of photovoltaic cells has prevented their widespread use, but a raft of new technologies is pushing their prices down. One of them is solar slivers.  Demise of the koala?Extreme drought, ferocious bushfires and expanding urban development are exacting a heavy toll on Australia's koalas and might push the species towards extinction in the wild within a decade.  Going deep into fissionShe spent six weeks eating, breathing and sleeping nuclear science for a Cosmos supplement on OPAL, Australia's brand new research reactor. Here Heather steps us through her journey deep into a nuclear reactor.  'Bear Mother' reveals a barely-known speciesBeing pelted by falling rocks and wrestling with mountain bears hasn't put off an intrepid young conservationist who is the first to track and radio-tag dwindling populations of the Formosan black bear.  Deadly TB rises againTuberculosis may seem like a Victorian-era illness to many in the developed world. However - despite the fact it has been readily curable for half a century - someone, somewhere in the world, will have died from it in the time it takes you to read this sentence.  Requiem for a fishThey can live for over a century, but overfishing has driven the remarkable orange roughy to the brink. What can we learn from their desperate plight?  Mystery of the dying beesSomething mysterious is killing honey bees, and even as billions are dropping dead across North America, researchers are scrambling to find answers and save one of the most important crop pollinators on Earth.  The race for Branson's millionsAs if we didn’t have enough incentive to tackle climate change, Richard Branson is offering US$25 million to anyone who can come up with an effective means of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Cosmos Online considers some of the contenders.  Climate pornHeadlines scream of rising seas and violent weather, the terrifying upshot of human-caused climate change. But are such dire predictions scaring the public into cowering inaction?  A few good virusesViruses generally get a bad rap, but in laboratories around the world, these miniscule hijackers are themselves being hijacked to treat some of humanity’s most feared diseases.  Extra! Extra! New science breakthrough!The process of science is far less linear than the media's image of a neat series of breakthroughs suggests.  Australia should lead the energy revolutionAustralia is at the forefront of the devastating impact of climate change and must undergo an energy revolution to survive, says Australian scientist and author Tim Flannery. 
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