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COVER STORY: A 25-page special report
GOODBYE EARTH
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WHY DO CIVILISATIONS FAIL?
Many last for hundreds of years but then collapse. It's now known that, in many cases, environmental factors were to blame. Is there anything we can learn, asks renowned U.S. scientist and author Jared Diamond.
SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES
Australia's top scientists gather at the Academy of Science to discuss the challenges facing our planet, our species and our future, and ask - could we be headed for extinction? David Salt reports.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Is humanity suicidal? One of the world's most eminent scientists, Edward O. Wilson, believes we are not. He takes a long term view of humanity and suggests ways we could turn the coming crisis around.
SAVING THE PLANET
Cosmos profiles clever initiatives around the world by companies, municipalities and nations, seeking to reduce their impact on the climate and prepare for global warming. By Bob Guntrip.
CLONE WARRIOR
She's a stem cell pioneer who first made therapeutic cloning of human cells a possibility. Now Melbourne's Megan Munsie is pushing for researchers to tackle the next high frontier: using human cloning to rapidly accelerate research on a range of diseases and make organ donations a thing of the past. By Elizabeth Finkel.
No one expected to find a new species of early humans in Indonesia; and certainly not the remains of a pygmy people with a morphed evolutionary history. Archaeologist Mike Morwood tells what it was like to make the discovery.
Coveted by collectors and an inspiration to illustrators, the influence of sci-fi cinema poster art is still with us. Ray Edgar goes to the movies.
They come in their hundreds of thousands from around the world to see the latest in experimental aircraft designs; aviation writer Mary Grady visits Oshkosh.
Synchrotron radiation has allowed a long-lost work of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes to be rediscovered, hidden beneath a parchment re-used by a 12th-century monk. By chemist and author Len Fisher.
The Australian Institute of Sport's Louise Burke, nutritionist to elite athletes. Photography by Glenn Hunt.
Deepest, darkest Africa has what you can't find anywhere else - the world's largest population of chimpanzees. Vanessa Woods goes into the Congo.
News stories from the world of science that everyone else missed.
The humble telephone was an idea invented many times, and even patented twice on the same day. By Alice Trend.
Wildlife photography has been a secret passion of television production mogul Reg Grundy for 30 years; we feature his best.
"Remade", an extract from the upcoming book Glasshouse by one of the hottest science fiction writers of the day, Scotland's Charles Stross.
By putting buildings on giant roller skates, architects may have found the key to saving lives in earthquakes, says architect Norman Day.
In Mozambique, a partnership to free the country of the legacy of landmines has been formed - by man and rat. Florence Panoussian and Bob Guntrip explain.
Doctors could soon be prescribing drugs targeted at a person's particular genetic make-up, reveals Laurie Beckelman.
Whaling can be done just as sustainably as other forms of marine harvesting - if we remove our cultural blinkers, argues Jennifer Marohasy.
Dr Rod Moodie profiles Alopecia areatadisease, an ailment where the immune system attacks hair follicles, leaving bald patches.
Electronic trends that are ready to wear.
Humans have used drugs for thousands of years and, although deplored today, they may once have been essential to our survival, as Meredith F. Small explains.
Featuring Cosmos Pet of the Month, Pub Crawl, and the Trivia Quiz.
Unlikely as it may seem, there is such things as dugong 'hoons', and their existence may be the key to the survival of the species, says Nick Goldie.
Reviews of the latest books, DVDs and television programs.
Giant weta have been around for about 190 million years - and they're showing their age, reports Cristy Burne.
The only national guide to what's really going on in science.
The Asian tsunami was natural disaster on a huge scale; but an even bigger, badder tsunami appears imminent, says Robin McKie.
It was once among the hottest things in mobile music, and a rival for the audio cassette: remember the 8-track? Cristy Burne does.
A large red spot has appeared on Saturn's enigmatic moon, Titan, while below, lakes and valleys can be seen, reports Heather Catchpole.
Climate change is not the only fad in science that needs to be challenged, argue Richard Cooke and Dominic Knight of The Chaser.
