WINGS OF DESIRE
It's been a staple of sci-fi fantasies for decades: cars that take off, soar into the air and land just about anywhere. But how far are we from the dream? Mary Grady looks at some of the best contenders, including the Moller M400 Skycar, Urban Aero's X-Hawk, as well as the more conventional gyrocopter-based candidates you can buy today. |
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MASS KILLER
It's the nightmare scenario health workers fear, but are nevertheless preparing for - the day when the next flu pandemic arrives, and millions will die. Alex Wilde prepares for the worst.
THE MANY FACES OF ALBERT EINSTEIN
How could one man be genius, secular saint, pacifist, humanitarian, indifferent parent, jokester, poet, dreamer, musician, world saver, father of the bomb, loyal friend, flirt, and fraud? Brad Lemley delves into the tangled world of Einstein the man.
THE ICE MAIDENS
Margaret Wertheim writes from the barren badlands of Antarctica's deserts where a hardy band of scientists battle gruelling conditions to advance our understanding of the planet.
POWER AND PASSION
She's an electrifying speaker and a catalyst for change: Susan Greenfield is a scientist with myriad places to go and never quite enough time, Elizabeth Finkel reveals.
For Ian Frazer, inventing a vaccine for cancer was reward enough for 25 years of research, but then a Eureka Prize simply sweetened the success.
As the physicists who worked on the Manhattan Project watched the detonation of the first atomic bomb, the realisation of the power of their work hit them with force. Story by Marc Lavine.
He's a man with big ideas about very small objects, from time travel to dinosaur embryos: he's Frank Caruso, nanoscientist.
Throughout the northern summer, Germany has been in a frenzy of contrition and celebration for its most famous expatriate scientist: the great Albert Einstein. Michael Dumiak reports from Berlin.
The news stories everyone else missed. Edited by Be Bonham.
What's 44 per cent of 936? Before you reach for the calculator, Sarah Belfield asks how you would cope without it.
From the drip of a tap to the flow of gas through space, the science of fluid dynamics is both intricate and beautiful.
The depths of Antarctica's Lake Pell were even weirder than they had imagined. Original fiction by Australia's Robert Hood.
Slipping a set of skis onto the whole building has solved many problems for Britain's Antarctic base, says Anneloes van Gaalen.
Featuring cartoons, weird news, a trivia quiz, a pub with that sinking feeling and our magazine's own Pet of the Month. Edited by Sara Phillips.
Forget petrol prices. Alex Wilde warns that frequent flyers have more worry about - cosmic radiation from space mutating their genes.
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue that every embryo destroyed is a potential human being. But all human cells have that capacity, argues Ronald Bailey.
Rob Moodie looks at what leprosy is all about.
Technology that's ready to wear. Edited by a guy who sure likes his gadgets, Tim Dean.
Jan McGirk reveals that the jungles of Borneo are a biologist's dream, with hundreds of new species awaiting discovery.
Reviews of the latest books, DVDs and television programs, and edited by the incorrigible Bob Guntrip.
The Holy Cross toad could see us shedding those Band-Aids in favour of some old-fashioned frog glue, reports Kate Holdsworth.
Highlights of the best science events in Australia and New Zealand.
Our nearest evolutionary cousin may be just about to have his genome read; Michael Dumiak follows the Neanderthal.
When he predicted the possibility, Einstein thought they were unlikely ever to be found. And now 'Einstein Rings' have been, as Fred Watson reveals.
Science is too constrained by the burden of proof: what we need is scientific data that tells us what we want to hear, says Nick Backstrom.
