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Science Illustrated

Issue 83
Magazine

Science Illustrated delivers natural science, break through discoveries and an understanding of the world for the entire family. Packed with stunning photography and in-depth editorial it’s a visually spectacular gateway to the world looking into the beginning of life to distant objects in the universe.

Science Illustrated Australia

Reception staff: antenna installed at 400km altitude

Tunnel vision: geologists venture into frozen cave

Exoplanet improves the chance of an unknown Solar System planet • The orbit of an exoplanet 336 light years away from Earth may support the theory that our own Solar System is hiding a yet-undiscovered planet.

Dinosaurs sat and hatched their eggs • A unique fossil has finally convinced scientists that at least one group of dinosaurs did not just lay eggs and leave them, but hatched them like birds.

Intelligent robotic dog to explore Mars’ underground • A four-legged robot is learning how it might survey caves under the surface of Mars.

Unusual behaviour of the ozone hole above the South Pole • Scientists monitoring the ozone layer became concerned late in 2020 when the hole above Antarctica didn’t shrink as normal.

Living nerve cells talk to the brain • In the future, electrodes that stimulate the brain with small electric shocks could be replaced by living nerve cells that react to light. Experiments with rats are revealing the possibilities.

How wide is the universe? • “I have read that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, but that in size it is much wider than 13.8 billion light years. Is this true – and if so, how can it have got so large when nothing is able to travel faster than the speed of light?”

What is tetanus? • Both children and adults are vaccinated against tetanus, which can fracture bones and even prove lethal. But what causes tetanus?

Are insecticides harmful? • We use many kinds of chemicals to exterminate unwanted insects, but are the chemicals broken down naturally, or can they harm animals further down the food chain?

If I fire a bazooka, would I fly backwards from the recoil force? • On TV you see that even a handgun produces a powerful recoil force. A bazooka launches rockets, so how does the person holding it avoid being blasted backwards?

Could we use solar power to purify drinking water? • Efforts to desalinate or purify water by solar power have proven too inefficient to be practical – until now.

Can you distinguish a dingo from a wild dog by the colour of its coat? • Is the colour of a wild dog a reliable indication of how much of their DNA comes from dingoes and how much from feral dogs?

Is hand sanitiser only for skin? • Can I use hand sanitiser if I wear disposable gloves, or will I ruin them?

Can thallium kill? • In the Bond film Spectre, the bad guy Mr. White is poisoned with thallium, which makes him so sick that he ends up killing himself. Is the substance really that harmful?

How do rocks move on their own? • Rocks can rise from the ground in fields, and in various places around the world there are examples of rocks as heavy as 200kg apparently moving independently, even leaving tracks behind them. How can such heavy objects move unaided?

Diaphragm moves in involuntary rhythm

Where does the water go at low tide?

NEW VIEWS OF PLUTO • > Dark, frozen solid, lifeless – astronomers have never thought much of Pluto. But pictures from the New Horizons probe have shown us otherwise. Deposits of organic matter and cracks in the ice indicate a possible ocean under the crust. Perhaps life is thriving on the freezing outskirts of our Solar System.

Collision formed Pluto and its moons • More than four billion years ago, two ice worlds collided to form Pluto and its large moon of Charon. The cloud of...


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Frequency: Every other month Pages: 84 Publisher: Nextmedia Pty Ltd Edition: Issue 83

OverDrive Magazine

  • Release date: May 12, 2021

Formats

OverDrive Magazine

Languages

English

Science Illustrated delivers natural science, break through discoveries and an understanding of the world for the entire family. Packed with stunning photography and in-depth editorial it’s a visually spectacular gateway to the world looking into the beginning of life to distant objects in the universe.

Science Illustrated Australia

Reception staff: antenna installed at 400km altitude

Tunnel vision: geologists venture into frozen cave

Exoplanet improves the chance of an unknown Solar System planet • The orbit of an exoplanet 336 light years away from Earth may support the theory that our own Solar System is hiding a yet-undiscovered planet.

Dinosaurs sat and hatched their eggs • A unique fossil has finally convinced scientists that at least one group of dinosaurs did not just lay eggs and leave them, but hatched them like birds.

Intelligent robotic dog to explore Mars’ underground • A four-legged robot is learning how it might survey caves under the surface of Mars.

Unusual behaviour of the ozone hole above the South Pole • Scientists monitoring the ozone layer became concerned late in 2020 when the hole above Antarctica didn’t shrink as normal.

Living nerve cells talk to the brain • In the future, electrodes that stimulate the brain with small electric shocks could be replaced by living nerve cells that react to light. Experiments with rats are revealing the possibilities.

How wide is the universe? • “I have read that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, but that in size it is much wider than 13.8 billion light years. Is this true – and if so, how can it have got so large when nothing is able to travel faster than the speed of light?”

What is tetanus? • Both children and adults are vaccinated against tetanus, which can fracture bones and even prove lethal. But what causes tetanus?

Are insecticides harmful? • We use many kinds of chemicals to exterminate unwanted insects, but are the chemicals broken down naturally, or can they harm animals further down the food chain?

If I fire a bazooka, would I fly backwards from the recoil force? • On TV you see that even a handgun produces a powerful recoil force. A bazooka launches rockets, so how does the person holding it avoid being blasted backwards?

Could we use solar power to purify drinking water? • Efforts to desalinate or purify water by solar power have proven too inefficient to be practical – until now.

Can you distinguish a dingo from a wild dog by the colour of its coat? • Is the colour of a wild dog a reliable indication of how much of their DNA comes from dingoes and how much from feral dogs?

Is hand sanitiser only for skin? • Can I use hand sanitiser if I wear disposable gloves, or will I ruin them?

Can thallium kill? • In the Bond film Spectre, the bad guy Mr. White is poisoned with thallium, which makes him so sick that he ends up killing himself. Is the substance really that harmful?

How do rocks move on their own? • Rocks can rise from the ground in fields, and in various places around the world there are examples of rocks as heavy as 200kg apparently moving independently, even leaving tracks behind them. How can such heavy objects move unaided?

Diaphragm moves in involuntary rhythm

Where does the water go at low tide?

NEW VIEWS OF PLUTO • > Dark, frozen solid, lifeless – astronomers have never thought much of Pluto. But pictures from the New Horizons probe have shown us otherwise. Deposits of organic matter and cracks in the ice indicate a possible ocean under the crust. Perhaps life is thriving on the freezing outskirts of our Solar System.

Collision formed Pluto and its moons • More than four billion years ago, two ice worlds collided to form Pluto and its large moon of Charon. The cloud of...


Expand title description text