Do we know how long it took the Sun to form?
While there is consensus that our Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a molecular cloud of gas and dust, less has been known about how long the formation of the star…
INTERVIEW: Talking telescopes with the Director of new IMAX movie ‘Deep Sky’
Deep Sky is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn: a new film which uses the scale of giant IMAX screens to take audiences on a journey to the beginning of time and space,…
Synchrotron – Australia’s great ring of light
Greg Le Blanc and his team are some 22km south-east of the CBD in Melbourne, working underground in the middle of the night. In an enclosed room they huddle over monitor screens, while…
A one-way ticket to Keplar-20b
Could we ever get home from a super-Earth? It’s hard enough for huge rockets to provide the energy required to launch into orbit from Earth. But what if the field of gravity was…
Why doesn’t a dishwasher dry plastic?
After a dishwasher cycle, the plates and glasses are usually dry, whereas plastic boxes and cups remain wet. The difference is due to the different materials’ ability to absorb heat, also known as…
Land of science and discovery
Antarctica seems so unwelcoming that it has awakened the imagination of scientists and adventurers. One hundred years ago, it was almost impossible to live there, but today the endless ice deserts of the…
Why is everyone talking about the Higgs boson?
Tonight scientists at the CERN research centre will release a press statement explaining whether or not they have found the Higgs boson. Although most of us are not too familiar with this hypothetical…
