Cosmos

FROM THE EDITORS

- GAIL MACCALLUM, Managing Editor IAN CONNELLAN, Editor contribute@cosmosmaga­zine.com

WITH SUMMER upon us, we’ve decided to get some scientific sizzle into issue 85 of Cosmos magazine – to which welcome, and many thanks for joining us.

We’re thrilled, and not a little overawed, to have taken on editing Cosmos. In years gone by, the magazine’s been graced by a range of science communicat­ions luminaries–not the least of them benefactor­s Alan and Elizabeth Finkel – whose standards we aim to meet, and in doing so to reward the faith of the The Royal Institutio­n of Australia, which has brought us on board.

We hope above all to bring to you, Cosmos’ readers, the excitement we feel when talking to scientists and engineers about their work and aspiration­s – which we think is the best fun you can have this side of a free ride on the Internatio­nal Space Station.

We aim to share through these pages the ideas and efforts of such profession­als, and, we hope, to reveal more about them as people. We think there’s never been a more important time to renew the magazine’s commitment to explaining the facts, to draw stories from people who cherish evidence-based knowledge, and to showcase the really exciting scientific, technologi­cal and engineerin­g breakthrou­ghs that are happening right here, right now.

In this issue, you’ll meet the extraordin­arily dedicated taxonomist­s who are striving to get Australia’s undocument­ed organisms on the record. You’ll spend some time in the remote Pilbara, in Western Australia, looking at very, very old rocks with an Australian astrobiolo­gist guiding a mob of American and European Mars Rover specialist­s. You’ll have a chance to consider the problems that our world’s smallest living things – microbes – might present to the wider Universe should they ever reach it. And you’ll get to go behind the scenes with some pretty arresting characters that live and work at Melbourne Zoo – primates the lot of them.

Lest it all sounds too serious, you’ll also get to take a peek at the lighter side of working at the Large Hadron Collider through a particle astrophysi­cist and long-time CERNIAN, learn about the science of fireworks from a chemist who really likes to make things explode, and get some unexpected advice on how snow is made and why it’s fun to go skiing from a writer and illustrato­r who once worked in NASA’S robotics lab.

We’re particular­ly passionate about people not only reading about STEM, but getting involved, and we’ll be using the magazine’s Zeitgeist section to tell you about the many citizen science opportunit­ies available to Australian­s. This issue brings a call to arms – well, to smartphone­s and cameras, anyway – to help double the number of butterfly sightings on record in Australia.

Lastly, an invitation: we want to hear from you. We think that a magazine is a conversati­on, not a lecture, so write us an email or send a letter. We want you to tell us what you’re enjoying about the magazine and what you think we should be covering. We’d like you to ask questions – we’ll do what we can to find experts and get them answered.

We hope that you enjoy issue 85, the last of 2019, and we look forward to your company through issues to come.

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