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Written by Neha Karl Life has never been easy for penguins, and changing weather patterns are creating more challenges for some colonies. The coast of Argentina is home to the world’s largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins.

Written by Neha Karl On 22 January 2014, Earth received a selfie from Mars Rover Opportunity – proving she is still going strong 10 years after she first landed on Mars! The image from Opportunity was taken with her panoramic camera, and showed the rover covered in dust.

Written by Neha Karl Can you imagine a force so powerful that it can pull in light? It may seem unreal, but this force exists in our Universe as a black hole, and nothing can escape its pull!

A massive storm called Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines earlier this month. One of the largest storms ever observed, it has caused widespread destruction in the island nation. Typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes are all different names for the same thing: a particularly violent type of tropical storm. Which name it is given depends on where […]

On a dark night, far from the Equator, you might be lucky enough to spot an aurora: a shimmering, colourful glow in the sky. This natural light show has captivated people for thousands of years. While it is mostly associated with cold, dark nights near the poles, auroras have a much brighter, warmer origin: the […]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released the first part of its latest report. It might not sound like a big deal – most of us have written a report at some point for school or work. Yet we aren’t talking any old paper.

Imagine you have a massive pile of rocks. You think there might be gold in the rocks, not much, but enough to make some money. Now it might be easier to find out how much hidden gold there is.

Welcome to Double Helix magazine’s Q&A section – Microscope. We take a close look at small questions full of big ideas. Q: I want to know which is hotter, fire or lava? Or are they both the same?

Australia’s most powerful supercomputer – Raijin – has been officially launched. Imagine arming the population of Earth with calculators and setting them to work for 20 years. Raijin is so fast it could complete the same number of calculations in one hour!

The idea there are living organisms, as yet undiscovered by humans, living on other planets, has fascinated people for years. The search for alien life is not just a science fiction topic – it’s part of a scientific field called astrobiology.