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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 […]

Written by Sarah Kellett Bottles of champagne may send corks sky high, but spacecraft take cork as far as Mars. Their success depends on it. Cork reached new heights as part of the protective aeroshell that insulated the Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity from the intense heat of entering the Martian atmosphere.

Written by Justin McGuire This activity may splash some water around, so try it over a sink or outside.

Look around the room you’re in now. Imagine trying to accurately map out the details in the room. Now consider trying to map out the entire building. It sounds time consuming, but Zebedee technology can map whole buildings in minutes.

Welcome to Double Helix magazine’s Q&A section – Microscope. We take a close look at small questions full of big ideas. Q: I would like to know how a Higgs boson gives other particles their mass?

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: What is the weight of a rainbow?

Atoms – we know that they’re small. But what do they actually look like? Recent experiments suggest that some atoms have a surprising shape. To understand what an atom might look like, we need to know what they’re made of.

It’s a question that millions of people ask every day: ‘What’s the time?’ Knowing the time is an essential part of everyday life and important to scientific research as well.

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.