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What’s the faintest touch you can feel? A feather on the back of your hand, a whispered breath in your ear? Scientists from CSIRO and Griffith University just built a device that feels much lighter touches – in fact, it’s the most sensitive force detector on the planet!

Inside most cells in your body, there’s a copy of your entire genetic code. It contains instructions that help build and maintain your body. If you imagine DNA in its double helix form, it’s a beautiful, perfect package. Except, maybe DNA doesn’t always look so perfect after all.

It’s that time of year again! The winner of the Abel prize, mathematics’ answer to the Nobel, has been announced. This year’s winner is Robert Langlands, a mathematician more famous for asking questions than answering them.

Stephen Hawking was widely regarded as one of the best physicists of our age, so it was a huge loss when he died on 14 March this year. Here are a few things you might not know about one of history’s most celebrated scientists.

Time keeping machines aren’t always built to last, but some do manage to stand the test of time. The Cronulla Clock Tower houses a clock that’s almost 250 years old, for example; the clock in England’s Salisbury Cathedral is still ticking 630 years after it was built.

Late last year, Jonathan Pace’s computer found something special. Jonathan is an electrical engineer who also manages computers for charities, so he has a lot of computers, but this one was nothing out of the ordinary. Except for one thing: the computer was running software from the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search

You’ve heard of rice and wheat. You may have heard of maize and quinoa. But have you heard of teff? This ancient grain has been feeding the people of Ethiopia for thousands of years. And thanks to the work of CSIRO, it might soon be feeding you too!

What’s 180 metres long, 30 metres wide, and travels between distant solar systems? No, it’s not a new NASA spacecraft. It’s a space rock known as ‘Oumuamua, and it’s the first known object from outside our solar system that has come to visit!

What’s the coldest thing in the universe? You may have heard of absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible. But a clever bit of mathematics has shown it might not be possible after all!

What kinds of shapes pack a flat surface with no gaps? Squares are great for floor tiles, and bees stick hexagons together. With a bit of work, you can get any triangle, no matter how stretched, to fit together without gaps. But what about pentagons? These five-sided shapes are awkward, but some types fit together.