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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.

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.

You might not feel it, but it’s always raining – not raindrops, but cosmic rays. These high-energy particles from outer space could contain clues to some of the mysteries of the Universe.

Wherever you are in the world, you may have noticed a change in the weather. Over the course of a year, there are periodic changes in things like temperature, rainfall and the amount of daylight. These changes allow us to divide the year into seasons.

Have you ever wanted to know how to skip stones across a lake? Wonder no more! with our handy guide you’ll be skipping in no time!

A meteor caused quite a stir near Chelyabinsk in central Russia last week. While countless tiny meteors fly across Earth’s sky every day, this particular ‘shooting star’ was much more spectacular – video footage of the event shows a fireball streaking across the sky before exploding.

As this year draws to a close, let’s have a look at some of the big stories in science for 2012. In July, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider announced they may have found evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson.

What do the electromagnetic force, rip currents, humpback whales and lizards have in common? They are just some of the subjects of work that won Eureka Prizes this year.

Get ready to build your own paper model of the International Space Station (ISS).

Written by Sarah Kellett When the rover Curiosity landed on Mars on 6 August (AEST), Australia was listening. Between hitting the atmosphere and landing safely, there were ‘seven minutes of terror’. Then, mission scientists heard the good news.