Peter Spinks explores the curiosities of science in his weekly column for The Age's education section. Visit his full archive of articles here.
Peter Spinks Dinosaur remains from volcanic flows are teaching us about the origins of flight.
Peter Spinks A new dinosaur species is possibly the oldest-known close relation of T.rex.
Peter Spinks The discoveries continue to shape theories about whether there was ever life on Mars.
Peter Spinks Once thought to be the stuff of science fiction, scientists are learning more about these mysterious rogues.
Peter Spinks Spacecraft such as the Voyager probes are expanding our celestial understanding.
Peter Spinks The discovery of plant fossils in Papua New Guinea is answering scientists' questions about the first Australians.
Peter Spinks So, it's official at last: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is the first man-made object to have left the solar system for the dark and mysterious realm of interstellar space.
Peter Spinks NASA spacecraft is the first man-made object to have left the solar system for the dark and mysterious realm of interstellar space.
Peter Spinks An out-of-the-ordinary black hole could give vital clues to how galaxies form and evolve.
Peter Spinks Physicist Lawrence Krauss explains how everything came from nothing.
Peter Spinks Some strains of algae can be converted into alternative renewable energy.
Peter Spinks From the remote vantage point of Saturn, planet Earth seems mighty small and insignificant. Yet the first interplanetary portrait to be taken in natural colour is a stark reminder of how alone and...
Peter Spinks Smile as space probe Cassini takes a photo of Earth from almost 1.5 billion km away.
Peter Spinks Between 7.27am and 7.42am tomorrow, NASA's space probe will snap the earth from 1.5 billion kilometres.
Peter Spinks Scientists are finding more about destructive links between earthquakes and tsunamis.
Peter Spinks It seems to be omni-present yet scientists have little idea of what dark matter is.
Peter Spinks Southern bottletail squid studies may advance our knowledge of sexual reproduction.
Peter Spinks Of all the other-worldly places in the universe, few are odder than rogue exoplanets - planets outside our solar system that have been ejected by their parent stars and now roam through interstellar...
Peter Spinks Astrophysicists know full well that the biggest of Saturn's retinue of moons, Titan, is one of our solar system's most mysterious worlds.
Peter Spinks Surely, you might assume, we cannot be alone in the universe. Exoplanets are found almost weekly.