Double Helix

Looking for seriously fun science, technology, engineering, and maths news for your curious kids or tech-talented teens? We've got you covered! Inside every issue you'll find articles, activities, puzzles, comics, and prizes galore. Perfect reading for enquiring minds, CSIRO's Double Helix magazine is packed with news, features, fun experiments, giveaways and more. Each issue focuses on a different theme, from smells to spaceships and beyond! With clear language and eye-catching design, the content promotes critical thinking, strengthens literacy skills and is the perfect fuel to spark or sustain an interest in STEM. Double Helix is published eight times a year. It is ideal for 8 to 13-year-olds and enjoyed by older readers as well.

Double Helix • Double Helix Issue 71

HELIX HQ

ON THE DOUBLE

RECORD-BREAKING BIRD! • Look up in the air. It’s a bird – it’s a plane – it’s… actually, it IS a bird! A world-record-breaking bird.

A SWEET SOLUTION TO POLLUTION • With less than 10 per cent of all plastic being recycled, scientists have developed a way of transforming a waste ‘problem’ into a deliciously sweet ‘solution’.

SEAWEED SANITISER • Migrating humpback whales are a familiar sight along the Australian coast in winter. At this time, people sometimes see humpbacks rolling around in seaweed on the ocean’s surface.

A CLUCKIN’ GOOD TIME • How do you tell if chickens are enjoying themselves? Apparently, you just need to listen to them. A new study has found humans are surprisingly good at telling chicken moods just from their clucks.

eDNA IS EVERYWHERE • What if a simple scoop of seawater could tell you what’s living in the ocean nearby?

STAYING ALIVE

BABY SHARK! • Did you know that great white sharks give birth to live young, just like whales and people? But no one has seen a living, newborn great white…until now!

BY THE NUMBERS: WHALE SHARKS

FISHY SEA SONGS • Researchers are investigating a musical mystery – which fish are singing in the ocean off Western Australia?

UNDERWATER HOTSPOT • Would you brave 10-metre waves to map the seafloor near Antarctica? Scientists aboard CSIRO research vessel, RV Investigator, did just that – and it paid off!

AN EGG-CITING DISCOVERY • A newly observed skate nursery is helping scientists understand important habitat for Southern Ocean skates – fish that are closely related to stingrays.

VIRTUAL REALITY DREAMING • Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel back in time? A new virtual reality (VR) learning tool allows you to experience life on Kaurna Country near modern-day Adelaide, more than 20,000 years ago!

TURTLE TROUBLES • Sea turtles are at risk from plastic pollution, which we can easily see. But what about the risks we can’t see?

BRIDGING CONTINENTS THE CABLES CONNECTING OUR PLANET • For many of us, the internet just happens – letting us do our homework or play videogames with friends. But video chatting with someone on the other side of the world requires most of the trip to be through cables, with some deep under the sea.

SEALS, HUMANS, BATS AND MAPS! • Seals, humans, bats and maps – what’s the link? But before we tell you, where are we? Antarctica! And more precisely – the deep ocean off the coast of the icy continent.

WONKY HOLES • A NORTH QUEENSLAND FISHING YARN TELLS OF MYSTERIOUS, GIANT VENTS OF FRESH WATER ON THE OCEAN FLOOR, WHERE THE FISH ALWAYS BITE. SCIENTISTS SAID THIS WAS TOO STRANGE TO BE TRUE – BUT WE STILL DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT’S DOWN THERE.

POSTER

Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica

Aussie STEM Stars: Maddy McAllister, Shipwreck Detective

NEW REVIEWERS NEEDED!

TIME-TRAVELLING SHED

KEEPING PACE WITH EARTH’S AIR AND OCEANS • NASA is adding to the...