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3-D printing smash-proof ceramics for hypersonic aircraft; the strange behaviour of the biggest explosion ever recorded; the lethal chemistry in Agatha Christie's crime novels; controlling gut microbes to make poo transplants obsolete; the evolution of the calculator; and in our latest book review we discover the surprising pleasure of pondering questions we cannot answer.

Machine vision that can peer around corners using laser light; using microbes that feed on the dead to determine time of death; why people sneeze in sunlight; testing spacecraft and cargo before leaving for the red planet; banning killer robots; and a new book looks at how to survive the possible impacts of climate change.

Elon Musk's hyperloop concept for high-speed passenger travel; episodic care versus preventative care; and portraits of three young biologists and what inspires them.

Vojtech Novotny came for the insects, now he's a champion for the people of Papua New Guinea; the search for patterns and symmetry in science; and adults have all it takes to master a new language, according to a new book on cognitive science.

The humble maths genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose extraordinary ability has become the stuff of legend; an homage to James Clerk Maxwell, perhaps the most important physicist after Einstein and Newton, who discovered light was a wave; and portraits of three young scientists and what inspires them.

Photonics and the new age of light; half comet and half asteroid - the bright spots on Ceres explained; tracing the disastrous spread of Australia's feral cats; and why sleepy lizards avoid their family.

Five batteries that will take us into the future; the outcome if the Arctic permafrost thaws; cleaning oil spills with blotting paper derived from a common cosmetics ingredient; the forces behind Jupiter's wild weather; a mathematical colouring book and a sci-fi anthology in our holiday science reading reviews; and a look at a range of 3D printers for home or office use.

Mars' merciless crushing of its own moon Phobos; the mechanism that allows birds to see the Earth's magnetic field; fixing bad science by independently verifying research; belief systems and the brain according to neuroscientist and atheist Sam Harris; and we check out six gloriously illustrated science books on the Cosmos Christmas wishlist.

Planetary scientists spot a baby gas giant hatching from a cloud; the four bugs that protect us from asthma; a sea creature with a hundred eyes; growing microflowers in the lab; an early warning system for solar flares; and a new book celebrates the CSIRO's marine research vessel Southern Surveyor.

Earth's water could have been here since its planetary birth; why living on a dairy farm cuts your allergy risk - and how that finding could lead to an asthma vaccine; a new mathematics formula confirms Pluto is not a planet; using loudspeakers to manipulate objects in mid-air could lead to scalpel-free surgery; and Apollo veteran Buzz Aldrin shares his vision for Mars.

The correlation between selenium shortages and species collapse; dinosaurs were neither warm nor cold-blooded but somewhere in-between; how some corals adapt to live through a heat wave; the gender imbalance in drug testing; how the solar wind has made Mars a cold desert; and Dr Karl considers the benefits of bad language.

The sophisticated hunting strategies of electric eels; new research suggests life emerged a mere 300 million years after the planet formed; how a solar sail uses photons from the Sun; a new material that absorbs up to 99% of visible light; and time to meet the family in the latest BBC Earth documentary series Monkeys Revealed.

One hundred years on and still ahead of its time - celebrating Einstein's theory of general relativity; new plastic skin could one day provide feedback to the brain from prosthetic limbs; two stars locked in a cosmic kiss; we check out five of the best new books on the Einstein centennial; and breathing, brainstems and bears in our latest Lab Talk with neurophysiologist David Farmer.

The latest discoveries from the Cassini-Huygens mission; a precise new way of determining temperature using caesium atoms; rising star of social media science Derek Muller and his YouTube channel Veritasium; molecular biologists win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for identifying the DNA repair kit; Alan Finkel questions whether the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos is worth the effort; and we meet the winners of Australia's premier science prizes.

The peculiar habits of neutrinos that led to a Nobel Prize; treatments that use a patient's own immune system to attack cancer; genius mathematician Emmy Noether laid the basis for a new approach to physics; a new book examines the origins of Australia's native dog; and what came first, cells or viruses?

The one-two punch that killed off the dinosaurs; microbes in Chile's Atacama Desert might hold clues about life on Mars; drugs that can outwit tropical parasites earn their discoverers the Nobel Prize; the number that's long been associated with beauty in art and nature; and learning about robotics with DIY robot kits.

The virus that could help stop HIV; the Parkes radio telescope's 11-year search for gravitational waves; the ethics of designer babies; why the biggest galaxies keep getting bigger; Tim Flannery looks on the bright side in his latest book on climate change; and how to make science relevant for teenagers.

Self-healing plastics from NASA; a deceptively simple problem that has puzzled mathematicians for decades; enhancing solar cell efficiency with the ancient Japanese art of kirigami; treating tissue wasting in cancer patients; research into what whale numbers have to do with climate change; we review a droll history of inventors and inventions and more...

An interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson; turning carbon dioxide into a useful gas; a paint that can identify metal corrosion; why some animals have vertical pupils and others horizontal; and a new microscopy technique allows us to see the glue that holds molecules together.

Moon rocks tell the story of a fiery youth; the changing polar landscape; New Horizons' next target beyond Pluto; why IQ test scores have been creeping upwards for a century; how vacuum decay could wipe out the Universe; we review the second season of Redesign My Brain and more...