Cosmos is an Australian popular science magazine that is published six times a year. It is subtitled "the science of everything" and is described as "a magazine of ideas, science, society and the future".

The magazine was established in November 2004 by the Australian neuroscientist and entrepreneur Dr Alan Finkel

Alan Finkel

Alan Simon Finkel AM FTSE PhD is a neuroscientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 2007, he was appointed as the new Chancellor of Monash University, a position he commenced on January 1, 2008....

, magazine publishing executive Kylie Ahern and science journalists Wilson da Silva

Wilson da Silva

Wilson da Silva is an Australian science journalist and editor who has worked in magazines, newswires, newspapers, television and online. He is editor and co-founder of Cosmos, Australia's #1 science magazine, and Cosmos Online, the country's #1 science news website.He has been an on-air science...

 and Elizabeth Finkel. Launched in 2005, it has won 44 journalism and industry awards, including Magazine of the Year in both 2009 and 2006 , Editor of the Year in 2006 and 2005, and Best Internet Site at Australia's Bell Awards for Publishing Excellence, as well as a Reuters/World Conservation Union Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting, an Earth Journalism Award and the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award.

The magazine is published by Luna Media, a boutique publishing house in Sydney which was named Best Small Publisher at the same awards ceremony in 2009 and 2006.

Writers whose work have featured include Margaret Wertheim

Margaret Wertheim

Margaret Wertheim is a science writer and the author of books on the cultural history of physics.Wertheim is the author of three books that collectively consider the role of theoretical physics in the cultural landscape of modern Western society. The first, Pythagoras' Trousers , is a history of...

, Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond

Jared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA...

, Tim Flannery

Tim Flannery

Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....

, Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...

, Edward O. Wilson, Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku

is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, the co-founder of string field theory, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science...

, Susan Greenfield

Susan Greenfield

Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords. Greenfield, whose specialty is the physiology of the brain, has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.Greenfield is...

, Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...

, Paul Davies

Paul Davies

Paul Charles William Davies, AM is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, currently a professor at Arizona State University as well as the Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science...

, Simon Singh

Simon Singh

Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....

 and Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...

.

Cosmos is produced in Australia and sold internationally, with a news-stand presence in New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong. In June 2006, the magazine launched Cosmos Online, a daily Internet news and features service. It also produces a weekly email newsletter, Cosmos Update, and the educational supplement Cosmos Teacher's Notes, which reach 65% of Australian high schools.

The magazine was the originator of HELLO FROM EARTH

Hello From Earth

HELLO FROM EARTH is an Interstellar Radio Message . It was sent from the 70-meter dish at NASA Deep Space Station 43 , at midday on Friday 28 August 2009...

, a web-based initiative to send messages from the public, each just 160 characters in length, to Gliese 581d, the (then) nearest Earth-like planet outside the Solar System

Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

. Created as a science communication exercise for 2009 National Science Week

National Science Week

National Science Week refers to series of science-related events for the general public which are held in a specific countries during a designated week of the year...

 in Australia, it collected nearly 26,000 messages that were beamed by NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex is a ground station that is located in Australia at Tidbinbilla in the Paddys River valley, about half an hour's drive out of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. The complex is part of the Deep Space Network run by NASA's Jet Propulsion...

 on 28 August 2009.

Similar titles

The name Cosmos has also been used for other magazines, including two different U.S. science fiction magazines between 1953 and 1954 (4 issues) and 1977 (4 issues), and a British astronomy journal launched in April 2005 and produced in association with the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

.

External links

• Cosmos, official website