Series
Are time travel and teleporting just pipe dreams? We explain
Dive in with us as we sift fact from fiction in a special Explainer series. From de-extincting mammoths to making super soldiers in a lab ... the future is closer than you might think.
- Explainer
‘Beam me up, Scotty’: Will we ever teleport or travel the universe?
... in which we travel down wormholes, surf warp drives and get our heads around the real-life concept of “spooky action at a distance”.
- Sherryn Groch and Liam Mannix
- Explainer
Even the Pentagon is looking for aliens. What are the odds of finding them?
Is there anybody out there (or, at least, anything)? The search for alien life has finally come out of the shadows. We look at how UFOs went mainstream.
- Sherryn Groch
- Explainer
Curing cancer, designer babies, supersoldiers: How will gene-editing change us?
Saving lives or playing God? Why are the stakes so high in genetic engineering?
- Sherryn Groch
- Explainer
‘Die as a human or live forever as a cyborg’: Will robots rule the world?
Will nanobots and brain chips help us thrive – or could cyborgs wipe us out?
- Sherryn Groch and Tim Biggs
- Explainer
‘The de-extinction club’: Could we resurrect Tassie tigers and mammoths?
New technology means we may soon be able to turn back the clock on extinction. How would scientists do it? And what happens when you put a once-extinct animal back in the wild?
- Sherryn Groch
- Explainer
‘I wanted to see my dad again’: Is time travel possible?
Marty McFly went Back to the Future but what do scientists think about time travel in the real world? Is it possible? And what are the rules of time and space?
- Sherryn Groch
Other series
Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026
This year’s laugh fest has kicked off, with more than 2000 performers stepping up to the mic. Here, our writers take a closer look
- 9 stories
Hate of origin: Inside football’s most intense rivalry
Essendon and Hawthorn have hated each other for more than 40 years, from some old-fashioned thuggery and a fake drug scandal in the mid-80s to last year’s failed bid by the Hawks to poach the Bombers’ captain.
- 5 stories