How It Works

In this image, an abseiler can be seen descending towards the eruption of one of the world’s largest lava lakes. More than 1,000 miles off the east coast of Australia lies the country of Vanuatu, an archipelago of over 80 islands spanning almost 5,00

Sitting politely on top of a deep-sea jellyfish, this female argonaut was hitching a ride. They’re often seen riding on driftwood or the occasional jellyfish, with the stinging cells protecting them from potential predators in transit. When female ar

People who carry a rare gene variant are about half as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people who carry a different version of the gene, a new study has found. Researchers have started to unravel exactly how this genetic quirk might protec

In 2010, hundreds of people gathered at a dock in Kiel, Germany, to witness the unveiling of the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, a solar-powered catamaran that was set to be the first of its kind to circumnavigate the globe. It took one year, seven months an

The internal components of a modern car can be tricky to pinpoint at the best of times – and once they’ve been subjected to a high-speed impact, the task becomes even more difficult. That’s a problem if you’re a crash researcher who wants to examine

Today you can virtually visit almost any street or landmark in the world, viewing an accurately mapped layout of its placement on the planet. When navigating new roads, real-time updates about weather and traffic conditions can keep us constantly in

During the last ice age, humans ventured into two vast and unknown continents: North and South America. For nearly a century, researchers thought they knew how this wild journey occurred. The first people to cross the Bering Land Bridge, a massive sw

If the asteroid belt is indeed a planet that didn’t get the chance to form properly, you could be mistaken for thinking that it wouldn’t have made much of a planet in the first place. The asteroid belt stretches from just past Mars beyond the orbit o

Scientists have taken the next big stride in nuclear fusion technology with the switch-on of the Japanese Torus-60 Super Advanced (JT-60SA), the current record holder for the world’s largest tokamak. Situated at Japan’s National Institutes for Quantu

If you stand in front of a mirror and open your mouth wide, at the back of your throat you should be able to see two pink lumps of tissue poking out from the flesh at the sides. These are your tonsils, which are vital tools of the immune system. Tons

Keratin is a protein that adds strength to many of your body’s hard and soft external tissues. It is predominantly found in the hair, nails and outer layer of skin, but is also in many other glands and organs. The molecule is much tougher than others

Around 40 lives are lost in the Australian Outback every year. It’s a land that only some of the most resilient of Earth’s plants and animals are capable of calling home. Aboriginal tribes have mastered survival in the Outback over the course of 65,0

Between 10 and 25 miles above our heads in the stratosphere, there is a layer of oxygen dedicated to blocking dangerous forms of solar radiation, called the ozone layer. Along with visible light, the Sun also emits rays of radiation in the form of ul

In seawater worldwide, microscopic organisms called plankton are bobbing along with the current. Plankton are vital for maintaining balance, not only in marine ecosystems, but also in regulating the global climate. Plankton can be divided into two di

For around 12,000 years, humans have been deliberately sowing seeds to grow plants for our species to benefit from. It’s a practice that enables communities to settle in one place and claim a patch of land as their home. Stone, bone and wood were fir

Many sports in which you throw, aim or knock down objects also require you to collect the items and reset the playing zone. But anyone who has tried their hand at indoor bowling will have seen the mechanical efficiency in which a strike is cleaned up

Many have grappled with this question since the 1930s, when it became widely accepted that black holes might exist. Einstein’s theory of general relativity tells us that all mass deforms space and time, causing paths taken by particles to bend toward

Find the following words TIME MAP OUTBACK TONSILS PLANKTON SOLAR GARDENING BOWLING FUSION PLANET NATIVE CAR Hint: Ship-sinking salad item A See if you can find all six changes between the images below Q1 Which isn’t a state of matter? ● Solid ● Gas ●

This simple experiment shows how you can make water defy gravity within the laws of physics 50 centimetres of knitting yarn A cereal bowl A sandwich bag A clothes peg A small rock A lipped baking tray Water If you’re under 16, make sure you have an a

Dear HIW, My friend can’t eat gluten and I’d like to understand it better. What’s the difference between gluten intolerance and coeliac disease? Magda Baran They share some symptoms, but differ in severity. Coeliac is an autoimmune disorder, which me

Four out of every five animals on Earth are nematode worms The Andromeda Galaxy is 14.7 quintillion miles away, but is still visible to the naked eye Fusion reactors produce no carbon dioxide or harmful atmospheric emissions The combined height of th