How It Works

You can typically survive three weeks without food and three days without water, but only three minutes without air. Yet the action of drawing breath every few seconds is completely taken for granted by most of us until we’re deprived of vital air. I

In winter, Dubai’s skyline is swallowed by dense fog. The city experiences average temperatures of around 36 degrees Celsius in the peak of summer. But in the colder months the ground cools down overnight, forcing humid hot air upwards where it meets

Scientists have made a stem cell breakthrough in elephants that could mean researchers are one step closer to bringing back long-extinct woolly mammoths. Colossal Biosciences’ woolly mammoth team says it has successfully derived induced pluripotent s

FROM £479 / $549 STEAMPOWERED.COM If you’re on the move, you can now stay entertained with your favourite PC games in high definition with the Steam Deck OLED. This handheld console comes with Wi-Fi 6E for increased game download speeds, up to three

The average adult breathes in 7,570 litres of air daily – the equivalent of filling up 45 regular bathtubs. Of this volume, only 20 per cent is life-sustaining oxygen, and 15 per cent of this inhaled oxygen leaves the body again during exhalation. Th

Blood makes up around seven to eight per cent of your total body weight MYTH While the act of sleepwalking isn’t bad for your health, it can lead to some hazardous situations. Somnambulism is the name for walking or performing activities during sleep

If a human were to let their body freeze, the result would be all-over frostbite and probably death. But there are creatures whose tissues are able to freeze solid in cold weather, then defrost in the spring, with no adverse effects. Take the wood fr

If you step outside and look at some soil, it won’t take long until you see a creature of some sort. Many insects and other invertebrates call this environment their home, from burrowing earthworms that churn up and oxygenate the soil to ground beetl

Whether they’re chewing on grass, tearing through flesh or fighting off a foe, teeth are an essential survival tool for the world’s animals. A tooth is a layered structure made from hardened calcium carbonate that erupts from a vertebrate’s jaw and i

The Eden Project in Cornwall, England, was opened in 2001 to immerse visitors in diverse natural landscapes from around the world, highlighting a mixture of flora and fauna and teaching people about the role of each species on our planet. Tropical an

Sand dollars are small marine invertebrates that live on the seafloor. The 11 sand dollar species are disc-shaped and have an average diameter between seven and ten centimetres. Most of the time these animals are submerged underwater, but they someti

Over 3,000 years ago, Babylonian astronomers discovered that five bright points of light moved across the night sky in a different way from all the other stars. These were the planets we now call Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In those ear

In the UK, non-commercial electric kick scooters can only be ridden on private land The first motorised scooter was called the Autoped. It looked very similar to today’s electric kick scooters, but ran on gas with an engine attached to the front whee

In 2020, Mercedes-Benz revealed one of the most unique concept cars in the world. Shattering any preconceived ideas of how a car can operate, the all-electric VISION AVTR looks like something out of a science-fiction film. To create the VISION AVTR,

In space, astronauts lose an average of 1.0 to 1.5 per cent of mineral density in weight-bearing bones per month To build up their bodies, cope with confinement and monitor machinery, astronauts must embark on rigorous training programs For many, it’

Over 680 people have been to space Our planet is surrounded by junk that poses a threat to astronauts and spacecraft Debris in space is a well-documented problem; NASA estimates that there are roughly 13,000 objects larger than ten centimetres in dia

A Game Boy made it into space with cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov on a mission to the Mir space station in 1993 Long before Alexa could take control of your home gadgets, the 1980s welcomed the Clapper, a compact device that could remotely switch on ap

Several species of sharks are known to live in freshwater environments, but whether they should be considered true freshwater fish is debatable. Probably the most mysterious are the river sharks of the genus Glyphis. Fewer than ten species have been

THE INNER WORKINGS OF EARTH AND OTHER WORLDS AUTHOR SABINE STANLEY PUBLISHER JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS PRICE £14 / $16.95 RELEASE OUT NOW Professor Sabine Stanley is a Harvard-educated planetary scientist who, despite being brought up the daughte

Complete the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9 Find the following words GADGET NASA PLANETS CONCEPT TEETH ORCHESTRA BREATH MEDICAL SCOOTER MUD GRAVITY FREEZE Hint: Happy on land and in water A See if you can find a

The foaming apple is the result of a chemical reaction between the strong acid of the vinegar (acetic acid) and the alkaline baking soda (bicarbonate of soda). When the vinegar comes into contact with the baking soda, the acidic and alkaline compound

Dear HIW, When you see foods labelled ‘organic’ in shops, what exactly does this mean? Is there any evidence to say that organic food is better for you? What are the pros and cons? Shawn Hardy The main difference between organic and non-organic produ

NEIL ARMSTRONG’S BOOTS ARE STILL FLOATING IN SPACE This much urine contains enough minerals to charge your phone for three hours Global warming is affecting gravity in Antarctica The world’s oldest fossil forest was recently discovered near Minehead,