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How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Welcome to ANSWERS to Curious Amazing QUESTIONSIf you’re curious about the world we live in and everything in it, you’ve come to the right place! In this sixth volume of How It Works Book of Amazing Answers to Curious Questions, discover the elusive explanations behind life’s most intriguing conundrums. Why do cats have whiskers? Head to the Environment section to find out. Have you ever wondered how our hearts beat? Flick to the Science section. Are you interested in finding out how islands are built? That’s in the Technology section. With sections dedicated to six themes, including Space, Transport and History, you are sure to satisfy your hunger for knowledge within these pages. So if you’ve ever pondered how long Earth has existed or considered what surgery would have been like in the Victorian era, join…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Air pollutionAir pollution is the introduction of gases and particles into the atmosphere that have harmful effects on living creatures and the built environment. According to the World Health Organiation, 7 million premature deaths are caused every year by people inhaling polluted air – that’s one in eight deaths worldwide. Once released into the atmosphere, pollutants are impossible to contain and – depending on prevailing weather patterns – have the potential to affect people who are hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from the source.Over the last half century, the nature of the problem has altered. In the developed world, smog-causing emissions of noxious smoke, sulphur dioxide and particulates associated with incomplete fuel combustion have been curbed by technologies like flue-gas desulphurisation systems, soot scrubbers and catalytic converters. Gases that deplete…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are whiskers?Whiskers are long, thick hairs that extend a mammal’s sense of touch beyond the surface of their skin. They are connected directly to the nervous system via sensory organs called proprioceptors at the base of the hair, which send information about the body’s position and movement to the brain. When an animal’s whisker comes into contact with an object or is disturbed by the flow of air or water, the movement stimulates the proprioceptor, which relays this sensory information to the brain.Whiskers can provide the animal with details about the position, shape, size and texture of objects around them, as well as wind or water currents.Cats use their whiskers to gauge distances when making leaps, while seals use theirs to catch prey by detecting the motion of water trails left…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do you spot a ladybird?Two-spotted ladybirdAlong with the seven-spot, this species is one of the most common in the UK. Its appetite for pests has earned it a reputation as a gardener’s best friend.Ten-spot ladybirdThis species doesn’t always have ten spots, and comes in a range of colours, making it tricky to identify! Look out for the tell-tale orange legs.14-spot ladybirdThese spots are more rectangular and sometimes fused to form a chequered pattern. They can be found in grassland, woodland, towns and gardens.16-spot ladybirdThis ladybird is a herbivore and prefers to eat pollen, fungi and nectar rather than aphids. It’s fairly small and hides away in areas of long, rough grassland.22-spot ladybirdUnlike other ladybirds, 22-spots eat mildew and can be found on lowgrowing shrubs. You can tell it apart from 14-spots as its spots…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is inside a bird’s egg?Whether you boil them, scramble them or whip them into a prize-winning soufflé, eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen. But have you ever wondered about the ones that don’t make it onto the plate? These little capsules happen to be some of the most wondrous things in the natural world!Laid by birds and reptiles, and sporting all shapes and sizes, each egg has a similar makeup – a brittle shell protects a gloopy inner of the familiar ‘yolk’ and ‘white’. The yolk is released as the chicken ovulates; it can then be fertilised, and continues to travel through the hen’s reproductive tract. The white of the egg is comprised of various different layers of albumin, structural fibres and membrane, which surround the yolk as it…4 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do we predict the weather?The weather affects us all, every day. From governing the difference between life and death, to providing a conversation topic to fill awkward silences at a party, it is an ever-present and ever-changing part of life. This means that predicting it accurately is a hugely important task.In the UK, the Met Office is responsible for weather monitoring and prediction. Before a forecast can be put together, measurements from thousands of data recorders across the world are collected and analysed. Every day, around 500,000 observations are received, including atmospheric measurements from land and sea, satellites, weather balloons and aircraft. But, this is still not enough to represent the weather in every location.To fill in the gaps, the data is assimilated. This combines current data with what is expected, to provide the…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are rocks recycled?O ur planet is covered with different types of rock, from great mountains to molten magma to grains of sand – and all of these forms are connected by the rock cycle. This model shows how the three main classifications of rock – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic – are able to morph into one another as different forces act upon them.Wind, rain, snow and ice gradually erode mountains and cliffs to provide the material that will eventually be compacted to become sedimentary rock. The internal structure of our planet itself also plays an important role. The mantle – a 2,900-kilometre-thick, semi-molten region found beneath the Earth’s crust – provides extreme heat and pressure that compact rock into a metamorphic form. The planet’s core generates intense heat that melts the lower…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Can we hack theHUMAN B DY?We are limited by our biology: prone to illness, doomed to wear out over time, and restricted to the senses and abilities that nature has crafted for us over millions of years of evolution. But not any more. Biological techniques are getting cheaper and more powerful, electronics are getting smaller, and our understanding of the human body is growing. Pacemakers already keep our hearts beating, hormonal implants control our fertility, and smart glasses augment our vision. We are teetering on the edge of the era of humanity 2.0, and some enterprising individuals have already made the leap to the other side.While much of the technology developed so far has had a medical application, people are now choosing to augment their healthy bodies to extend and enhance their natural abilities. Kevin…8 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do you reclaim land?Not to be confused with landfill – the mounds of rubbish left to decompose – land fill is reclaimed ground created from bodies of water. The simplest method of this land reclamation, and the one used to build Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, is called hydraulic fill, which involves dredging sediment from the seabed and using hydraulic pumps to fill in new land. This is the process currently being carried out in the South China Sea, where large dredger barges are controversially piling sand onto coral reefs to create new islets.However, if the sediment on the surrounding seabed is contaminated, or if the reclamation area is too soft to build on, then another method called deep cement mixing can be used. This involves injecting cement into the seabed and mixing it with…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are pet trackers?Right now, there are 31 satellites circling Earth in what is known as the Global Positioning System (GPS) Constellation, feeding back information to millions of GPS devices. Whether you’re searching for nearby car parks on your sat nav or tracking down a lost pet, the technology works in exactly the same way.A GPS receiver in your pet tracker locates at least three of these satellites to calculate exactly where on the planet it is. To do this, the receiver intercepts signals from the satellites and calculates how long it took them to arrive. Because the signals always travel at the speed of light, it is possible to work out the distances between each of the satellites and your furry friend.The exact position of the receiver can be pinpointed via a…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do keys open doors?Throughout history, numerous lock-and-key combinations have been used to keep rooms and valuables secure. The earliest lock comprised of a series of wooden pins that could be moved only by a key with a matching profile. Called a pin-lock, it formed the basis of today’s pin-tumbler lock (often called a Yale or radial lock).Inside the barrel of a pin-tumbler lock is a series of spring-loaded, two-part pins of varying length. When a small, flat-sided key is inserted into the barrel, the serrations along its edge push the pins up. If the key is the correct one for the lock, the pins will line up so that the bottom half of the pins sit perfectly inside the barrel. This enables the barrel to be turned (or tumbled) with the key, which…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are digital images captured?With the simple click of a button, a digital camera turns light into data. This process starts with the image sensor, which is a silicon chip known as a CCD or CMOS. When light enters the camera lens, it is focused onto the sensor and dislodges some of the electrons in a tiny area of the silicon (known as a pixel), which creates an electrical charge. The brighter the light in that part of the image, the stronger the electrical charge that is created at that spot on the sensor.On its own, the sensor is colour-blind. To produce a colour image, red, green and blue filters are used to detect each primary colour of light. There are a few methods of doing this, but the most simple involves a mosaic…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Can you treasure hunt with GPS?Treasure hunts were once reserved for children and pirates, but in the modern world it has become a technological game. Geocaching is a global treasure hunt for anyone with access to a GPS device.GPS works by locking on to three or more satellite signals, and calculating how long it takes for a signal to arrive from each. Using this information, it can pinpoint where you – and of course, the treasure – are located in the world.The cache varies from location to location, but typically includes a logbook, hidden inside a waterproof container, along with other little treasures. If you find the cache, you sign the logbook, and are free to take the treasure. In return, you are asked to leave something of equal or greater value.The first geocache was…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How does new tech fight fires?Firefighters put their lives at risk every day to rescue people from burning buildings and to stop the spread of raging fires, often with nothing more than a hose and a ladder. But the latest developments in firefighting technology are helping to make the job much easier and safer, speeding up rescue missions and keeping the firefighters out of harm’s way.Enormous, water-carrying aircraft can come to the rescue when widespread and unpredictable wildfires get out of control, and drones and robots can assist fire crews in city blazes, when visibility may be poor and structures are unsafe for humans to enter. Even the method of dousing the flames is getting an upgrade, as water is being replaced by chemical fire retardants that can ultimately help the re-growth of plants that…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are spacecrafts docked?1 Reaching spaceIt only takes a matter of minutes to blast into space, but it can take hours or even days to reach the International Space Station (ISS). Following blast-off, the Soyuz capsule enters orbit by firing its rockets parallel to the spacecraft’s direction of travel2 Transfer into higher orbitThe ISS orbits the Earth at a higher altitude, so the Soyuz has to reach it via an elliptical path called a Hohmann transfer orbit. This features two engine burns – one to take the Soyuz into the higher orbit and another engine burn to keep it there.3 Small correctionsThe Hohmann transfer orbit isn’t always precise, and the Soyuz has to perform small thruster burns to manoeuvre itself into an orbit around Earth with a period of 86 minutes – four…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What animals have been to space?1 Fruit FliesOn board a captured Nazi V-2 rocket in 1947, these tiny pests made history.They were the first animals in space, sent to explore the effects of radiation on organisms. They returned to Earth safely by parachute.2 MonkeysA total of 32 monkeys have flown to space, beginning with Albert II in 1949. A decade later, a rhesus and a squirrel monkey became the first to survive the trip, experiencing over 30 times the pull of our Earth’s gravity.3 MiceEven today, mice are ferried to and from the ISS and are key for studies in sending humans to Mars. Recently, it was discovered that astro-mice sent to deep space showed signs of liver damage.4 DogsDuring the 1950s and 1960s, dogs were used by the USSR to investigate whether human spaceflight…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What’s it like inside Spaceport America?Spaceport America is described as the world’s “first purpose-built commercial spaceport”. It is an impressive 10,000-square-metre terminal building with a 3,657-metre runway, nestled in the remote Jornada del Muerto desert basin in New Mexico, US. Its ambitious organisation is on a mission “to make space travel as accessible to all as air travel is today”.The $200 million facility was designed by UK-based Foster and Partners, and funded by New Mexico state taxpayers. It was built to mirror the spacecraft that it will one day house, with a curved outline, skylights, and a threestorey glass front looking out over the taxiway.The structure sinks down into the ground to maximise energy efficiency, and winds whistle through to control the temperature inside. Like a standard airport, it has hangars and a departure lounge,…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Why do we fly close to the Sun?Ever since she first looked at the Sun through a solar telescope, Lucie Green has been fascinated with finding out how it works. Although our closest star has given up many of its secrets over the years, there is still a great deal left to discover about the huge ball of plasma that provides our heat and light. Working at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, and alongside space agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency, Green is involved in some exciting projects to learn more about our host star.From studying giant eruptions on its surface to measuring strong solar winds, she hopes to be able to answer some of the biggest questions about not just the Sun, but the entire universe too. We caught up with…5 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What happens when stars die?1 Red supergiantWhen a star with the mass of ten Suns or more runs out of hydrogen fuel, it starts to fuse heavier elements. The core gains mass and the outer layers expand.2Core collapseThe core becomes so big that it collapses under its own gravity. This creates a shockwave that compresses and heats the star’s outer layers, creating a big and bright flash.3 Neutron coreThe implosion ultimately causes the core to shrink. The incredibly dense neutron core is roughly the mass of our Sun, but packed into a small sphere just a few kilometres across.4SupernovaThe shockwave is accelerated outward, ripping the star apart in an incredibly bright explosion. At this time, supernovas can even outshine the galaxies they are in.5 Supernova remnantThe ejected material blasts through space. A vast nebula…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is it like on board the Dream Chaser?Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser is a smaller, more adaptable version of the Space Shuttle and will spend much of its time going on trips to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). Unlike the Space Shuttle, Dream Chaser can fly autonomously, without a human pilot. Crewed versions will also be developed, capable of carrying seven astronauts plus cargo.Once in space, it will be powered by twin hybrid rocket engines, which use two propellants – one solid, the other gaseous or liquid. These are mixed together and tend to be less explosive than purely solid rocket fuel when they fail. In the case of the Dream Chaser, the solid propellant is a rubbery material called ‘hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene’, while the gas propellant is nitrous oxide. It engines are so powerful that, when docked…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How can we live 100?We are born, we live, we age and we die. This is the natural cycle of human existence, yet some people live longer than others. The world record holder for the longest human life is Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who lived to a magnificent 122 years and 164 days. But what is the secret to a long life?Human beings are complex, and we live for a very long time, making studies of the process of ageing a serious challenge. Most of the research and experiments to date has therefore been carried out on animals. Two of the favourite species for these kinds of studies are Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny worm about the size of this comma, and Mus musculus, the humble laboratory mouse. The worms generally live for just…4 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Why do we see faces everywhere?From religious figures on slices of toast to aliens on Mars, faces pop up in the strangest of places. The phenomenon is known as pareidolia, and happens thanks to a part of the brain called the fusiform face area, which is specially adapted to detect faces. If we see something that even vaguely resembles a human visage, it lights up. Researchers at the University of Toronto found that this rapid processing occurs in the prefrontal cortex (which handles what we expect to see) and the posterior visual cortex (which processes what we actually see). When people believe that they should see a face, their brain will do the rest.Seeing facesYour brain should automatically spot the faces in these pictures…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the pH scale?The pH of a solution is a measure of how acidic or alkaline it is on a scale in which 0 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is the most alkaline, but what are we measuring? Let’s start in the middle. Pure water has the chemical formula H2O, and is made from two bonded ions: hydrogen and hydroxide. The ions are in pairs, one hydrogen bonded to one hydroxide, and the pH is neutral.Acids have extra hydrogen ions that do not have hydroxide ions to pair up with, and for every step down in the pH scale, the concentration of these extra ions increases. Solutions of pH 6 have ten times the concentration of hydrogen ions as solutions of pH 7. Solutions of pH 5 have ten…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Why do songs get stuck in our heads?This irritating phenomenon has many names in the scientific literature: imagined music, involuntary musical imagery, involuntary semantic memories, intrusive songs, or slightly disconcertingly, ‘earworms’.Hearing a song played on a loop inside your own brain is very common; the majority of people have experienced it, and for many it is at least a weekly occurrence. Playing music, listening to songs and singing can make it happen more often, and although people most often mention it when it becomes an irritation, it is not always unpleasant.Earworms fall into the same category as spontaneous recollections of memories and mind wandering, and seem to be intrusive thoughts that are beyond our conscious control. Trying to get to the bottom of the science behind them is challenging, because researchers have to rely on the subjective…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What if water didn’t exist?A ll life as we know it needs water to survive. Organisms need to take in materials from their environment; they need to grow, to react and to reproduce. To do these things, large, complex chemicals need to come close enough together for them to be able to react, and, for this to happen, you need something for the molecules to dissolve in. On Earth, water is the answer. There’s lots of it, it can dissolve a variety of different chemicals, and it remains liquid over a wide temperature range. Take it away, and everything would die.There are some crafty organisms that can survive for months, years, or even decades by drying themselves out and slowing their metabolisms, but if the water never returned, they would eventually succumb to dehydration.However,…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How does your brain understand science?W hile humanity has progressed leaps and bounds over the millennia, our brains have more or less stayed the same. But how do our prehistoric minds – that are wired for survival above all else – process the technologically advanced concepts of modern science?To find out, a team of scientists from Carnegie Mellon University in the US analysed brain scans of physics and engineering students. Their neural activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while they were asked to think about a series of 30 physics principles. A computer programme then created a map showing the active areas of the brain for each topic.The results showed that the brain adapts itself to help us make sense of abstract ideas. We use parts of the brain associated with everyday…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do dogs drink?1 CheeksDogs are unable to form a proper seal with their cheeks, so they can’t suck up water to drink like we do.2 ScoopUsing the tip of their tongue like a ladle, dogs scoop up water towards their mouth3 Mucky pupTheir tongues don’t actually work very well as a scoop. Most of the water falls off as it’s retracted.4 Rapid RetractionWithdrawing the tongue creates a considerable amount of acceleration, as much as five times that of gravity5 Water columnThis quick, upward motion creates inertia, so the water continues to rise against gravity.6 Snap shutBefore gravity causes the water column to collapse, the dog closes its mouth around it.7 SwallowAs the dog scoops up a fresh batch of water, the previous lot is forced to the back of its mouth to…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Is there such a thing as perfect posture?Chances are most of you reading this aren’t sitting or standing properly. Students and office workers know only too well how easy it is to slip into a slouch while spending all day working at a desk. This prolonged poor posture puts stress on the neck, shoulders and spine, contributing to problems such as postural hunchback and spinal misalignment.Good posture ensures that you can stand, sit or lie down in positions that put the least strain on your body’s muscles and ligaments. A quick way to check your posture is to make sure your earlobes are aligned over the middle of your shoulders, your shoulders are in line with your hips, and your hips are directly above your knees and ankles. This correct positioning may take some practice, but as…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Is it true that singing to plants help them grow?Not much research has been done on the relationship between music and plant growth, although the theory has been around since the 1850s.Some researchers believe that sound – if you think of it merely as vibrations – is a form of environmental stimulus that can affect the plant. For instance, perhaps it tends to grow hardier in windy conditions, and the vibrations imitate this. In the most recent experiments, plants that were played music or spoken to did grow better than the control plants left in silence.However, it’s probably more important to provide a plant with light, water and soil than this week’s Top 40.Why are song lyrics so easy to remember?Our brains seem to be wired to remember song lyrics better than facts, or even what we had for…9 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Elizabethan espionageAs a Protestant queen with no heirs, Elizabeth I’s reign was threatened by those who would have preferred the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. With the threat of assassination, the Queen set up a network of spies to protect her against dissidents and uncover foreign plots. Head of Elizabeth’s secret service was Sir Francis Walsingham, a Protestant lawyer. Those hired as spies were among the greatest minds in the land; scholars, scientists and linguists were all tasked with protecting the vulnerable monarchy from danger.Technological advancements also aided the intelligence network. Invisible ink made from milk or lemon juice was first utilised in this period, allowing secret messages to be revealed by warming the paper over a candle. Cryptography became more advanced, and the spy network needed to be able to…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Spies wantedMost of us share our lives with friends and family on social media, but this data creates problems if you want to be a spy. Intelligence agencies are struggling to operate effectively in a time where false identities and back stories are hard to create. Most people will leave traces of their real lives online, and facial recognition software can potentially use these traces to link an undercover agent to their true identity.To try and combat this, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6) are planning to hire nearly 1,000 new staff by 2020. In a statement, SIS chief Alex Younger explained:“The information revolution fundamentally changes our operating environment. In five years’ time there will be two sorts of intelligence services – those that understand this fact and have…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How was the Washington Monument built?Standing tall above the US capital city, the Washington Monument is a constant reminder of the legacy of founding father George Washington. As the first president of the United States, he is one of the most important figures in the nation’s history.The 169-metre-high monument was designed by Robert Mills in the shape of an Ancient Egyptian obelisk. It started out as a private project that was financed by the Washington National Monument Society, with Mills contributing the chosen design. A crowd of around 20,000 Americans gathered to watch as the first cornerstone was laid on 4 July 1848.However, the project soon ran into issues. In 1854, the society was declared bankrupt, and a year later Mills died. Construction was halted throughout the US Civil War and was only restarted in…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What jobs were there in the Middle Ages?The job opportunities open to you in medieval times largely depended on your social class. Those with status were typically nobles, members of the clergy or employed by the royal court, while the peasants, or those without status, worked as craftsmen or labourers. In between were the merchants, who became wealthy by trading the products made by skilled workers all over the world.All roles were important, as they ensured everyone had the goods and services they needed to go about their lives, but the lower-class workers were often exploited. As a result, the guild system was established. Guilds were organisations that promoted the economic welfare of their members, much like today’s trade unions. Most professions had a guild, from merchants and weavers to blacksmiths and candlemakers. Members would set prices…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What was surgery like in the Victorian era?Inside the operating theatreTake your seat and wait for the surgeon to put on a performance no one will forgetThe Victorian era has been romanticised for its advancements in science and medicine, but with that came no anaesthetic, poor sanitation and surgeons who didn’t even need a qualification to operate. The risk of infection or bleeding to death was so high that surgery was limited to amputations. If you broke a limb, it would have to come off. The surgeon would often perform the procedure in a packed operating theatre, full of students and peers. Rusty saws and knives were the norm, as was the bloodencrusted apron that made the surgeon look more like a butcher than a man of medicine. He would slice through flesh and bone in 30…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do you make a mummy?A beginner’s guideFollow these easy steps to create a mummy that will last for eternityT he key to eternal life wasn’t just preserving the soul. Ancient Egyptians believed it had to return to its body regularly in order to survive, so that too would need to be kept intact. They also believed that the deceased must resemble the living as much as possible in order for the spirit to recognise its physical home. Initially, this was achieved by burying the dead in the desert, where the hot sand would dehydrate bodies and delay decomposition. But over time, the Egyptians developed an artificial method of preservation that would enable their remains to last for millennia. This was called mummification.The first mummies date back to 2600 BCE, but it wasn’t until around…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How can we save the world?Humans only make up about one ten thousandth of the biomass on Earth, but our impact on the planet is drastically out of proportion to our numbers. In the last 250 years we have added over 400 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere and approximately half of that has happened since the mid-1980s. No other organism in Earth’s history has altered the environment so much so quickly.It’s not just the amount of pollution we produce either; humans have invented entirely new kinds of pollution too. Polythene, chlorofluorocarbons, organophosphates and synthetic hormones didn’t exist in the environment until humans created them. Other toxins, like heavy metals and radioactive isotopes, were only there in trace amounts until the industrial age found new ways to refine and concentrate them. These pollutants are…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Ocean pollutionOceans cover 71 per cent of our planet’s surface and contain an estimated 1.5 million species, but that hasn’t stopped humanity treating the sea as a giant, watery rubbish bin.We’re familiar with tragic images of seabirds whose feathers are clogged with viscous black oil. But catastrophic spills from tankers account for just a fraction of oil pollution in the sea; street runoff, vehicle exhausts and industrial waste are all chronic contributors to the problem.Indeed, almost all marine pollution stems from activities on land. Runoff from farms introduces pesticides and insecticides into the aquatic food chain, as well as an overabundance of nutrients in the form of fertiliser. This causes populations of algae to spike, draining the surrounding waters of oxygen and suffocating other marine life.Finally, human-made rubbish is ubiquitous throughout…4 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How is Earth’s atmosphere structured?Atmospheric layersEach region of the atmosphere behaves quite differently from the ones above and below itAir pressure decreases exponentially the higher you go. But the temperature falls and then rises in alternating bands.The ground heats the lowest layer of the atmosphere, called the troposphere, so this layer gets colder the higher up you go. As the air gets colder, the water vapour precipitates and falls as rain or snow.When you reach the top of the troposphere at around eight to 12 kilometres up, the air is almost completely dry. This is the start of the stratosphere, where the temperature starts rising again as a result of a large number of ozone molecules absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.Once the ozone thins out, you reach the mesosphere and the temperature falls…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is an avocado?1 They’re actually berriesAlthough their colour makes them look like vegetables, avocados are actually a fruit. They’re botanically classed as a single-seeded berry of the Persea americana tree, native to Mexico and Central America.2 There are hundreds of typesOne worldwide favourite is the Hass variety. This delicious avocado was discovered by accident, as Californian postman Rudolph Hass grew the first tree from an unknown seedling in 1926. tonsillitis and even cancers.3 They contain more potassium than bananasAvocados are packed with nutrients, with nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and micronutrients in every little green fruit. They’re also a source of protein and unsaturated fat, which can help to lower people’s cholesterol.4 Inca tribes ate themArchaeological evidence suggests that wild avocados have been eaten for almost 10,000 years in Mexico! It’s thought that…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Why are rain clouds grey?To understand why clouds can appear grey, you first need to know why they also appear white. It’s all to do with the reflection of light. Clouds are formed when air and water vapour near the ground warms up and rises. As it gets higher, the water vapour condenses, and the droplets join together to form clouds. The more condensation there is, the more droplets there are and the bigger the clouds become.When light from the Sun passes through these large accumulations of water vapour, the droplets scatter the light in all directions. The droplets are small and spread out enough to scatter the entire spectrum of light, which means that they will appear white.As more water droplets gather and the clouds grow larger, less light is able to penetrate…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Can wasps exist without figs?Figs are full of fibre, a great source of vitamins, and packed with nutrients such as copper, manganese and potassium. They also contain digested wasp bodies, thanks to an incredible, mutually dependent relationship between figs and fig wasps, which has evolved over millions of years and is vital to the survival of both.Each species of wasp targets a specific species of fig, and the relationship is based upon the fact that female wasps need a safe place to lay eggs, and fig trees must be pollinated to reproduce.A female fig wasp will enter the fruit and lay her eggs inside, depositing pollen from another fig. The fig is now fertilised and starts to mature. However, the process of entering the fruit tears the female’s wings off, so she is unable…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What causes wind patterns?Winds in our atmosphere do not travel in straight lines due to a phenomena known as the Coriolis effect. As the Earth spins on its axis, the motion deflects the air above it. The planet’s rotation is faster at the equator, because this is where the Earth is widest. This difference in speed causes the deflection – for example, if you were to throw a ball from the equator to the North Pole it would appear to curve off-course. If Earth didn’t spin like this, air on the planet would simply circulate back and forth between the high-pressure poles and the low-pressure equator. When the rotation of the Earth is added into the mix, it causes the air in the Northern Hemisphere to be deflected to the right, and air…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Building future youSelf-improvement is part of human nature, and technology is bringing unprecedented possibilities into reach. Much of the development up until this point has had a medical purpose in mind, including prosthetic limbs for amputees, exoskeletons for paralysis, organs for transplant, and light sensors for the blind. However, with the advent of wearable technology, and a growing community of amateur and professional biotechnology tinkerers, there is increased interest in augmenting the healthy human body.The first cyborgs already walk among us, fitted with magnetic senses, implanted with microchips, and talking to technology using their nervous systems. At the moment, many devices are experimental, sometimes even homemade and unlicensed. However, the field is opening up, and the possibilities are definitely endless.So, what does the future hold for a customisable you? Medical implants could…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are LEDs?Traditional light bulbs – known as incandescent lamps – have illuminated our homes for over 100 years, but now they’re on their way out. Inefficient and costly, they work by passing electricity through a small filament, making it incredibly hot. This produces light but a large proportion of the energy is lost as heat. That’s why more and more people are choosing to switch to light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. These cost less to run, as they require less electricity, and the bulbs can last up to 25 times longer than conventional ones.LEDs are semiconductor devices that carry electrical current in one direction. Semiconductors are naturally insulators, but can be turned into conductors by adding atoms of another element, a process called ‘doping’. When an electric charge passes through the semiconductor,…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How is candy floss made?1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do food blenders work?A smoothie blender is a compact fluid dynamics laboratory. Friction at the surface of the blades accelerates the liquid, centrifugal force pushes it outwards, atmospheric pressure creates an air-filled vortex in the centre, and turbulence keeps everything churning and mixing. Within seconds, your placid pint of milk and fruit chunks is transformed into a chaotic, churning maelstrom.The vortex in the centre of a blender looks like a tornado but it acts in quite a different way. A tornado is powered by a thermal updraft in its centre that pulls everything into the middle and flings it up to the sky. In a blender, the spinning blades at the bottom are constantly pushing the liquid away from the middle to the edges of the jar and this creates a suction that…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do wristwatches tick?Before you could check your smartphone, and even before quartz batteries, a personal timepiece was a valuable commodity. There are two types of mechanical watch: a hand-wound watch and an automatic or self-winding watch.Although the starting mechanisms are different, the movement inside is essentially the same. It all comes from the back and forth motion of the mainspring – this is a tightly coiled and precisely measured spring, wound into a perfectly weighted cog known as the balance wheel.This wheel is able to move back and forth because it’s helped by another series of cogs that transfer energy from the winding pin all the way to the balance wheel. This usually involves three cogs, and these correspond to the hour, minute and second hands on the face. When the second…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do we make money?In the United Kingdom, coins are produced at the Royal Mint factory in Llantrisant, South Wales. The modern 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins are made of steel and plated with either copper or nickel. 20p and 50p coins, and the middle of the £2 coin, use a more expensive alloy of copper and nickel all the way through, while the ‘gold’ of £1 coins and the border of £2 coins is actually a nickel-brass alloy. The Royal Mint creates its own metal blanks using machines that can cut 10,000 blank coins a minute. These are fitted with a rim and then stamped with 60 tons of force to print the design on each side.The paper for banknotes comes from a company that specialises in high security paper. Cotton fibres…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are medical tablets made?Pharmaceutical companies use machines called tablet presses to transform powders into tablets. To start, the powdered material is fed into a hopper and flows through housing into a die that holds a small amount of powder. The die lies between two punches that will press the powder into shape. The lower punch drops down, allowing the granules to fill the space to the exact measurement needed for the type of tablet.A scraper then removes any excess powdered material and the upper and lower punches then compress together; first at low pressure to remove any excess air in the powder, then at higher pressure to form the tablet.The size and shape of the dies and punches are different for each medication so that companies can create unique shapes, as well as…6 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are white holes?T he universe is full of black holes. These cosmic objects form when a massive star, much bigger than our Sun, collapses in on itself and dies in a spectacular supernova. The remains of this star are concentrated into a small but dense area, known as a singularity, with a very strong gravitational pull. In fact, it’s so strong that everything around it, even light, gets sucked in and cannot escape, making black holes difficult to detect. What astronomers haven’t yet been able to detect though, are white holes. Currently just a theoretical mathematical concept, these space objects are essentially the opposite of black holes, expelling matter and light into the universe instead of sucking it in.One theory about the formation of white holes is that they begin as their…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How far can we see?You might think you need a telescope to explore the universe, but find yourself a suitably dark sky, free of light pollution, and even your naked eye can uncover the wonders of the universe – or, at least, our own galaxy.When looking up at the sky, every star you are seeing is within the Milky Way. The only objects you might be able to spot that are outside it are the Andromeda Galaxy, the two Magellanic Clouds, and the Triangulum Galaxy.This makes the latter the furthest object you can see, 2.7 million light years from Earth. You might be surprised that we can’t see much outside our galaxy, considering how many stars are in the night sky. But that’s just a measure of how vast space really is; there are…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do we search for super-Earths?Over the last decade or so, astronomers have discovered that there are rocky planets up to ten times more massive than Earth orbiting other stars. They call them ‘super-Earths’, although that can be misleading as they may look nothing like our planet at all. They are, however, the easiest rocky exoplanets that scientists can detect. Their hefty mass means their gravity causes stars to wobble to a greater extent, giving away their presence, while their large diameter causes a dip in brightness when they are seen transiting across the face of their star.Could they support life? It’s possible – some super-Earths have been found in the habitable zones of stars, where the temperature would allow liquid water to exist. The conditions wouldn’t be the same as on Earth, however, as…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How did Earth get its core?We know that the formation of the Earth’s layers was a long and complex process, but scientists have been puzzled as to how the inner core became a solid ball of iron. Initially, experts thought that the core began to form early in the process, when the upper mantle was still molten rock. Droplets of iron fell into the hot magma ocean and once it reached the solid lower mantle, the iron sank slowly as gravity pulled it towards the centre.However, a more recent model suggests that the core formed later, when the entire mantle was solid rock. Intense pressure at about 1,000 kilometres below the crust was strong enough to force the molten iron out of silicate rock. Small blobs of the metal joined together to form channels, and…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do gas giants form?THEORY 1Cosmic cannibalismCosmic debris The process begins as the dust and gas left over when stars form flatten out into a disc shape, and over time the particles inside start to collide. As they bump into each other, rocky flecks stick together.Core formation As the clumps of rocky debris get larger, their gravitational pull gets stronger, and they begin to attract more and more debris from the surrounding gas cloud. Clumps merge, and then planets start to form.Picking up gas The rocky planets closest to the star are battered by stellar winds, which blow light gases away, but those further away are shielded. They accumulate excess gas, steadily growing in size.Destroying thecompetition The gas giants in the outer part of the star system swallow up their smaller neighbours. Collisions between…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is space radiation?Galactic cosmic radiationDistant supernova explosions are thought to be the source of these high-energy ions. They travel across the galaxy at close to the speed of light, and can easily pass through the walls of a spaceship. With current technology at least, they cannot be shielded against.Trapped radiationEarth’s magnetic field can trap charged particles from the solar wind. They become confined to the Van Allen belts, two doughnut-shaped magnetic rings encircling the planet. This type of radiation does not pose a threat unless astronauts travel through the magnetic field.Solar energetic particlesThese high-energy particles are released by the Sun during periods of intense activity known as solar particle events. Although these events are hard to predict, astronauts and vulnerable equipment can be protected from this form of radiation using shielding materials.…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do we slow down our body clocks?Telomere theoryAre the little protective caps on the ends of our DNA the secret to ageing?Almost all of our cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each chromosome contains a long molecule of DNA, wound around a series of proteins to form an X-shape, and the ends are capped with structures known as telomeres. These have been a focus for anti-ageing researchers for many years because every time a cell divides, they get a little bit shorter. Eventually, the telomere is so small that the cell can no longer go on dividing.As Professor Kennedy explains, “If you take cells out of the body and grow them in the test tube, it was found out many years ago that eventually they stop growing. People have thought for 50 years now that this…5 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is plasma?We’re all familiar with solids, liquids and gases, which are three fundamental states of matter. But although it’s not as well known, there’s actually a fourth state that’s more common than all of the others – plasma. This state occurs when atoms of gas are packed with energy, transforming them into separate positively and negatively charged particles. Unlike gas, plasma is a great conductor of electricity and can respond to magnetic forces. It may sound strange, but we actually see these energetic particles every day here on Earth.During a lightning storm, for example, plasma is responsible for the beams of light we see flashing down from the sky. The massive current moving through the air energises atoms and turns them into plasma particles, which bump into each other and release…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What if we ran out of rare earth metals?The rare earth metals behave quite unlike other elements in the periodic table, and they have found their way into smartphones, wind turbines and MRI scanners, to name a few.They are much more abundant than precious metals like gold, but they are difficult to mine, and we are already running out of good spots to dig. They are bound up with radioactive materials, and extracting them is expensive, dangerous, and damaging to the environment.Without these elements, the modern world could fall apart. Before we run out of rare earth metals, we are likely to start running out of other vital elements too. Antimony and lead (used for batteries), indium, copper and gold (used in electrical components), and zinc (used to prevent corrosion) are starting to run low.The most obvious solution…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What if we cut down all the trees?Every second, an acre of the Amazon rainforest disappears. Forests are described as the ‘lungs of the Earth’, and are vital for removing carbon from the air and cleaning up our soil.Plants and trees take carbon dioxide and turn it into biological molecules, locking it away in their trunks, leaves and stems. Trees act as huge umbrellas and help water to trickle slowly to the forest floor, and they also regulate the temperature and humidity in the environment beneath their leaves.The environmental effects of losing our forests would be cataclysmic. Tonnes of carbon would be released into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect. During a downpour, water would run straight off the soil, causing rivers and lakes to swell and burst their banks. Areas of bare earth would experience…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Do I really look and sound like that?How we hearThe sound of your own voice is all in your headW hen you look in a mirror, the reflected image you see of yourself means you see yourself back to front. If faces were symmetrical this would not matter, but because there are asymmetries, you mentally store a backwards image of what you look like, and when you see your image the right way round, it can look strange.The sound of your voice can be strange too. When you speak, you’re picking up the vibrations in the air and also detecting vibrations inside your head. As you make sounds with your vocal cords and tongue, the soft tissues in your head and neck vibrate, and so do the bones in your face. These vibrations make your voice sound…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Why does the mind wander?The ‘default mode’ for the brain leans towards introspection and daydreaming, but with a bit of effort we can switch to ‘focus mode’ and perform complex tasks. However, if these tasks are repetitive, the mind can start to wander and we can make mistakes. The technical term for these momentary lapses is ‘maladaptive brain activity changes’, but colloquially, they are known as ‘brain farts’.Researchers at the University of New Mexico discovered that you can spot these ‘brain farts’ coming a good 30 seconds before people make an error by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which monitors the blood flow to different parts of the brain.…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are enclosed eco-systems?Imagine if you lived in an enclosed sphere with all the resources you need to survive and where the only outside input is sunlight. This is how the three shrimp that arrived in a package from EcoSphere Associates, Inc – a company that builds tiny enclosed ecosystems – not only survive, but thrive. The small glass globe is filled with seawater, algae, microbes, a tree-like gorgonian and gravel.After receiving a similar globe of shrimp, the famous scientist Carl Sagan said, “Our big world is very like this little one, and we are very like the shrimp...[but] unlike them, we are able to change our environment.” If you think about it, the EcoSphere is very much like our own world – everything we need for life is contained on our planet,…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do hydraulics work?Hydraulics is the system of using liquids to produce power. Liquids can’t easily be compressed, so pushing on them transmits pressure through them. The pressure is evenly transferred through the liquid, so a small push can be used to create a large force elsewhere. This can be used to move pistons, which in turn can be used to perform work, such as lifting with a crane or braking a car.Gases can be squashed, pushing the molecules closer together to fit into a smaller space, but liquids are hard to compress, as the molecules are close already. Particles bump around as they move, generating pressure. Push on a liquid, and pressure is increased.In a container with two cylinders and two pistons, connected by a fluid, when you push down on a…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are the ORIGINS OF ESPIONAGE?The principle of gathering confidential information has proved invaluable for rulers, empires and governments throughout history. Covertly collecting information about enemies, and even allies, provided nations with the opportunity for military, political or economic gain.Espionage is the gathering of secret information, and the methods used changed dramatically as technology developed. In Ancient Rome, letters could be intercepted en route to their intended recipient. In an attempt to prevent this, Julius Caesar invented one of the earliest-known ciphers – a code used to disguise messages – to stop enemy spies reading his secret military communications.In the 20th century, espionage was particularly important during the two world wars, as nations established huge intelligence networks in an effort to stay one step ahead of the enemy. Some estimate that deciphering the Nazi’s ‘uncrackable’…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6World War spiesWorld War One may be remembered primarily for trench warfare, but behind the lines, spies were performing a vital role. One of the most successful spy networks during the war was code-named ‘La Dame Blanche’. With over 1,000 members, the organisation worked for the British, conducting reconnaissance missions in German-occupied Belgium, spying on trains, roads and airfields.The development of aircraft in the 20th century meant that aerial reconnaissance was a large part of war. Both German and French planes took photos from above to examine troop movements. By acquiring secret documents and intercepting radio messages, the Germans knew what moves the Russians would make.When World War Two began, espionage was still an instrumental part of warfare. Germany’s military intelligence organisation, the Abwehr, was particularly effective during the occupation of the…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What was the first colour film?The first moving colour pictures were created by a London-based photographer named Edward Turner in 1902. Known as the Lee-Turner process (after Turner and his financial backer Frederick Lee), it involved filming consecutive frames of black-and-white 38-millimetre film through three colour filters: blue, green and red. A lens combined each of the three filters’ images on the screen to create a single, full-colour projection.Despite his breakthrough, the timing and positioning of the filters had to be so precise that the results were often blurry. Turner died in 1903, aged just 29, but his work was adapted by George Albert Smith, who used just two filters, red and green, for more reliable results. Smith called his two-colour system Kinemacolor.Over a century later, Turner’s groundbreaking footage has been restored for the first…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the Tesla coil?After inventing the ground-breaking alternating current (AC) motor in 1887 – the device that is used to power many of the electrical gadgets that we use in the modern day – Nikola Tesla set his sights on a different and more challenging dream: a world without wires.He envisioned a series of giant transmission towers that could provide the entire globe with an endless supply of wireless electricity, and his first step towards achieving this dream was the Tesla coil. This revolutionary device was capable of producing high voltage, high frequency AC electricity that could be sent through the air.The Tesla coil consisted of two main parts: a flat primary coil and a taller secondary coil, both made of thick copper wire. When switched on, a transformer connected to the mains…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the significance of Fabergé eggs?Abeautiful example of 19th century Russian art, Fabergé eggs delighted the ruling Romanovs for over three decades. Created by jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé, they were given as gifts between members of the royal family. As time wore on, it became an ever-more extravagant tradition that symbolised royal excesses in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. Some 50 of these Imperial Easter eggs were created, and each one could take up to a year to create. They were the project f not one, but a whole team of talented craftsmen. One of the most expensive was the diamond snowflake-encrusted 1913 Winter Egg; at a value of 24,600 roubles in 1913 it would cost an eye-watering £2.36 million today.The eggs were designed around a different theme each year, but they…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Ground pollutionLand pollution isn’t just about the space that is taken up by landfill. A city the size of New York could fit all of its rubbish for the next thousand years in a landfill 56 kilometres long by 56 kilometres wide. That sounds like a lot, but that’s the waste of just 2.5 per cent of Americans buried in just 0.03 per cent of the country’s land area. And that land isn’t gone forever – eventually a landfill site will just become a grassy hill.The real source of land pollution is all of the other things that don’t end up in landfill. Copper and aluminium mining generate huge piles of powdered rock, called ‘tailings’, left behind after the metal has been extracted. These tailings are high in toxic heavy metals,…4 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What’s inside an octopus?Imagine a superhero with the ability to instantly disguise not only his skin to camouflage himself, but also his texture. Imagine that this guy possesses powerful rocket boosters to move him in super-quick time, and that he has a smokescreen ability to confuse his enemies. He can also fit through any gap, move in and out of water easily, walk on any substance the right way up and upside down, and even inject a deadly poison that turns his enemies to mush. Incredibly, the octopus boasts all of these amazing powers (apart from the rocket boosters – the octopus has a powerful siphon instead, using water pressure for quick getaways). These animals are the aquatic, advanced and intelligent cousins of slugs and snails, in the phylum Mollusca.…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are crystal giants?Two brothers were drilling in the Naica mine in Mexico when they uncovered a geological wonder of the world, hundreds of thousands of years in the making. The Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals, is a glittering palace covered in some of the largest crystals anyone has ever seen. Measuring over 11 metres – roughly the length of a bus – they have thrived in the extreme conditions of the cave.Temperature is a sweltering 44 degrees Celsius and up to 100 per cent humidity means the air you breathe quickly condenses inside your lungs. Geologists hell bent on exploring the cave and living to tell the tale had to don specially designed suits, strewn with ice packs. If they had taken their respirator mask off for more than…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is fossilised lightning?Lightning lasts for only fractions of a second, but when conditions are just right, traces of it can be preserved for centuries in the form of fossils. If a bolt strikes sand, it can form a stone tube called a fulgurite.Sand is made from ground-up particles of rocks, minerals, and the shells and skeletons of living organisms. The exact composition varies depending on where you are in the world, but one of the most common components is silica – the key ingredient used to make glass.Glass is made by melting sand at temperatures in excess of 1,700 degrees Celsius, and a lightning strike provides more than enough energy to make it happen naturally.Sand doesn’t normally conduct electricity, but when it is wet it provides a path for the lightning. Gaps…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are brinicles?Found in both the Arctic and Antarctic seas, brinicles are formed when conditions are both calm and very cold. Usually occurring as winter sets in, these stalactite-like icy pillars grow downwards into the water from the sea ice.As new sea ice forms, water freezes, and salt and other ions are forced out, producing salty brine. This fluid trickles through cracks and pores in the ice until it finds its way out.The brine is much denser and colder than the seawater beneath the sea ice, which is usually around -1.9 degrees Celsius. As it hits the seawater, the brine begins to sink and the water around it freezes instantly. A brittle tube – or brinicle – is formed, and through this more brine trickles and freezes. Providing that sea conditions are…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the world’s fastest bird?Found on all of the world’s continents apart from Antarctica, the peregrine falcon is one of the most numerous birds of prey out there. And there’s a reason for its phenomenal success: blistering speed. Pigeons in mid-flight can’t escape the claws of this plummeting speed demon, which can exceed over 320 kilometres per hour. Known as the stoop, this manoeuvre sees the falcon climb in altitude before dive-bombing like a feathery torpedo.Peregrine falcons are able to execute this move thanks to some precise physical adaptations. A streamlined body and tapered wings provide unrivalled velocity and thrust, and a razor-sharp beak and talons rarely let prey escape. A special third eyelid protects the bird’s eyes at high speeds, and tubercles in their nostrils stick out like small, bony cones to deflect…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are the criteria for determining a new species?Generally scientists consider a species to be new if it has its own gene pool and evolutionary lineage. If you think that you’ve discovered a new species, there’s a long process to go through.The first step is to get some specimens to compare against other species that are closely related. You collect all of the data about the species, then comb through the literature about related species to be sure that what you have doesn’t match with any other description. Once you’re reasonably sure that it’s new, you publish the data in a peer-reviewed scientific journal so that others can learn about the species and help verify that it’s new. Naming the species comes last, and there are rules here.Depending on what type of species that you’ve discovered, you’ll have…5 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are products tested?Before any new product can hit the shelves, it is put through rigorous tests to ensure it is robust and safe enough to be used by the public. These tests are carried out by professional product testers, who must determine whether the product complies with the international standards set by industry experts from all over the world.“These standards are considered state of the art when it comes to product safety,” says Greg Childs, product tester in the Consumer Products and Electrical department at the British Standards Institution (BSI). “For electrical products they focus on things like protection against electric shocks and resistance to fire, making sure that plastics won’t catch fire very easily.”The job of a product tester involves testing the products in extreme conditions, such as very hot and…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do you build an island?Palm JumeirahHow was Dubai’s palm island constructed?Constructing islands is no longer solely the job of nature, as advances in engineering have resulted in several man-made structures popping up all around the world. From floating islands that are home to single dwellings, to reclaimed land that can support entire communities, creating new terrain is now easier than ever and you can get a piece of it, if you have the money.The world’s largest example is Palm Jumeirah, the palm tree-shaped island off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Designed as a way to extend the city’s coastline the structure is made from all-natural materials and just five kilometres out to sea. It was built by some of the world’s best engineers using 94 million cubic metres of sand…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do binoculars focus?Whether you use binoculars for astronomy or bird-watching, being able to focus on what you’re observing is crucial. To view objects at a range of distances, most binoculars have a central wheel that can be adjusted to bring light rays from different distances into focus.Binoculars contain two pairs of convex lenses: the objective and eyepiece lenses. The objective lenses pick up light rays from objects in the distance and bend them inwards so they converge to produce a small image within the binoculars. The second set, known as eyepiece lenses, act like a magnifying glass to enlarge this image for you to view. Turning the focusing wheel changes the distance between the objective and eyepiece lenses. This helps to adjust the path of light to create a sharp and focused…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the tallest bridge in the world?The Millau Viaduct in southern France is the tallest bridge in the world. It stretches over the vast River Tarn, reaching 2.46 kilometres across a valley. At the deepest part of the gorge, one mast stands 343 metres above the ground, which is taller than the Eiffel Tower. Spanning this gap was no mean feat. Despite being built at one of the narrowest points of the valley, the bridge still supports the highest roadway in Europe, and must contend with strong wings and fluctuating temperatures. The structure flexes, expands and contracts, and it needs to be able to take the strain.Millau Viaduct is an example of a cable-stayed bridge; it is supported entirely by seven columns that run from the concrete deck down into the valley below. The load is…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do industrial robots work?Ninety per cent of all the robots in the world live in factories. The availability of cheap human labour in China and the Far East hasn’t slowed down the march of machines, and sales of industrial robots are in fact growing faster in China than anywhere else in the world.Robots were first put to work in 1961, when General Motors installed Unimate. This was a 1.8-ton, die-cast robot arm that dealt with red-hot, metal car door handles and other parts – dangerous and unpleasant work for humans. Unimate followed instructions stored on a magnetic drum (the forerunner of today’s computer hard disks), and could be reprogrammed to do other jobs. When Unimate robots took over the job of welding car bodies in 1969, the GM plant in Ohio was able…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How does pet tech work?How the iFetch worksThe perfect toy for your pooch to play with when you’re awayApproximately 40 per cent of UK households have pets, and with more of us leading busy lifestyles, it’s not always possible to give our animal pals as much attention as we, and they, would like. However, thanks to technology we can now keep an eye on our pets and make sure they are entertained even when they’re home alone. From automatic ball launchers to Wi-Fi treat dispensers, there are now many gadgets on the market to help keep our pets happy and healthy.The growing pet tech market is an example of the ‘internet of things’, the development of everyday items that feature network connectivity. Gadgets that feature internet access via Wi-Fi or mobile networks provide owners…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is a COSMIC CATASTROPHE?What if the Moon exploded?If the Moon were destroyed by some hypothetical event, it’s fair to say it probably wouldn’t be good news for us – although the method of destruction is important. If the Moon just cracked into several large pieces, they would likely coalesce together again over time. But if it were blown to smithereens, it would create a huge amount of debris. Over the following few years, some of this debris would rain down on Earth, striking our surface and destroying everything in its path, and heating the oceans until they start to evaporate. The rest, still in orbit around Earth, would settle down over time into a flattened ring shape, not unlike Saturn. But it’s likely the remaining debris could make space inaccessible to any humans…7 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What does the Sun look like from other planets?On Earth, the position of the Sun relative to our planet makes us the toast of the Solar System. Located in the habitable zone, where the Sun is the right distance to make it neither too hot nor too cold, we are treated to relatively moderate temperatures. We also enjoy a brilliant blue sky, as molecules in our atmosphere scatter more blue light than any other colour.Take a trip to the planets Venus and Mercury, though, and it’s a different story. On the former, the atmosphere is extremely thick, so you’d be hard-pressed to see the Sun (and nor would you on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune), but based on some landers sent there by the Soviet Union in the Seventies and Eighties, we know the sky looks kind of…4 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is dinner like in space?British chef Heston Blumenthal is renowned for his experimental approach to cooking, but his latest challenge took food science to new heights. In collaboration with the UK Space Agency, Blumenthal created a selection of dishes for astronaut Tim Peake to enjoy on board the International Space Station.NASA has strict regulations dictating what food can go into space and how it must be prepared, so sending restaurant-quality meals into orbit is no easy task. Everything must be heated to 140 degrees Celsius for two hours to kill off any bacteria that could make the crew ill, while anything that creates crumbs is strictly forbidden – they could easily float into instruments or equipment and could potentially cause serious damage – not a risk worth taking.Eating in space is not always a…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What near misses will Earth have?Headlines of an asteroid Armageddon may sell papers, but in reality these space rocks rarely pass within the Moon’s orbit. In February, NASA announced that the asteroid 2013 TX68 could pass as close as 17,000 kilometres, or as far as 14 million kilometres from Earth’s surface. It is this huge range of uncertainty that often causes a stir among media outlets; when experts appear to be so unsure, it can seem somewhat unsettling to those of us who don’t really understand it.NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program detects and tracks asteroids and comets that pose a threat to our planet. The most important part of the programme is identifying Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), which could impact Earth in the future. These are classified as asteroids that are over 150 metres wide, on…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are dark nebulae?Have you ever looked up at the night sky to see a patch of blackness surrounded by a sea of luminous stars? Instead of empty space you may have found a dark nebula, a gargantuan cloud of dust that could swallow our entire Solar System. The specks of dust in the clouds are formed mainly of dirty graphite, ices and carbon-based ‘goo’. These components absorb and diffract light, blocking and obscuring our view of the stars that lay beyond.The Great Rift is a collection of dark nebulae that actually splits up our view of the Milky Way. Together, these nebulae weigh more than 1 million times the mass of our Sun, and span hundreds of light years. And in this region of space, new stars are constantly being born.Turbulence within…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What will Juno help us discover about Jupiter?NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been racing towards Jupiter at 97,000 kilometres per hour since leaving Earth in 2011. It arrived on 4 July 2016, and had travelled more than 2.8 billion kilometres, setting the record for the most distance a solar-powered probe has ever flown.Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, spanning 143,000 kilometres across and weighing in at 318 times more than Earth. It’s a gas giant, which means it’s mostly made of hydrogen and helium gas, and its appearance is famous for the stripes ofcreamy white, orange and brown. The biggest cloud pattern is the Great Red Spot, a huge anticyclonic storm that’s big enough to fit our entire planet inside!What lies deep within Jupiter’s core is still a mystery, however. What does its gaseous composition…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do you wash your hair in space?If you can’t stand the thought of not having a shower for months on end, then look away now. This is one of the prices that astronauts on the International Space Station have to pay for the chance to live in Earth orbit.If you’ve ever seen the way water behaves in microgravity, then you can probably imagine that completing a task as simple as giving your roots a good scrub can be difficult. Rather than falling straight down as it does on Earth, water in microgravity scatters into watery blobs. Rogue droplets and hair strands can create safety hazards, so personal hygiene routines become a little more challenging. During her time on the International Space Station back in 2013, astronaut Karen Nyberg demonstrated the elaborate process in a video for…6 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are the laws of thermodynamics?The four lawsZeroth law of thermodynamics If two objects with the same temperature are touching, there is no net flow of energy from one object to the other.First law of thermodynamics Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed.Second law of thermodynamics As energy transforms, it becomes less concentrated and therefore less useful.Third law of thermodynamics It is not possible to get the temperature of a substance down to absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin/-273.15ºC).The first and second lawSee the laws of thermodynamics in action in this simple exampleENERGY IN = ENERGY OUTEnergy is what makes everything happen, from getting out of bed to launching a rocket. For these things to occur, there needs to be an energy change – energy must be converted from one form to…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do our hearts beat?Your heart began to beat when you were a four-week-old foetus in the womb. Over the course of the average lifetime, it will beat over 2 billion times.The heart is composed of four chambers separated into two sides. The right side receives deoxygenated blood from the body, and pumps it towards the lungs, where it picks up oxygen from the air you breathe. The oxygenated blood returns to the left side of the heart, where it is sent through the circulatory system, delivering oxygen and nutrients around the body.The pumping action of the heart is coordinated by muscular contractions that are generated by electrical currents. These currents regularly trigger cardiac contractions known as systole. The upper chambers, or atria, which receive blood arriving at the heart, contract first. This forces…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is the blood-brain barrier?Protecting the brainTake a closer look at the barrier that shields your brain cellsY our brain is arguably your most important organ, and it is vital that it isn’t affected by wayward chemicals or aggressive infections. To keep your nerve cells safe, your body builds a biological wall called the blood-brain barrier.Blood vessels are the highway of the human body, carrying nutrients and oxygen to tissues, and taking away waste products, but unfortunately, they can also transport harmful chemicals and infections. In most parts of the body, chemicals are able to freely cross through the walls of the blood vessels, leaking between the cells and out into the tissues, but thankfully this does not occur in the brain.To prevent unwanted contaminants from entering, the cells lining the blood vessels are…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is respiration?All the cells in our body need oxygen to survive, which we get from the air that we breathe.Cells use oxygen to generate energy from food and produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. Too much carbon dioxide is harmful and makes the blood acidic, so we need to get rid of it. The process of getting oxygen from the air into our bodies and breathing out unwanted carbon dioxide in return is known as respiration.Oxygen’s journey into our cells starts with breathing, which is controlled by a part of the brain called the respiratory centre. It sends signals to the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm, telling them to contract, expanding the lungs and pulling air down the windpipe and into the branching tubes of the lungs. Each tube ends…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How are spirits made?Yeasts consume sugar, breaking it down into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide in a process called fermentation. People have been taking advantage of this trick to produce alcoholic drinks since prehistory, but there is a limit to how strong wine and beer can get before the yeasts start to die. Although the yeasts produce the alcohol, it is still toxic to them in large enough quantities. Making stronger alcoholic drinks requires a bit more human intervention, and this is done by the process of distillation, which involves separating one liquid from a mixture of liquids. Alcohol boils and condenses at a lowe temperature than water, a property which allows the two liquids to be separated.In a distillery, a low percentage alcoholic mixture is heated until the alcohol starts evaporating. The…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What if the magnetic field flipped?Earth’s magnetic field shields us from solar winds, but north isn’t always north. In recent history, the magnetic poles have switched four or five times every million years. It hasn’t happened in modern history, so it’s hard to know what to expect.During a flip, the magnetic field weakens and breaks up. This would leave Earth vulnerable to the effects of solar storms, potentially disrupting communications. It could also confuse animals that use magnetic fields to navigate. However, there would be a silver lining. The magnetic field is responsible for the northern and southern lights, and as the poles switched, auroras would become visible across the globe.…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What are the colours of blood?RedHumans and most other vertebratesHumans and other vertebrates have red blood thanks to a protein called haemoglobin. Iron atoms in this molecule bind to the oxygen we breathe in order to carry it around the body. This reaction changes the haemoglobin’s structure so it absorbs and reflects light differently; oxygenated blood appears bright red while deoxygenated blood is darker.GreenMarine worms and leechesCertain species of marine worms and leeches have a molecule called chlorocruorin in their blood. Although this protein is very similar in structure to haemoglobin, it makes their blood green rather than red.Some animals’ blood contains a mixture of both chlorocruorin and haemoglobin, so to the naked eye it would appear to be closer to the colour red.BlueOctupuses, squid and spidersOctupuses, squid, crustaceans, spiders and some molluscs have blue…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6How do nuclear power plants work?T he power of nuclear fission was first fully realised during World War Two with the invention of the devastating atomic bomb. It was only after the war, when the world had witnessed this incredible release of energy, that attentions were turned to harnessing nuclear reactions as a power source.Today, nuclear energy is used to power all manner of things from submarines to space probes. Even our own homes are partly nuclear-powered, as roughly 20 per cent of electricity in the UK and the US is provided by nuclear stations.Like most other means of generating electricity, nuclear power plants use heat energy to produce steam that spins turbines. This is a very similar process to burning fossil fuels, currently our main method of producing electricity, but it generates only a…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Ancient espionageIn the first cities of Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, spying was an effective way for kings and pharaohs to monitor the population, as well as to discover enemy weaknesses.The Ancient Egyptians used court spies to root out disloyal subjects, and they were also among the first to develop poisons for sabotage or assassinations.With no spy gadgets at their disposal, eavesdropping on conversations, intercepting communications and scouting enemy movements were the key methods used to gather useful intelligence. Resourceful techniques were developed to ensure written messages remained secret, including codes and trick inks.The Ancient Greeks excelled at espionage and subterfuge. The legendary tale of the Trojan horse became a symbol of their cunning and deceptive military tactics. They developed efficient methods of communicating important messages between cities, including a fire…2 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6Cold War espionageA decades-long power struggle between the US and the USSR began after the collapse of the Third Reich. The nations held opposing ideologies – capitalism versus communism – and had a mutual distrust of one another’s intentions. Tensions rose as both powers entered into an arms race and the threat of a devastating nuclear war grew. Espionage was one of the primary methods used to try and break the deadlock. Each of the two superpowers was determined to gain the upper hand, so spies were sent all over the world to gather intelligence about their enemy.One of the most infamous spy networks behind the Iron Curtain was the Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the Stasi. Operating in East Berlin, the organisation used brutal methods to monitor the activities…3 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What is medieval siege mining?In Medieval warfare there were many ways to bring a fortress crashing to its knees. Battering rams, trebuchets, ladders, or simply starving the garrison into submission were all perfect tools and tactics for winning a siege.If none of these usual methods worked, however, the attacking force could dig under the walls themselves, and destroy them from beneath. With a huge hole in the castle’s defences, the attackers were able to swarm in and overwhelm the unfortunate defenders.…1 min
How It Works: Amazing Answers to Curious Questions|Vol 6What did it take to become a knight?K nights were mounted armoured warriors of the Medieval era. Their place in society was below lords and above peasants and they would earn a living by protecting the realm from attack. In return, the nobility would grant land to the knights but the wealthy barons would only hire those who were skilled in combat. A boy’s education could take over ten years as they progressed from page to squire to mounted warrior. The apprenticeship may have begun on a wooden horse in a manor house, but it many cases it finished on a stallion in the heat of battle.The road to knighthoodFrom page to knight, training was an arduous yet rewarding journey1 Starting outAlthough it was technically possible for any boy to become a knight, those born into nobility…2 min
