Education
How It Works UK
SALLY RIDE MEMORABILIA COLLECTION SELLS FOR OVER £100,000
A set of memorabilia chronicling Sally Ride’s pioneering path to space just fetched a pretty penny at auction.
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Issue 206
How It Works UK
WHAT CAUSES POWER CUTS?
A series of unfortunate events can plunge our homes into total darkness
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How It Works UK
Severed bow of US warship finally found in the South Pacific
The bow section of the US warship USS New Orleans, which was blown off by a Japanese torpedo in 1942, has been located near the island of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. Although the ship survived the attack, more than 180 of the crew on board the heavy cruiser were killed when one of the ship's magazines of ammunition was hit by a torpedo and detonated, tearing off the front of the vessel.
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How It Works UK
BACKYARD POWER STATIONS
With growing demand and dwindling resources, there's only one direction fuel bills are going. But soon we could have power stations in our gardens
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How It Works UK
WORLD'S BIGGEST SPACE AGENCIES
Between their rivalries and collaborations, how have the world's top national space agencies contributed to our knowledge of the cosmos?
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How It Works UK
SOUTH KOREA WANTS TO BUILD A MOON BASE BY 2045
South Korea's space ambitions keep growing. The nation wants to build a Moon base by 2045, The Korea Times reported on 17 July, citing a long-term exploration road map that the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) laid out that same day.
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How It Works UK
ENERGY EXPLAINED
It's one of the most basic concepts in physics, governing the behaviour of everything from subatomic particles to galaxies
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How It Works UK
NEANDERTHAL INVENTIONS
These caveman creations kept our ancient hunter-gatherer relatives alive
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How It Works UK
First-ever evidence of stellar 'double detonation' captured
For the first time, astronomers have captured stunning visual evidence of a star double-detonating itself to death. The twin eruption was discovered by scientists studying two concentric rings of calcium that surround SNR 0509-67.5, a remnant of a star that met its explosive demise in a type la supernova centuries ago. And the discovery isn’t just a pretty picture. The researchers who made it say that much of our knowledge of how the universe expands — a major controversy in cosmology — depends on reliably measuring this type of supernova, which is also the primary source of iron throughout the cosmos. For these reasons, “the explosions of white dwarfs play a crucial role in astronomy,” said Priyam Das, a graduate student at the University of New South Wales Canberra in Australia. “Yet despite their importance, the longstanding puzzle of the exact mechanism triggering their explosion remains unsolved.”
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How It Works UK
TRACKING SEA MONSTERS
How a NASA star-mapping tool is being put to a new use - following the largest fish in the sea, whale sharks
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How It Works UK
World's first planned migration of an entire nation
More than 5,000 people have applied for a first-of-its-kind migration visa that offers residents of a Pacific island an escape from the worst effects of climate change. Applications for the visa closed to people in Tuvalu on 18 July. Under its terms, 280 Tuvaluans can relocate to Australia each year from 2025 through a ballot system. Four days after the ballot opened, 3,125 Tuvaluans, roughly one-third of the nation's population of 11,000 people, had already registered for a chance to receive the visa. “This is the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world, providing a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen,” Australian government representatives said. The representatives said that they recognised the “devastating impact climate change is having on the livelihoods, security and well-being of climate-vulnerable countries and people, particularly in the Pacific region.”
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How It Works UK
AN XBOX ONE?
A victim of the Xbox 360's success
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How It Works UK
HOW SNAILS BUILD A SHELL
All they need is a specialised organ, some calcium-rich food and time
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How It Works UK
THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL LASERS
What happens when a beam of energy 100 times the power of the global electricity grid is concentrated onto a pinpoint?
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How It Works UK
Europe tests its largest ever Mars parachute above the Arctic
A giant parachute built for Europe's beleaguered ExoMars mission has aced a drop test with a mock lander during a test campaign in the Arctic.
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How It Works UK
1,600-year-old tomb of Maya city's first ruler unearthed in Belize
Archaeologists in Belize have unearthed the tomb of the first ruler of the ancient Maya city of Caracol, which was a major centre in the Maya Lowlands during the 6th and 7th centuries.
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How It Works UK
JAPAN SETS A NEW INTERNET SPEED RECORD
Researchers in Japan say they have set a new world record for the fastest internet speed, transmitting over 125,000 gigabytes of data per second over 1,120 miles. That's about 4 million times the average internet speed in the US. This is also more than twice the previous world record of 50,250 gigabytes per second, set by a different team of scientists in 2024. To achieve this new speed, which has not been independently verified, the team developed a new form of optical fibre to send information over roughly the distance between New York and Florida.
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How It Works UK
Scientists transform urine into material fit for medical implants
Scientists have developed a method that can transform human urine into the hard mineral in bones and tooth enamel. The research, funded by the US military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), uses yeast to break urine down into hydroxyapatite, a form of calcium used in bone and dental implants. And hydroxyapatite isn't useful only for implants; the researchers behind the study said the material could be used in archaeological restoration, as biodegradable alternatives to plastic and as building materials for construction projects.
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How It Works UK
INSIDE THE MIND OF A GENIUS
What's going on inside the brains of those with truly exceptional mental abilities, and why are they so intelligent? Genetic analysis and Einstein's brain are providing us with some answers
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How It Works UK
Are polar aurorae stronger at the North Pole?
Amazing answers to your curious questions
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How It Works UK
ROCKET LAB LAUNCHES AN EARTHOBSERVING SATELLITE
Rocket Lab launched an Earthobserving radar satellite into orbit for the Japanese company iQPS.
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How It Works UK
GLUTEN IN THE BODY
When you eat foods like a sandwich or a bowl of pasta, enzymes in your digestive system work to break down the ingredients so that nutrients can be absorbed by the body as the food passes through you.
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How It Works UK
We may finally know how paracetamol works
Acetaminophen is widely used to relieve pain, but exactly how it works has long been a mystery.
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How It Works UK
2,800-year-old royal tomb discovered near King Midas' home
Archaeologists have discovered an 8th-century BCE royal tomb of a relative of King Midas in the ancient city of Gordion, southwest of Ankara, Turkey.
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How It Works UK
WHAT IS GLUTEN?
Discover how this viscous and elastic protein forms, where to find it and why some people can't eat it
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How It Works UK
INTOLERANCE TYPES
Gluten isn't for everyone. When some people consume gluten, they experience pain and other negative gastrointestinal symptoms.
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How It Works UK
Covering poo lagoons could cut most dairy farm methane
Dairy farms produce huge amounts of potent greenhouse gases.
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How It Works UK
China pits humanoids against each other in a robot boxing tournament
Lifelike humanoid robots have competed in the world’s first humanoid robot combat competition, with four Chinese teams pitting advanced fighting robots against each other.
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How It Works UK
WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT'S THE TIME?
How the world's clocks and geographic coordinates came to be set by a small borough of London
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How It Works UK
Roman-era 'fast food' discovered in an ancient Mallorcan rubbish heap
Songbirds were on the menu 2,000 years ago on the Roman island of Mallorca, archaeological evidence reveals.
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