Table of contents for Issue 183 in How It Works

The United States government has handed out its first-ever fine to a private company that left space debris in orbit. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a $150,000 fine (around £124,000) to satellite TV provider DISH for not safely deorbiting its EchoStar-7 satellite. The satellite was launched in 2002, and DISH originally intended to deorbit the spacecraft in May 2022. The satellite ran out of fuel, however, leaving the company no choice but to leave the satellite 100 miles short of its designated disposal region high above geostationary orbit. In this region, satellites can remain over one fixed spot on Earth. The failure to dispose of the satellite at the end of its operational life violated the FCC’s Communications Act. The FCC issued the fine as part of its…

The human brain is hard-wired to make sense of the world around it. When events occur that we can’t explain with logic, fear often takes over and our imaginations run riot. In ancient times, ships that became lost at sea must have been attacked by sea monsters, fossilised bones were thought to have belonged to ferocious mystical beasts and natural disasters were the acts of evil spirits. Over the last thousand years or so of recorded history worldwide, people have conjured up their own explanations for frightful sightings with little or no scientific process. This information was spread through stories, and over time, through their telling and retelling down generations, the more fantastic details became exaggerated. Before long, large communities shared a common fear of the colossal creatures that hid…

WHERE WEREWOLVES CAME FROM Perhaps the most unnerving aspect of werewolf folklore is that the ‘monster’ could be anyone around you. Perfectly disguised as a regular human during the daylight hours, these beasts transform at night – both physically and mentally – into vicious, body-devouring wolfmen. Curated by alterations through the telling of word-of-mouth stories in European folklore, a werewolf will feast on any animal, human or dead body, and just one bite from this creature is enough to turn another person into a werewolf. EXPLANATION Most ancient tales are formed from true encounters, and some elements of the werewolf myth are derived from misinterpreted medical conditions. One that may have shaped werewolf myths and imagery is hypertrichosis. Since the Middle Ages there have only been around 50 people in…

1 GIANT SQUID Reports of giant squid were made for over 2,000 years before scientists could verify their existence. 2 OARFISH These fish can be up to 17 metres long. No live oarfish had been filmed until 2001. Before this, sightings were mistaken for sea serpents. 3 KOMODO DRAGON Komodo dragons were confirmed to be real in 1910. Before this, large lizards were believed to be long extinct. 4 GORILLA Until 1847, gorillas were classified as ‘monster-like humans’ who would ransack villages. Gorillas were officially classed as a species in 1902. 5 PLATYPUS With an otter’s feet, a beaver’s tail and a duck’s bill, scientists first thought the animal was pieced together using other animal parts.…

Many creatures throughout the animal kingdom undergo a process of physical transformation called moulting. Whether they create ghostly serpent sleeves as a result or just ditch clumps of old skin and fur, shedding is an important stage in an animal’s growth and survival. The terms moulting and shedding are often used interchangeably, but there’s a slight difference between each process. Moulting is the removal of an animal’s entire skin, feathers, shell or exoskeleton as it grows, which often occurs on a seasonal basis. For example, elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) undergo what is known as a ‘catastrophic moult’ during late summer. As dramatic as it sounds, the ‘catastrophic’ nature of these moults merely relates to the large patches of skin that shed at one time. During this time, blood flow within…

Leftover food, garden trimmings and other organic waste items don’t need to be discarded. Instead they can be recycled in a process called composting. Composting is the breaking down, or decomposition, of organic material into nutrient-rich soil. After decomposition, these materials turn into organic molecules made up of carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and salts. Compost heaps are places where this process is accelerated from years to months or even just a few weeks. Composting mostly takes place outdoors, and there are two main types: cold, or passive, and hot, also called active compost. Cold composting is much slower but is easier to manage. All you need to do is add the right materials and allow the natural process to take place. The soil created from this process usually can’t…

1 FOOD WASTE Compostable leftovers can be shredded and consumed by the compost pile’s primary consumers. 2 ACTINOMYCETES These bacteria thrive in soil with high alkaline pH levels. Actinomycetes break down woody materials, cellulose and proteins. 3 FUNGI Fungi can break down complex materials so that bacteria can begin the composting process quicker. 4 SPRINGTAILS These insects are pests to plants in large numbers, but eat the fungi growing within the compost. 5 MOULD AND BEETLE MITES Transparent mites are attracted to the mould that grows in compost. 6 FEATHER-WINGED BEETLE Very common in compost heaps, they live off fungal spores and leaf litter. 7 TERTIARY CONSUMERS At the top of the compost pile food chain are centipedes, ground beetles and ants. These help control pest levels. 8 BACTERIA Microorganisms…

The two main methods dolphins use to communicate are clicking and whistling, with whistles being heard up to 12.4 miles away through the ocean. Whistling noises are made in different patterns and frequencies to speak with other dolphins, while clicking is used for echolocation. Echolocation is the method of releasing sound waves into the surrounding water in order to hunt for food and visualise the objects moving around them. The sound waves bounce off nearby objects and return to the dolphin’s head. Their brain then converts the returning sound waves into the shapes and distances of objects in the murky water, including threats, potential food and obstacles. Scientists are trying to work out more about the meanings behind specific whistle patterns, as this would enable humans to listen to and…

Sugar is found all over in nature, from the apples growing on trees to grains in the ground and too many of them? The major difference is in the processing of sugar in sweets and the types of sugars that make up the main ingredients of a product. Sucrose is the favoured type of sugar used to make confectionery. This comes from a plant called sugar cane, but by the time it enters your favourite sweet treat, it’s usually had all its natural fibre and antioxidants removed. Health experts advise that less than ten per cent of your daily calorie intake should come from sugary sweets and 90 per cent of your energy should be derived from more nutritional sources. But if sweets aren’t the best choice for our health,…

GELATINE GUMMIES A large majority of modern candy-makers strive for a sticky or gummy consistency in their sweets. While some manufacturers opt for ingredients from plants, such as vegetable starch, to get this texture, most gummy sweets will list gelatine as an ingredient. This is a clear, odourless protein called collagen, extracted from the bones of animals like pigs and cows. Gelatine melts when placed in the mouth, but dissolves slowly so the sweets can last longer. The protein is hard when dry and squishy when wet, making it a widespread ingredient across sweet brands. MALLOW AERATION A marshmallow is a spongy, pillow-like sweet made using corn syrup, sugar, egg whites and gelatine. More corn syrup is added than sugar, as it dissolves more easily and prevents crystallisation, which would…

Whether it’s the Fourth of July, Guy Fawkes Night or New Year’s Eve, you’re sure to see the sparking light of nearby fireworks, followed quickly by their boisterous booms. But igniting colourful chemicals and shooting them into the sky isn’t a new tradition by any means. The first fireworks were hurtling into the sky in around 600 BCE in ancient China. Ancient alchemists discovered that mixing potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal produced a black powder that’s now referred to as the ‘first gunpowder’. When this powder was stuffed into a bamboo stick and ignited, it created the first firework propulsion system. Early fireworks were used to celebrate weddings, births and even to ward off evil spirits. Modern fireworks still use black powder, but now incorporate small pellets of packed minerals,…

Each crew member on the ISS has their own small cabin with a firmly anchored sleeping bag that allows them to sleep comfortably without floating around in microgravity. Even so, there are a couple of hazards associated with sleeping in space that don’t affect us down here on Earth. One is a kind of personal ‘firework show’: sudden, bright flashes of light, seen even with the eyes closed, which are caused by cosmic rays and can be an annoying source of sleep disturbance. A second hazard arises in microgravity because exhaled carbon dioxide can remain close to an astronaut’s face if they fall asleep in an area with poor air circulation, resulting in a bad headache. Did you know? Alcohol is prohibited on board the ISS…

On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. But that historic day also saw another first – the rocket that propelled Sputnik into space detached and became the first piece of space junk. Space junk, or orbital debris, is the common term for any human-made object in orbit which no longer serves a purpose. It ranges from bus-sized items, such as nonfunctional spacecraft, to nuts and bolts and dust from motors. Since 1957, the amount of space junk surrounding our planet has steadily grown, to the point where the US Space Surveillance Network is tracking the movement of more than 34,600 objects five centimetres wide or larger. While the risk to life on Earth is low, space junk poses a significant…

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was propelled into a new era commonly known as the medieval period, or the Middle Ages, which lasted until around 1500. Without emperors to dictate society, new feudal systems slowly emerged throughout the continent, where kings would bestow land and residences on nobles and lords, and ultimately the creation of the early class system was born. With that came a new way of life for different people. At the bottom of the social ladder were peasants, also known as serfs, who lived in the most desolate of conditions. During the early medieval period, peasants’ homes were made of sticks and earth. Heat and a means of cooking food were provided by a fire, the smoke from which would billow through the thatched…

“During the early medieval period, peasants’ homes were made of sticks and earth” 1 JAPAN Between 1185 and 1606 CE, many who lived outside of the lavish castles and villas of Japan’s most wealthy resided in traditional homes known as minka. Minka came in a variety of categories, such as farmhouses called nōka, mountain houses called sanka and urban homes called machiya. Each type was different in its construction, but usually featured a hardened earth floor, called a doma, for the purpose of cooking and a raised wooden platform for sleeping. 2 MONGOLIA During the 13th century, when the empire of Genghis Khan controlled Mongolia, many nomadic families resided in a circular tent-like structure called a ger, also known as a yurt. Their ingenious design allowed people to erect their…

Big Ben’s famous tune needed to be composed before the bells could be manufactured. The large, central bell rings in the note E natural, and the four smaller bells in G sharp, F sharp, E and B. Dr Joseph Jowett was tasked with writing the short tune in 1793. Big Ben chimes on every quarter of the hour, with the full version being played on the hour. Casting of the original bell began on 6 August 1856 in a large mould. Inside two specially made furnaces, 18 tonnes of melted metal was produced. After cooling and being stood upright, the bell measured two metres tall with a diameter of nearly three metres. The first bell casting failed to chime at the right pitch, so it was remelted. Luckily the second…

1G This had very basic voice call capabilities, was launched by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979 and was at first only available in Tokyo. 2G In 1991 the Global System for Mobile Communication launched in Finland, and a year later in the US. It featured encryption and a download speed of 0.2 megabytes per second. 3G Launched in Japan in 2001, it had data speeds of two megabytes per second, enabling things like video chat and faster web browsing. 4G Brought in at the end of 2009, this was a big improvement on 3G, with a download speed of 12.5 megabytes per second. But it required a new generation of mobile phones to make it work. 5G The version most of us are familiar with today, South Korea introduced…

How do you build an earthquake-proof bridge when the geological conditions are too wobbly for conventional supports, and the locals are demanding an architectural wonder to rival the Golden Gate Bridge? That was the unique challenge facing California’s Department of Transportation when it was tasked with building a new span connecting Oakland with Yerba Buena Island. The San Francisco area takes great pride in its skyline, but it’s also notorious for its seismic activity. So this new span had to have brawn as well as beauty. Fortunately, an answer was found, taken straight from the playground. The simplest way to understand how the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge works is to think of the engineering principles of seesaws and swings. Imagine building a seesaw in a muddy, waterlogged playground. It requires…

Gravity isn’t just for keeping planets in their respective orbits; it’s a force that acts on all matter in the universe. That’s the basis of Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. The greater the object’s mass – and the closer it is – the greater the gravitational force on other objects around it. All of the bodies in our Solar System are affected by the gravitational pull of the Sun. However, the Sun is just one of hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, which in turn is one of more than 100 billion galaxies – all of which have gravitational pull. All of these are also moving. For example, the Sun completes one rotation around the centre of the Milky Way every 230 million years or so. Einstein…

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO: HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE @HOWITWORKSMAG HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM HOWITWORKSMAG LETTER of the MONTH RADIOACTIVE OCEAN Dear HIW, I’m a school student in New Zealand. I’ve been reading your magazine since the start of this year. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you and the team for making such an incredible magazine to read. I heard that Japan has been dumping radioactive waste in the sea. Is this true, and how could it affect sea life and humans? Ella Towards the end of August 2023, it was announced that Japan will release treated radioactive wastewater into its seas. This wastewater was used to cool down parts of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was flooded by a tsunami in 2011, causing radiation to leak…

An unusual species of bamboo is about to flower for the first time in over 100 years, which could enable researchers to find out more about its mysterious regeneration process. Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis, or henon bamboo, flowers only once every 120 years before perishing. The current generation of this species is expected to flower in 2028. However, researchers from Hiroshima University in Japan noticed that a few local specimens had begun to flower early. In a recent study, the researchers found that many of the flowering specimens did not contain any seeds. The team also observed a lack of new culms growing from the root systems of those that had flowered, also showing limited asexual reproduction. This could mean that many dense fields of bamboo may be hard to…

PRODIGY AERIAL RIG £409/$699 WWW.FIRETOYS.CO.UK For those wanting to develop aerial skills, the Prodigy Aerial Rig is a great way to practise at home without having to bolt equipment to the ceiling. From aerial yoga to hoop and silk performances, you can train and practise without leaving your home. The rig occupies around 2.0 by 2.6 metres of floor space, can reach up to 2.9 metres high and can be lowered to two metres. It takes around ten minutes to set up, and thanks to its relatively small components it can be stored compactly. The rig’s robust steel frame has a working load limit of 230 kilograms, meaning the whole family can put their circus skills to the test. TIGHTROPE-WALKING GYROBOT £35/$39.95 WWW.THAMESANDKOSMOS.CO.UK Build your own tightrope-walking robot using an…

Some tales of this Nordic sea monster describe it the size of an island. With giant, tentacle-like extensions, the kraken appears under ships, making the water appear shallow and brown, and is capable of attacking any large vessel that may cross its path. Since the 1100s, many sailors have told stories of their encounters with a kraken in the seas of Iceland, Greenland and Norway. It became known as a beast that could swallow any ship in the giant whirlpool it whipped the sea surrounding it into. The earliest references to the kraken date back to 1180, and it has since been considered the largest monster ever imagined by humankind. But was it really imagined? EXPLANATION The creature that sailors called a kraken was likely to have evolved from real…

In 1995 in Puerto Rico, the first chupacabras were reported. These ghastly animals are said to roam the countryside on four legs, hunting for vulnerable livestock – sheep, goats and similar domestic animals. But when farmers discovered the carnage the next morning, they saw that the flesh of their livestock was left uneaten; instead this monster feasted on their blood. This is where their Spanish name comes from: ‘chupar’ means ‘to suck’ in Spanish, while ‘cabra’ translates to ‘goat’. They are described as being hairless, caninelike creatures with crazy red eyes. EXPLANATION As the livestock massacres continued and the chupacabra became well known, owners of animals stayed alert. Around the beginning of 2010, supposed chupacabra specimens were handed into the authorities. Upon inspection, biologists found that almost all of these…

AUSTRALIA’S BUSH MONSTER The yowie can be thought of as the abominable snowman’s long-lost cousin, though living in a completely contrasting environment to the yeti: in Aboriginal folklore the yowie bush monster is an inhabitant of the Australian outback. The shaggy ape-like creature is around twice as tall as an average human adult, with much larger feet, bat-like ears, a huge toothy mouth and a flat nose. Some say the yowie is an aggressive monster, while others say it’s a friendly giant. EXPLANATION The Kuku Yalanji tribe of Far North Queensland were first to claim the existence of the yowie. This species lived alongside them, according to legend, and there were two types of yowie. One grew up to three metres tall and the other about half this size. Ancient…

Along with a heap of excess fur to clean up, being around a dog that likes to shed its fur can trigger human allergies. Siberian Huskies, for example, are some of the heaviest shredders in the canine world. This is mainly due to their role as sled dogs in cold climates, as shedding helps maintain their thick, healthy coats. But what’s good for plummeting temperatures can wreak havoc on their owner’s nose. When dogs shed, they also shed skin cells. These can find their way into the nostrils and mouth of the owner, triggering the body’s immune system and causing allergic relations. However, many dog breeds, such as the Afghan Hound and Giant Schnauzer, have been deemed hypoallergenic. This means that while no dog is completely free from shedding, some…

1 ALTERNATING LAYERS A successful compost heap has alternating layers of dry, carbon-rich ‘brown’ items and wet, nitrogen-rich ‘green’ items. 2 AIR Larger items add air pockets. Air is needed for essential microbes to survive. 3 MOISTURE Compost should be between 40 and 60 per cent water. 4 FRESH GRASS Grass clippings are high in nitrogen, which increases reproduction in microorganisms. 5 BOKASHI SOIL The soil from bokashi – a process that breaks down food waste by fermentation – can be added to compost to increase friendly microbes. 6 FOOD WASTE Scraps of food can be completely broken down into compost in just a few weeks. 7 EGG TRAYS The natural materials in egg trays break down quickly to make rich fertiliser. 8 DRY FLOWERS AND LEAVES Dry plant matter…

Like in many other industries, artificial intelligence (AI) has found its way into the toolset of firework display designers. Along with being able to simulate a digital display, AI is being used to gather data from displays around the world to choreograph new and unique experiences. AI is capable of precisely calculating the optimal timing, position and safety of fireworks to produce a display that’s not only visually exciting, but one that is perfectly synchronised with any accompanying music. It can even be used to respond to changes in the weather in real time, such as adjusting the position of a launching mortar to account for changing wind speed.…

Being an astronaut is one of the most prestigious and sought-after careers in the world, with thousands of applicants for each vacancy. But what does the job actually entail? Here we take a look at the daily routine of the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS). No two days are quite the same on the ISS, and even on a particular day different crew members will have different tasks to perform. But a typical working day will be focused around two shifts – one in the morning and one in the afternoon – with an hour’s break for lunch between them. The main work activity involves a range of scientific research, although there are also routine maintenance chores to be done as well. Occasionally there’s work that has…

Some features of everyday life on the ISS are unusual, but not unique. The isolation of the crew and the need for a long-term, self-contained supply of air, water and food, are shared with life on board a submarine. But the one thing that’s truly unique about life in space is the almost complete lack of any perceptible force of gravity – a condition that NASA refers to as microgravity. This phenomenon isn’t due to the absence of gravity. If you could build a tower 250 miles high, then the top would be at roughly the same altitude as the ISS. The strength of gravity you’d feel would be about 90 per cent of its value at ground level, and if you stepped off, you’d fall back to Earth. The…

1 US ASTRONAUT VICTOR GLOVER “Floating for an extended period is truly amazing. My brain is constantly trying to figure out which way is up. It’s an interesting challenge, one I find slightly amusing.” 2 US ASTRONAUT SUNITA WILLIAMS “It’s like being a fish since you can catch food in your mouth easily because it’s suspended in the air, just like when you put fish food in a tank.” 3 CANADIAN ASTRONAUT CHRIS HADFIELD “The cool thing about space is when you put your pants on here, you can put them on two legs at a time.” 4 US ASTRONAUT ANNE MCCLAIN “You kind of just float inside your sleeping bag… our arms kind of float up, so we look a little bit like zombies.” 5 BRITISH ASTRONAUT TIM PEAKE “Gravity…

Big Ben is actually the bell of London’s iconic clock tower, rather than the tower itself, perched high on the banks of the River Thames at the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament. The tower, which was given the name Elizabeth Tower in 2012, was built shortly after the fire that ravaged the Palace of Westminster in 1834. The design of the replacement building was commissioned to architects Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, who designed the clock tower as part of the palace in the fashionable neo-Gothic style of the time. It wasn’t until September 1843 that construction work on Big Ben began, the challenge being to produce the world’s biggest and most powerful chiming clock. The most difficult feat of engineering to achieve, however, was…

In May 2023, car manufacturer BMW unveiled its new, all-electric foiling watercraft called the Icon, a 13.5-metre-long vessel that relies entirely on battery power. Like other hydrofoil vessels in the ocean, the Icon uses a set of hydrofoil wings and propellers for motion. However, instead of fossil-fuelled motors, propellers are spun by two 100-kilowatt electric motors that are supplied by six batteries beneath the watercraft. Much like the wings of an aircraft, hydrofoils such as the Icon use underwater wings that reduce the amount of drag a vessel experiences, increasing speed and fuel efficiency. They achieve this by utilising Newton’s third law of motion, which states that when one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. For hydrofoils,…

Picture a world where you control machines with your mind, where driverless cars move through rush-hour traffic with no chance of being in a crash or where the internet is a thousand times faster than it is today. This is the promise of 6G. We’ve all heard of 5G, and most of us have probably already used this wireless technology to watch movies and play games, search online and do any number of other things at speeds that simply wouldn’t have been possible even a few years ago. But progress never stops, and now we’re entering a new era: 6G. But beneath its rather predictable name lies a technology that could change the world. So what is 6G? The world around us is filled with an invisible web in which…

As with any other great advance in technology, not everything is going to be straightforward, and there remains much uncertainty around the timescale for 6G, with some potential roadblocks to be cleared first. One issue is the lack of available spectrum. Spectrum essentially means the range of radio frequencies allocated to the mobile industry and other sectors for communication over the airwaves. The problem is that there’s only so much of it to go around before it all becomes one big untidy mess where nothing makes sense, and 6G needs a lot more of this spectrum than 5G. Another issue is the sheer expense of creating 6G networks. They’ll have to be designed and built from the ground up, covering land, air and space. Companies are still weighing up whether…

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SENDYOURQUESTIONSTO: HOWITWORKSMAGAZINE @HOWITWORKSMAG @HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM HOWITWORKSMAG WHY DO VEGETABLES HEAT UP QUICKER THAN SOUP WHEN THEY’RE ON THE SAME PLATE IN A MICROWAVE? Water molecules (H2 O) are polar molecules because the oxygen is slightly negatively charged and the hydrogen is slightly positively charged. Due to this polarity, H2 O molecules are attracted to one another and don’t move as freely as those in other materials. For this reason, water has a high specific heat capacity – the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of the material by one degree Celsius. Vegetables contain some water, but soup contains much more. Water’s high specific heat capacity means it needs more energy than other materials to raise its temperature, which for microwave cooking means the higher the water content in food,…

Q1 What kind of object did OSIRIS-REx return from? • Planet • Asteroid • Moon • Star Q2 Which of these animals is the only one with a brain? • Ant • Jellyfish • Sea urchin • Coral Q3 Which of these vestigial body parts don’t we have? • Tail • Second nose • Second brain • Third eyelid Q4 Which of these animals is, or was, the heaviest? • Woolly mammoth • Blue whale • Brontosaurus • Argentinosaurus Q5 How many Suns could fit inside the biggest known star, UY Scuti? • 500 • 5,000 • 5 million • 5 billion Q6 Which famous scientist discovered gravity? • Galileo Galilei • Isaac Newton • Marie Curie • Albert Einstein…

WE CAN’T TASTE FOOD WITHOUT SALIVA ONE MINUTE It takes around 60 seconds for a blood cell to circulate your body 1983 In this year, Motorola created the first mobile phone, the DynaTAC 8000x 100 METRES PER SECOND Wind speed on Venus can reach over 220 miles per hour 115 Over 100 cars are made every minute worldwide Dwarf planet Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl TEN CENTIMETRES Sea levels have risen dramatically in the last 25 years A COCKROACH CAN LIVE FOR A WEEK WITHOUT ITS HEAD 300 WINS Abraham Lincoln had an impressive wrestling record prior to becoming president 38 MINUTEs The shortest war in history was between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896…

A 1,500-year-old text recording a section of Psalm 86, also known as ‘a prayer of David’, has been discovered in what was a monastery 11 miles southeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The text is written in Koine Greek, a language often used in early copies of the New Testament. It was inscribed on a building block located on the floor of the monastery and has a cross drawn on it. The text reads: “Jesus Christ, guard me, for I am poor and needy,” which is incorrect. However, the original lines of the psalm read: “Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you.” While the writer wrote in Greek, his text contained grammatical errors, suggesting that…

1 PALE-FACED People with porphyria have less of the protein heme in the blood. This results in fewer red blood cells, reducing the colour in a person’s skin. 2 INNOCENT FANGS Patients’ gums begin to recede to expose their teeth. This makes the teeth appear longer, which could be mistaken for fangs. 3 GARLIC REPULSION Sulphur can bring on intense pain in porphyria sufferers. As garlic is high in sulphur, people with the disease usually avoid it. 4 BLOOD-RED URINE The pigment that would usually be used to make red blood cells is passed out of the body, giving urine a dark-reddish colouring. In the 17th and 18th centuries, people thought porphyria patients had been drinking blood. 5 SUN SENSITIVITY As people with the disease can’t convert the required organic…

Bigfoot is a famous creature that resides in North America, named by some loggers in California who stumbled across its gigantic footprint in 1958. Since this first discovery, many sightings and tracks have been reported. Among the clearest evidence are pictures of hairy, yeti-sized beings trudging through the wilderness. Some people became obsessed with these photographs, while others were convinced they were pranksters playing dress-up. EXPLANATION In 2002, after the death of Ray Wallace – one of the Californian loggers who found early Bigfoot evidence – it was confirmed that the footprints had been deliberately planted. Four decades after starting the monster craze, Wallace’s family admitted that he had used large wooden foot templates to create yeti-like foot impressions in the mud. The footprints were initially placed around construction equipment…

1 CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLACE A dry area away from direct sunlight is an ideal spot. You should consider somewhere far from your home but still near a source of water, like a garden hose. 2 ADD ITEMS Using items from the recipe on the previous page, start constructing your compost pile in layers. These should each be around ten centimetres deep. 3 MOISTEN THE SOIL As you build the layers, keep adding water every so often. This will ensure the soil is evenly damp throughout. 4 KEEP THINGS MOVING Mixing the compost speeds up the decomposition process. Do this at least once every couple of weeks using a garden rake or similar tool. 5 HAVE SOME RIGHT PLACE Make sure the soil remains damp, but not too wet, like a sponge…

Sweets such as fudge and rock require the process of sugar crystallisation to create their distinctive textures. Sugar takes on a crystal structure when the liquid mixture cools down and starts to harden, forming a particular repeating pattern. However, the sugar will only crystallise if it’s in a supersaturated solution – this means that there’s more sugar in the boiling water than can be fully dissolved. The way that you cool sugar for crystallisation determines what kind of texture is produced. Hard rock candy is left to cool over a few days to form large solid crystals. Meanwhile, fudge is formed of sugar microcrystals that have a smoother texture.…

1 SWEET TOOTH Bacteria in the mouth break down the sugar in sweets. This produces acid that can dissolve the minerals in your teeth, leading to tooth decay. 2 FAT-FORMING Refined sugar is often referred to as ‘empty calories’, as it has very little nutritional value but gives your body a rush of readily available energy. If too much is eaten, it’s converted into extra body fat instead. 3 SUGAR HIT Humans particularly enjoy sweet foods as these high-energy fuels would have sustained us in the wild. Our brains’ reward system still releases the feel-good hormone dopamine when we eat them. 4 HEART STRAIN Too much sugar intake can cause inflammation, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. 5 FAST FUEL Sweets are mostly made of sugar and are low in…

1 MORTAR The launching tube that holds the shell is typically made from strong steel, dense plastic or fibreglass. 2 LIFT CHARGE Underneath the shell is black gunpowder that explodes when ignited, forcefully expanding out of the launching tube and propelling the shell into the air. 3 FUSE A fuse, typically made from cotton dipped in black powder, is lit and carries a flame along its length to ignite the black powder at the base of the shell. 4 SHELL The exterior of the shell is often made of paper that houses a collection of small colourproducing pellets, called stars. 5 STARS Different varieties of powdered metals create the spectrum of colours of a firework when they’re ignited. 6 TIMED FUSE When the initial black powder is ignited, it also…

Some of the most basic everyday tasks are much trickier in space due to the lack of gravity. In an ordinary toilet, for example, it’s the pull of gravity that ensures the waste goes where it’s meant to, instead of floating all over the place. Space toilets have to use suction, rather like a vacuum cleaner, to achieve the same effect. Showers also rely on gravity, both to get water onto you in the first place and then off you and down into the drain. NASA once experimented with a high-tech ‘space shower’, but it took over two hours to use. Today, astronauts just rub liquid soap onto their skin, and use rinseless shampoo on their hair, before drying themselves with a towel.…

1 STRONG TASTE Fluid shifts in microgravity desensitise an astronaut’s taste buds, rather like having a cold, so they prefer very spicy food. 2 NUTRITIOUS A healthy diet is important for everyone, and astronauts are no exception. 3 COMPACT The space inside the ISS is limited and already packed with equipment and living quarters, so compact food is essential. 4 LIGHTWEIGHT Space food should be as light as possible to reduce the rocket fuel needed to launch it into orbit. 5 NOT CRUMBLY Crumbs float everywhere in microgravity, so food that is moist and sticky is preferable to dry and crumbly. 6 LONG SHELF LIFE It can often be two months or more between resupply missions, so food on the ISS has to last.…

07:00 BREAKFAST Astronauts have several breakfast menus to choose from, much like a hotel buffet breakfast. If they want cereal, they have to add dried milk and water rather than fresh milk. BREAKFAST MENU French toast Canadian bacon Orange juice Coffee 06:00 WAKE-UP CALL As the ISS completes a full orbit of Earth in just 90 minutes, it never spends very long in a particular time zone. By convention, astronauts use what we call Greenwich Mean Time, also referred to as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The astronauts are woken at 06:00 UTC with a call from Mission Control, and then spend an hour or so on their morning routine: brushing their teeth, shaving, using the toilet and generally freshening up. Some of these tasks, such as using a toothbrush, are…

1 SIZEABLE SATELLITE While most of the millions of pieces of space junk are smaller than a marble, large satellites such as the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) – can be the size of a bus. 2 HEAVY WEIGHT The launch mass of GOCE was 1,076 kilograms. Around 125 kilograms survived re-entry and is now lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. 3 LOW ORBIT The altitude at which GOCE orbited Earth when functional was 161 miles. This was particularly low for a satellite. The low-Earth orbit zone is where space junk is most dense. 1 FRICTION BURNS Most space junk burns up long before it can reach Earth’s surface. This is because when it re-enters our atmosphere at great speed, it hits air particles, which…

If you visited Big Ben between 2017 and 2022, you likely would have noticed that much of the tower was hidden away beneath scaffolding and tarpaulin. During this time, Big Ben was undergoing renovations to stop leakage and erosion, as well as returning the clock’s dials to their original blue colour. This project cost around £80 million ($98 million). In the original design, the clock face was lit up using gas power. Since the renovation, more environmentally friendly and energy efficient LED lights have been installed. A large portion of the original materials have now been replaced so that cracks in the tower don’t become hazardous in the future. The work included around 700 pieces of original stone that were newly carved at the building site. Among the main challenges…

Something for nothing always appeals. Why pay a fortune to power a motorway when it could just charges that accumulate under the ground and use that to illuminate our roads. Piezoelectricity is electricity that’s generated from pressure, and it’s used in a wide range of applications today, from cigarette lighters to inkjet printers. The only question is, can it scale? It’s one thing to generate low-level lighting by dancing on a disco floor – as seen in ‘eco-discos’ in London and Rotterdam – but could piezoelectric pads set under tarmac power the lights and signage along our major roads? Piezoelectricity is a rapidly expanding industry, and London-based Pavegen Systems is one of the companies spearheading its development. Launched by industrial designer Laurence Kemball-Cook, it designs ‘smart’ pavement tiles that act…

With the future of communication within arms reach, companies and nation states alike are vying to be the first to make 6G a reality. The key players include the main network and wireless device providers such as Huawei, Samsung, Ericsson, Intel and Qualcomm. The Chinese and South Korean governments are also invested in taking the technology to the next level. Samsung is currently looking into the use of terahertz frequencies in order to build a network with an ultra-fast data transfer rate. Nokia and Ericsson are also developing networks which can operate in the 100 to 300 GHz frequency range.…

Photons are tiny packets of light and have energy in the form of electromagnetism. They don’t have mass, but they do have momentum – a property in physics that’s usually attributed to an object’s mass. However, the momentum of a photon isn’t dependent on mass, but on its frequency. One way of imagining a photon is not to think of it as a particle, but as a little packet of energy made of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. Like any wave, it has a frequency which determines the type of radiation it makes up. If it’s a low frequency it might be radio waves, whereas a high frequency could be X-rays. Another odd effect that makes light ‘appear’ to have mass is that it interacts with gravity. For instance, light…

AUTHOR BEN HOARE ILLUSTRATOR KALEY MCKEAN PUBLISHER DORLING KINDERSLEY PRICE £20/$24.99 RELEASE OUT NOW One way to describe the plants, animals and natural phenomena in this lovely hardback from DK would indeed be weird and wonderful. The Cook’s pine trees on the New Caledonian islands in the Pacific Ocean fit the bill: they all tilt towards the equator no matter where they grow, and the farther from the equator they are, the more they lean towards it, which scientists still cannot explain. Weird and Wonderful Nature is full of these little mysteries, as well as odd stuff that science can explain like the immortal jellyfish, which we’ve featured in How It Works before – it effectively cheat death by putting its life cycle into reverse and reverting from adult to…

SEND YOUR IDEAS TO: HOWITWORKSMAGAZINE @HOWITWORKSMAG @HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM HOWITWORKSMAG 1 GATHER YOUR MATERIALS The items in the kit list can be tweaked for personal preference. As long as you have the core materials, such as the tube, plastic and reflective paper, the decorational elements can be changed. 2 COVER THE TUBE Using tape or glue, cover the surface of the toilet paper roll with patterned paper to decorate it. Wrapping paper will work well. 3 CREATE A PRISM Cut your reflective paper into a 10 by 15 centimetre rectangle. Make two folds to create a triangle and secure it with tape. The reflective side should be facing inside the prism. 4 PIECE THEM TOGETHER Insert your prism into the toilet roll tube. If it’s too big, alter the dimensions of the…