Curious caves

WELCOME

Issue 156 “The iconic weapon was put together

WHAT WE’RE ANTICIPATING

© Getty NIKOLE PRODUCTION EDITOR SCOTT STAFF WRITER

Inside the inner ear

© Getty These are inner ear sensory cells

Butterflies below deck

© Getty Meet Limacina helicina, commonly known as

Behind the space veil

© ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay Around 1,470

Chimps use ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ greetings

Eastern chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ) grooming

NEW ISLAND DISCOVERED CLOSE TO THE NORTH POLE

The newly discovered island is extremely small and

Pi calculated to a record-breaking 62.8 trillion digits

Researchers in Switzerland are set to break the

Young star reveals what our Sun may have looked like

An artist’s concept of a protoplanetary disc A

WEIRD ‘DOG BONE’ ASTEROID COULD BE COSMIC RUBBLE

Astronomers have fetched some cool new views of

Five-metre-long sea monster ruled ancient Kansas ocean

An illustration of a mosasaur (Mosasaurus hoffmanni )

Lab-made mini brains grow their own ‘eyes’

Organoids are miniature versions of organs that scientists

‘PERFECT’ MARS ROCK SAMPLE DRILLED FROM THE RED PLANET

A Martian rock core sample, about the width

Strange objects discovered past Neptune

Many of the objects just discovered hail from

Cookiecutter sharks terrorise animals of all sizes

A preserved cookiecutter shark on display during the

RAIN FALLS ON GREENLAND’S SUMMIT FOR THE FIRST TIME

An iceberg near Ilulissat, Greenland Rain has fallen

Strange signal near Milky Way’s centre has scientists stumped

The centre of the Milky Way, captured by

The latest tech in MICROSCOPES

AMSCOPE 120 TO 1,200X KIDS BEGINNER MICROSCOPE STEM

Could we make elements in a human-made fusion reactor?

Amazing answers to your curious questions

THE LIBRA RY

The latest book releases for curious minds

MAKE GL ASS INVISIBLE

This vanishing act uses the refractive powers of vegetable oil

INBOX Speak your mind

WIN! AN AMAZING PRIZE FOR LETTER OF THE

FAST FACTS Amazing trivia that will blow your mind

2.8 MILLIMETRES The stirrup in your ear is

GADGETS WITH LICENCE TO THRILL

From space lasers and ships that can’t be seen on radar to jet packs and submersible cars, how 007’s tech has moved from fiction to fact

INSIDE APPLE’S NEW IMAC

Uncover the technology behind the 24-inch M1

HOW SOLAR PANELS WORK

From sunlight to light bulbs, this technology creates electricity from a natural resource

COMPUTER KEYBOARD TECH EXPLAINED

What makes this modern typewriter work?

HOW DOES GOOGLE EARTH WORK?

The app that puts the world in the hands of anyone with a smartphone or computer

HYDROGEN BUS POWER

Inside the world’s first clean-energy double-decker bus: the Hydroliner

How our CLIMATE is CHANGING

Here are eight signs of the human impact on Earth’s climate and environment

ANTARCTICA’S ICE MELT

How the South Pole has changed over the

CLIMATE CHANGE by numbers

2.3 TO 5.4 METRES Sea-level rise by 2300

10 DEADLY VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

How Earth’s fiery outbursts remind us of our planet’s power and unpredictability

AMAZON OF THE OCEAN

Explore the lively reefs of Southeast Asia’s Coral Triangle

WHAT IS THE ARK OF THE COVENANT ?

Does this fabled chest – said to hold tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments – actually exist?

WORSHIPPING THE ARK

The story of the construction of the ark

WELCOME TO THE CRADLE OF CIVILISATION

How the ancient society of Pakistan’s Indus Valley shaped the modern world

TOTAL RECALL?

From Mars colonies to memory implants, a look at the science behind this 1990 classic

AR ZONE

FALSE MEMORIES

The starting point for Total Recall is the

TESTING HAWKING’S THEORIES

Which of Stephen Hawking’s explanations turned out to be right?

HOW BABIES ARE MADE

The fusion of sex cells that begins the great journey of pregnancy

IN VITRO FERTILISATION

The process of fertilisation and embryo implantation is

ONE BABY, THREE PARENTS

DID YOU KNOW? Embryologists select ‘good’ embryos based

THE SCIENCE OF STEM CELLS

A fertilised embryo that nestles into Activating just

EMBRYO GROWTH

What allows embryos to develop such complex structures? We speak with Dr Megan Davey to find out

SHAMPOO SCIENCE

What chemical processes occur within the foaming lather of shampoo?

THE WONDER OF WATER

How this vital liquid has shaped our world, fostered life and travelled beyond Earth