“It can often defy all our ideas of common sense”

Quantum physics explained PAGE 20 I saac Newton’s

HOW IT WORKS

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath,

A city of books

© Getty In Buenavista, Mexico City, you can

Mudslinging wasps

© Alamy The female black-and-yellow mud dauber is

Spider in the sky

© NASA Crawling through the sky is a

Rainbow woods

© Shutterstock Dotted along Bald Cypress Trail at

Astronauts are set to grow livers in space

GLOBAL EYE Showcasing the incredible world we live

Never-before-seen head of a giant ‘millipede’ solves an evolutionary mystery

An illustration of what Arthropleura might have looked

THE LARGEST KNOWN PRIME NUMBER, SPANNING 41 MILLION DIGITS, IS DISCOVERED

The largest known prime number has been discovered

Explorer Sandy Irvine’s foot discovered 100 years after he vanished on Everest

The last known image of mountaineers George Mallory

BIZARRE ‘PET CLOUD’ REAPPEARS ABOVE NEW ZEALAND

A peculiar ‘pet cloud’ took centre stage in

The UN warns to cut emissions in half right now to prevent a climate catastrophe

Climate change made the wildfires that decimated the

PERSEVERANCE WATCHES A SOLAR ECLIPSE ON MARS

NASA’s Perseverance rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to

Most of Earth’s meteorites may have come from the same three spots

Did you know? Mars is around half the

Malfunctioning mitochondria may drive Crohn’s disease

A 3D illustration of two membranebound organelles called

Our brains can understand written sentences in the ‘blink of an eye’

Human brains can discern the basic structures of

Drones could use ‘robotic cat’s eyes’ to track targets more precisely

The system includes a slit-like aperture to filter

SCIENTISTS HAVE DATED THE MOON’S OLDEST AND LARGEST IMPACT SITE

For billions of years, our celestial neighbour has

WISH LIST

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE

BRAINDUMP

Amazing answers to your curious questions

How does the Sun burn if there is no oxygen in space?

At first glance, the Sun’s surface might resemble the flames of a roaring fire, but that’s deceptive – our local star isn’t really burning in the same way things do on Earth. Confusingly, when astronomers talk about the Sun ‘burning’, they’re actually talking about a completely different process called nuclear fusion. This involves forcing together the tiny nuclei of hydrogen, the lightest element, to create atoms of helium in the high temperatures and pressures of the core. The process releases energy in a much more efficient way than the combustion we’re familiar with in a fire – and it doesn’t need oxygen.

In which direction do we look to see almost as far back as the Big Bang?

One of the strange things about our expanding

THE LIBRARY

The latest book releases for curious minds

HOW TO…

Practical projects to try at home

INBOX

Speak your mind

QUANTUM PHYSICS EXPLAINED

Take an in-depth look at the unbelievable theories, crazy experiments and practical applications of what may be the weirdest of all scientific subjects

HOW THE TELESCOPE WAS INVENTED

Follow the timeline to discover centuries of advancement in the way we observe the universe

WHAT’S INSIDE A LUNAR CAVE?

How China’s ‘Jade Rabbit’ rover is exploring the subterranean world of Earth’s cosmic companion

TAMING ANTIMATTER

How we’ll finally discover this substance’s true nature and learn how to harness it to propel us to distant stars

WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE ‘MORNING PEOPLE’

Do you prefer to lie in, or are you keen on an early rise?

WHERE DOES HELIUM COME FROM?

This lighter-than-air element could one day disappear from our planet

GUESS THE MEDIEVAL INSTRUMENT

Do you know your timekeepers from navigation devices?

HOW THE DUTCH MADE HOLL AND BIGGER

Nearly 800 years ago, The Netherlands was smaller than it is today

THE 50-YEAR COAL MINE FIRE

Why a mine beneath a Pennsylvanian ghost town is perpetually engulfed in flames

HOW HUMANS CAN FLY

These ingenious inventions have given people wings to soar through the air

HOW CAR COMPUTERS WORK

Within almost every car is a high-tech computer controlling and monitoring how we drive

WHAT WAS THE FIRST LIVING THING?

How the origin of everything alive on Earth today points to one ancient organism

WHAT ARE ALGAL BLOOMS?

When algae populations in bodies of water grow rapidly, it causes problems for the environment, wildlife and humans

WORLD’S STRONGEST CRANE

The Mammoet SK6000 has gained the title of world’s strongest land-based crane. How can it help construct a greener future?

APPLE AIRPODS PRO TEARDOWN

This high-end earphone technology includes a remarkable feature to control the sound that enters your ears

SHRINKING THE X-RAY MACHINE

Forget room-sized machines… modern bone imagers have gotten much smaller