Table of contents for Issue 214 in How It Works

“Such flights only became a practical possibility with the advent of space travel in the late 1950s” I was born long after the first crewed Moon landing, although like most of my generation, I grew up with the name Neil Armstrong and the year 1969 etched into my memory. So Apollo 11 has a kind of legendary status for me, especially as no space agency has made a crewed Moon landing attempt in over 50 years… until now. After almost a decade since NASA outlined its intent to explore the Moon again, it looks like astronauts will once more set foot on our cosmic neighbour before 2030. This issue, we’re exploring the goals of Artemis II, III and the potential crewed landing mission of Artemis IV. We look into the…

KICKR RUN £5,999.99 / $6,999.99 WAHOOFITNESS.COM The KICKR RUN smart treadmill from Wahoo Fitness is an intuitive home fitness machine that can provide an immersive way of exercising. Using the Wahoo App, you can set off on a pre-programmed run where the treadmill automatically adjusts speed and controls gradient during your workout. There’s also the option to sync the treadmill with your TV or laptop to immerse yourself in a virtual environment. Bringing the feel of an outdoor run inside, while you’re in RunFree mode, the belt of the KICKR RUN treadmill will automatically adjust to accommodate your running speed. GARMIN INDEX S2 £129.99 / $199.99 GARMIN.COM The Index S2 fitness scales from Garmin are so much more than a typical set of scales. Weight is just one of the…

In 1916, the world of warfare changed forever. In July in the same year, British soldiers engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of World War I, known as the Battle of the Somme. On the first day of combat in northern France, the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties during the German offensive. By September, the British and French troops had reached a stalemate with the German forces, who were occupying seemingly impenetrable trenches. However, there was a new military invention heading their way that would help tip the scales in the Allies’ favour. Crawling over the roiled earth, the world’s first combat tank advanced into no man’s land towards German trenches and began to fire on the enemy, sparking a new age of armoured combat. The tank, called the…

The science of ageing can be a controversial topic. Some people dread the first appearance of wrinkles, while others embrace them as symbols of life lived and greater experience. However, ageing is far more complex than an alteration in outward appearance. Every organ in the body is influenced by it, and the subsequent decline in biological efficiency is the most impactful on your health. Over time, cells become damaged due to oxidative stress. This is stress caused by the loss of mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the energy-producing components of cells. When these stop working effectively, not as much oxygen is consumed for respiration. Instead, the oxygen is released as unstable molecules called free radicals, which can harm your cells. DNA mutations are also more common with age, as the protective…

SPACE JOURNAL: ART, SCIENCE AND COSMIC EXPLORATION A SPACE MUSEUM EXHIBITION IN YOUR HANDS AUTHOR DALLAS CAMPBELL PUBLISHER THAMES & HUDSON PRICE £35 / $45 RELEASE OUT NOW Our understanding of the space beyond Earth’s atmosphere has accelerated beyond all recognition over the last 100 years, and you don’t have to delve into an early 20th century physics textbook to gain a proper appreciation of this. Certain works of fiction in the late-19th century were filled with vivid descriptions of life on the Moon that would be considered laughably naive today, and as little as 50 years before the 1969 Moon landings, the New York Times felt it needed to remind its readers that a rocket obviously couldn’t travel into the vacuum of space because there was “nothing to push…

NUCLEAR INSTALLATION In January 2026, this steam generator was installed at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, UK. These generators, which can weigh up to 520 tonnes, transfer the heat from the nuclear reactor to a chamber filled with water to generate turbine-spinning steam. The generators were lifted and transported through a small opening in the reactor using winches and hydraulic lifting machines called strand jacks, which were produced by Dutch-based lifting and transport company Mammoet. WINE DIAMONDS This microscopic view showcases the formation of tiny crystals of potassium bitartrate, otherwise known as tartaric crystals or ‘wine diamonds’. The crystals form when the naturally occurring potassium and tartaric acid in grapes bind together when the wine reaches temperatures below four degrees Celsius. These harmless, tiny crystals are often…

The Moon is the only astronomical body that, when seen with the naked eye from Earth, clearly looks like a rocky world not unlike our own planet. For this reason, it’s always played an important role in the human imagination, from fanciful romanticism to nuts-and-bolts science fiction. People were speculating about the possibility of flying to the Moon at least as long ago as the 2nd century CE, when Lucian of Samosata wrote his misleadingly titled True History. However, such flights only became a practical possibility with the advent of space travel in the late 1950s. This coincided with a simmering rivalry, both political and technological, between the United States and the Soviet Union – a superpower of comparable strength made up of Russia and various surrounding countries. Inevitably, the…

Have you ever looked into a kettle only to see the inner surfaces caked in crusty white pieces? Perhaps you’ve noticed that over time your home’s taps become lined with white residue, or white spots appear on your shower. This is a mineral deposit called limescale, or calcium carbonate. Limescale forms due to the passage of water through rocks and soil before it enters your home. The more time water spends in contact with mineral-rich sedimentary rock, the more mineral content dissolves into the water. When this water is heated, whether that’s inside a kettle or hot tap, some water evaporates, leaving behind solid mineral precipitates. This limescale is deposited onto surfaces and builds up over time until it becomes visible. When limescale builds up in a home’s pipes, it…

Sudoku Complete the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9 EASY MEDIUM HARD Word search Find the following words MANGROVE PREDATOR HYPNOTISE LIMESCALE SAFETY HELMET NASA YOUNG WHISKERS MOON ARTEMIS TANK What is it? Hint: Tree-like vegetable A Spot the difference See if you can find all six changes between the images below Answers Find the solutions to last issue’s puzzle pages Q1 SUN Q2 THE USSR Q3 EVENT HORIZON Q4 LINUX Q5 EXOSKELETON Q6 AIR RESISTANCE What is it? LEOPARD Spot the difference QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS Q1 Which particle has a negative charge? Photon Proton Neutron Electron Q2 What weighs more: a kilogram of feathers or a kilogram of steel? Feathers Steel They’re the same Depends on gravity Q3 How long is…

PHYSICS Your shoes squeak because they make flashes of lightning WORDS KENNA HUGHES-CASTLEBERRY Scientists have long explained squeaks from shoes, bicycle brakes and tyres using stick-slip friction, a stop-and-go cycle in which surfaces repeatedly catch and then break free. That model works well for many hard-on-hard systems, like door hinges. But soft materials like rubber behave differently when they slide across rigid surfaces. To understand the physics of this process, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) teamed up with experts from the University of Nottingham in the UK and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. They used high-speed optical imaging and synchronised audio to watch soft rubber move quickly along smooth glass. But what they saw wasn’t smooth sliding. Instead, motion…

You may take for granted many of the devices and appliances you rely on today, whether it’s the rapid and efficient heating of meals in a compact microwave oven or the automated washing of your clothes. But these trailblazing inventions, which have now become commonplace in our homes and part of our daily routines, were once novel time-saving devices. The microwave oven was patented by American engineer Percy Spencer in 1945, just after the end of World War II. This invention was an accidental discovery. After Spencer was working with a live radar set that was emitting microwaves, he found that the chocolate bar he had in his pocket had melted. He discovered that the radar’s magnetron – a high-powered vacuum tube that generated microwaves by accelerating electrons under a…

For centuries, medical practitioners have been touting the benefits of electricity on the human body. The Victorians developed electric shock therapy machines that were designed to treat ‘nervous diseases’, and way before that, the Romans used zaps from the common torpedo, a type of electric ray, to treat maladies such as headaches and gout. High-profile successes like the pacemaker aside, it’s fair to say that using electricity to improve our health is seen by many as something of a fringe science. But researchers are now investigating ways to talk to the body’s nervous system in its own language. Instead of our early, somewhat crude, attempts at shocking the body into behaving how we want it to, we can now translate the brain’s messages and whisper them back down the nerves…

MAKE A PAINT PENDULUM Create wild works of art using the forces of motion and gravity KIT LIST Paint Water A paper cup Scissors String Tape Two chairs A broom A large piece of paper Plastic tablecloth or protective covering DON’T DO IT ALONE! If you’re under 16, make sure you have an adult with you NEXT ISSUE THE EXPLODING SANDWICH BAG SUMMARY This paint pendulum uses core principles of physics to create a unique and colourful piece of art. A pendulum is a fixed object hung from one point, so it can swing freely due to the force of gravity, similarly to how a swing moves back and forth in a park. In this activity, the paint pendulum is suspended from a fixed point by the string. When you…