Welcome to How It Works, the magazine that explains everything you never knew you wanted to know about the world we live in. Loaded with fully illustrated guides and expert knowledge, and with sections dedicated to science, technology, transportation, space, history and the environment, no subject is too big or small for How It Works to explain.
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MEET THIS ISSUE’S EXPERTS
AR ZONE • Bring the pages to life
Feathered caterpillar
Cat’s tongue
Shaping Mount Mayon
Carbon star
Ferris-wheel-sized chunk of the Moon is orbiting suspiciously close to Earth • Showcasing the incredible world we live in
EARTH’S LOWER ATMOSPHERE IS EXPANDING
Triassic skulls unearthed in Greenland reveal ‘cold bone’ dinosaur
‘Balding’ black holes prove Einstein right again on general relativity
PATIENT’S IMMUNE SYSTEM CURES HIV
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 40 times deeper than the Mariana Trench
Diamond hauled from deep inside Earth holds never-before-seen mineral
DRUG TO TREAT GENETIC CAUSE OF DWARFISM APPROVED
Polar bear parts are being smuggled around the world
Astronomers discover a ‘barrier’ around the centre of the Milky Way
Earliest evidence of mercury poisoning in humans found in 5,000-year-old bones
FISH RUB UP AGAINST GREAT WHITE SHARKS
WISH LIST • The latest CHILDREN’S BINOCULARS
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THE WORLD’S BIGGEST LASER • Why America’s National Ignition Facility is recreating the conditions that exist inside stars
HOW THE GIANT LASER WORKS
USING A GIANT LASER
NIF SCIENCE
NIF AND SPACE RESEARCH
NIF IN SPACE EXPERIMENTS • We speak to Jena Meinecke, who used the laser to study cosmic magnetic fields
BIGGEST LASER BY NUMBERS
SEEING SOUNDS AND SMELLING COLOURS • How does synesthesia combine the senses?
GOLD: THE RICH ELEMENT • How this versatile, unique metal forms, and how it’s extracted and used today
WHAT IS CHEMOTHERAPY? • Discover how powerful drugs can be used to destroy cancer cells
EXTREME DESERT RACING • The vehicles and technology behind the Dakar Rally, the toughest cross-country race in the world
WHAT MAKES A WINNING RALLY CAR? • The Volkswagen Race Touareg achieved three consecutive wins at the Dakar Rally
COOLING WITH SPACE TECHNOLOGY
AUTONOMOUS FREIGHT • The world’s first all-electric crewless cargo ship
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DECIPHERED HOW ANCIENT LANGUAGES ARE • It took more than 20 years to translate the Rosetta Stone
WHAT WAS THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO? • The outcome of this two-week battle between Mexican and Texian forces proved pivotal in the Texas Revolution
WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE? • This imaginary line separates time, running from the North Pole to the South Pole
BIGGEST NATURAL DISASTERS • Eight times that nature caused widespread chaos and destruction
HOW BRITAIN BECAME AN ISLAND • The real Brexit started more than 8,000 years ago
HOW CUCKOOS TRICK OTHER BIRDS • Discover the cunning parenting of the cuckoo
DISCOVER THE UNIVERSE
WHAT IS QUANTUM COMPUTING? • How the ability to be in two places at once is heralding a new era of ultra-powerful computers
DAWN OF A NEW ERA
USES FOR QUANTUM COMPUTING
A QUANTUM FUTURE • Mark Johnson, vice president of Quantum Technologies and Systems Products at D-Wave, tells us what makes the Advantage so groundbreaking and why we won’t be throwing away the...