Issue No. 129 - How It Works (2024)

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IN THIS ISSUEWELCOME“It will have the same impact as electricity and steam had in the previous industry revolutions”The scope of 5G’s cellular networks is probably going to blow even the early adopters away. It goes way beyond simply streaming video faster on your mobile phone: this reliable and super-quick technology is itself a technology enabler. When 5G rolls out, driverless cars will become ubiquitous, surgeons will be able to operate without being in the same room as the patient, advertisers will be able to put moving images on any surface. And your local school? 5G is coming to a classroom near you soon! Read more about how 5G works on page 22. Enjoy the issue!For exclusive HIW news and offers, sign up to our mailing list howitworksdaily. com/newsletterFOLLOW US…How It Works magazine@HowItWorksmag…1 min

IN THIS ISSUEMeet the team…JamesProduction EditorOn page 78 we take a look at some of the colossal creepy-crawlies that once roamed the Earth – including a terrifying giant scorpion.ScottStaff WriterIs a bird brain so different from that of a rabbit? We discover what’s between the eyes of the world’s animals on page 70.BaljeetResearch EditorWill we ever really be able to travel back in time? Find out with our beginner’s guide to time travel over on page 36.DuncanSenior Art EditorSee what early human habitats on Mars might look like on page 72 (hint – it’s a lot nicer than what Mark Whatney has in The Martian).Ailsa HarveyStaff WriterContactless cards are transforming the way we pay, but are they safe? Discover how NFC hands over your money through the air on page 34.…1 min

REGULARSDying alga’s green giftThis is an euglenoid alga, a tiny water-dwelling organism with a whip-like appendage that it uses to move through the water. The lake this one was taken from in Vietnam was heavily polluted. In this image, shot using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and digitally coloured, the alga is dying, releasing the photosynthetic chloroplasts that produce its energy. It was taken by Steve Gschmeissner for The Royal Photographic Society’s science photography competition. You can find out about this year’s Science Photographer of the Year competition at rps.org/spoty.…1 min

REGULARSBig cat of the reptile worldThis is a male panther chameleon from Nosy Be island off the coast of Madagascar. Panther chameleons from different parts of Madagascar are distinguished by their colouring – in different areas they tend to be red, green and orange. They can change colour within a certain range, as a social display or to match their environment. They have a transparent outer layer of skin, and beneath is a layer of chromatophore cells filled with coloured pigment. A change in mood or temperature expands some cells and contracts others, releasing certain pigments and displaying distinct colours.…1 min

REGULARSNew form of gold createdUnder extreme conditions gold rearranges its atoms and forms a previously unknown structure. When the pressures are pushed to the equivalent of those at the centre of the Earth, the gold gets even weirder.This finding comes from a new study in which researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Carnegie Institution for Science practised some 21st-century alchemy at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, US. Using a high-energy laser, researchers heated gold to extreme temperatures and compressed it to pressures as high as those found at the Earth's centre.More specifically, they put a little piece of plastic in front of a chunk of gold and shot a high-energy laser through the plastic, which "basically causes an explosion that sends plastic one way and shockwaves in the opposite…2 min

REGULARS526 teeth removed from a boy's cheekDoctors removed 526 teeth from the right cheek of a seven-year-old boy in Chennai, India, according to a Times Of India report. Doctors who performed the surgery suggested that radiation from mobile towers might have been the cause, but there's reason to be sceptical about this.The extra teeth were growing in a sort of sack embedded in the boy's jawbone. They were all 0.1 to 15 millimetres in size, according to the report, and had crowns, roots and enamel coatings, like normal teeth.The boy's parents first noticed something was wrong when that part of his cheek began to swell painfully. As the swelling got worse, they took him to a series of doctors but got no answer, until the physicians at Saveetha Dental College imaged the boy's face and found…1 min

Issue No. 129 - How It Works (2024)

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