How It Works UK
GIANT FLYING PTEROSAURS COULD WALK TOO
Ancient tracks reveal that many pterosaurs were just as comfortable walking on the ground as they were flying through the skies during the age of dinosaurs.
1 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
Gigantic 'mud waves' reveal the dramatic formation of the Atlantic
The discovery of buried 'mud waves' off the coast of West Africa reveals that the Atlantic Ocean was born at least 4 million years earlier than scientists thought.
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
Your fingers ‘prune’ the exact same way each time
Everyone knows that your fingers get wrinkly after spending too long in the bath, but it turns out that those wrinkles form in the same way every time.
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
HOW WE USE THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
There are few frequencies of electromagnetic radiation we haven't exploited, though some have their dangers...
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
New space-adapted bacteria species found on the Chinese space station
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown strain of microbe after analysing samples taken from China's Tiangong space station.
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
WHAT IS VITILIGO?
When skin pigmentation is unevenly distributed, the result is unique patterns across the body
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
NEXT-GEN FIGHTER JETS
Sixth-generation stealth fighter jets are coming. How will these advanced flying machines remain undetected in a world of increasingly sophisticated radar technology?
9 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
WHAT GIVES FOOD ITS TEXTURE?
From crisp, crunchy fruit to satisfyingly stretchy cheese, explore the chemistry behind each bite
4 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
'Super-vision' contact lenses let wearers see in the dark
Scientists have created night-vision contact lenses that they claim can grant people 'super-vision.'
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
WHAT IS THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT?
How even the smallest action can cause significant and unpredictable events in the future
3 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
UNDERWATER WONDERS
Take a deep dive into some of the world's most curious submerged sites
5 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
REAL-LIFE ZOMBIES
How much science is there behind the grasping undead creatures of horror flicks?
5 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
A hospital superbug can feed on medical plastic
A superbug that commonly causes infections in hospitals can feed on the plastic used for medical interventions, potentially making it even more dangerous.
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
THE WORLD'S LONGEST UNDERSEA CABLE
Meta’s latest project could produce a subsea cable long enough to wrap around the world
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
BENEATH GREENLAND'S ICE CAP
Explore the secret landscape concealed by the ice of this Arctic island nation
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
HENRIETTA SWAN LEAVITT
This groundbreaking astronomer helped us discover our place in the universe
2 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
A NINTENDO GAMECUBE?
The ‘purple lunchbox’ wasn't as successful as the PlayStation 2 or Xbox, but Nintendo played the long game with the GameCube's hardware
1 min |
Issue 204
How It Works UK
TECH AHEAD OF ITS TIME
Some of today's technology goes back much further than you'd imagine
3 min |
Issue 204
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Alyn Wallace's legacy shines over the Elan Valley
A new memorial to one of Wales's most talented astrophotographers has a special place in the landscape
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Chandra Uncovering the high-energy Universe
The world's most powerful X-ray telescope has been changing our understanding of space for a quarter of a century. Jane Green celebrates Chandra's achievements through some of its most spectacular images
5 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
How to take calibration frames
Stop noise, dust and vignette messing up your DSLR astro images
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Hide and seek! A massive star hides in the centre of nebula Sh2-46
The blue-white star, caught on camera by the VLT Survey Telescope, may have formed in the nearby Eagle Nebula
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Soviet spacecraft plunges to Earth after 53 years
Decades after its aborted Venus mission, Kosmos 482 crashes into Indian Ocean
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Universe could end sooner than we think
New model suggests Hawking radiation is speeding cosmic decay
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Memories of Hale-Bopp
Three decades on, Stuart Atkinson vividly recalls the wonder of witnessing the last Great Comet
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Starpoint Australis Octans portable observatory
A pitch-perfect solution if you love travelling to dark-sky sites for astronomy
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Early 'Hot DOG' is crammed full of gas
Infrared reveals young galaxy has far more mass than expected
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT
In June, The Sky at Night celebrated 350 years of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. George Dransfield talks time and how the clock rules her own astronomy
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Pluto: 10 years on
The New Horizons fly-by of this ancient, icy world continues to surprise a decade later. So what have we learned? Ben Evans investigates
8 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Battle of the Big Bang
About 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe burst forth from an infinitely dense inferno, started to expand and cool, and is still expanding to this day. The Big Bang is “science's earliest memory”, as authors Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper point out in this new book, so it's natural to ask what happened before it. But you may have been told that this is a daft question, because if time began at the Big Bang, then there can be no ‘before’. Battle of the Big Bang is here to debunk this myth and guide the reader between public perception and what cosmologists believe today.
1 min |