Science Illustrated

Science Illustrated delivers natural science, break through discoveries and an understanding of the world for the entire family. Packed with stunning photography and in-depth editorial it’s a visually spectacular gateway to the world looking into the beginning of life to distant objects in the universe.

Science Illustrated

LANDSLIDE

Those brush turkeys on your block have ancient ways

Drone will search for life on Saturn moon • A flying laboratory will explore one of the Solar System’s biggest moons in search of amino acids and other molecules that could offer evidence of life.

Sabre-toothed enamel reveals cats’ destiny

BY THE WAY

AND TALKING OF CANNABIS…

New rescue plan: snow guns to save Antarctica’s ice

Organ transfer early warning system

Turtles actively choose gender equilibrium • Temperature determines whether a turtle embryo becomes a male or a female, but the embryo can move inside the egg to affect its outcome.

Chip to more rapidly spot hereditary diseases • In the future, a hand-held device may scan its way to sick genes much more cheaply and quickly than today.

Test Yourself • SEE THE ANSWERS ON PAGE 17. NO PEEKING!

PHOTO DRONE

Do missing continents like Atlantis exist? • Atlantis? Maybe not. But there are vast land areas that did once sink beneath the waves… and one of them is now New Zealand.

TOP 5 • Where is the wettest place on Earth?

Why does dew fall at night?

INSIDE THE BODY

WEATHER PHENOMENA • Where does the name el Niño come from?

WORLD RECORDS • Which coniferous tree is the tallest in the world, and where is it located?

How does a memory card work? • I can store hundreds of photos on my digital camera. They are stored on a memory card, but how does it work?

Does all light travel at the same speed?

WHAT IS THIS? • Upside-down rainbows

Why do nuclear power stations have such large chimneys? • A nuclear power plant uses the energy of radioactive decay to generate electricity. But nothing is burning, so what is emerging from the power plants’ huge chimneys?

SHARK KINDERGARTEN

WILL FUSION DELIVER AN INFINITE POWER SUPPLY? • Fusion could deliver clean, safe and inexhaustible energy, but copying the Sun’s processes requires the world’s most extreme equipment. Physicists are now taking the next step, by filling a reactor with real fuel.

Laser light provides energy surplus

Twisted magnets keep the fuel captured • In this German fusion reactor, the magnets are twisted to create a constant magnetic field around the fuel. Wendelstein 7-X has set several records.

Reactor is filled with super-heavy fuel • In 2020, real power-plant fuel will flow into the world’s biggest fusion reactor, JET. Back in 1997, the reactor set a record that still stands.

FUSION WILD CARDS challenge the giants • So far, fusion has required huge reactors, but smaller equipment using different technologies could yet prevail.

New reactor to generate surplus energy • In 2035, the huge ITER reactor will begin experiments, which aim to produce self-propelled fusion.

ONE BY ONE FROM NOAH’S FREEZER • Using DNA from zoological freezers, scientists aim to manipulate cells and create new, healthy animals in the lab, bringing them back from extinction.

Stem cells revive extinct animals • Only two northern white rhino females still exist, but sperm, skin and other tissue from their extinct peers is in cold storage. Scientists aim to convert skin cells into eggs and sperm, recreating the species.

DEEP SEA EXPEDITION REVEALS HOW THE BLACK SEA PRESERVES THE PAST • The world’s oldest ship has been discovered in a remarkable state of preservation on the floor of the Black...