How It Works

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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AR ZONE • Bring the pages to life

Mutually beneficial • This is a Clark’s anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii), often found between the bulbous tentacles of the bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor). Here they’ve found a home defended by stinging nematocyst cells. The fish brush against the stinging cells to acclimate, developing a mucus-like protective layer that coats their bodies. In return, the anemone is cleaned of parasites by the fish.

Galactic merger • Hubble has snapped a head-on collision between two galaxies around 191 million light years away in the constellation of Lynx. The galactic merger is collectively referred to as Arp 143 and consists of star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2445 (right) and the less starry galaxy NGC 2444 (left). In this cosmic tug of war, NGC 2444 appears to be winning, pulling star-forming gas and dust from NGC 2445.

Release the pollen • This shows the point at which a plant is ready to release its pollen and reproduce. The large green structures are the anthers of a flowering herbaceous plant called garden cosmos. A plant’s anther is its male part, responsible for producing pollen. The spiky orange and pink grains are the plant’s pollen. Once these grains are readily available on the surface of the anther, they’re picked up by pollinators.

Watercolour lagoons • The waters surrounding the port town of Torrevieja, Spain, are home to different aquatic environments. Torrevieja Lagoon boasts a vibrant pink colour, a result of salt-loving algae like Dunaliella salina. The smaller, greenish lagoon on the right is known as La Mata. The water that fills La Mata is nowhere near as hypersaline – freshwater runoff from neighbouring mountains prevents salt from building up.

Distant ‘galaxy’ revealed to be a massive pulsar

COSMIC ANGEL WINGS EMERGE FROM VIOLENT GALACTIC COLLISION

1,100-year-old ‘altar of skulls’ found in Mexico

Large Hadron Collider breaks new record

CANADA MAKES MOON CRIMES ILLEGAL

Stonehenge was an ancient hunting hotspot

VENOMOUS WORM GROWS DEADLY COPPER FANGS

Man’s rash caused by worms under his skin

Extinction threatens one in five reptile species

Underwater Antarctic volcano triggers 85,000 earthquakes

Millipede species named after Taylor Swift

JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE REACHES ‘PERFECT’ ALIGNMENT

WISH LIST • FATHER’S DAY GIFT GUIDE

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30 AMAZING ANSWERS TO THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS IN THE UNIVERSE

HOW TO REUSE A ROCKET • A new generation of spaceflight is making single-use rockets a thing of the past

PERFECT LANDING • How the SN15 Starship test flight landed safely back on the ground

CAN WE CREATE ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY? • Discover the technology that could provide more natural spacecraft environments for future space exploration missions and space tourism

INSIDE A MEDIEVAL CASTLE • Discover the different types of castles that developed across the Middle Ages and how they were used

EVOLUTION OF THE EARLY STRONGHOLDS

BUILDING UP

IMPOSING CAERNARFON CASTLE • Designed to quash the warring Welsh princes, King Edward I’s master mason built this magnificent castle on the site of a former Roman fort and a primitive motte-and-bailey

BIG AND WELL BUILT

WHAT IS A GUILLOTINE? • Incredibly, this execution device was designed by someone who was against...