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.

WELCOME • Issue 180

Bubble hunting

Snapping skyscrapers

Fungal handshake

Peering behind bars

Perseverance rover finds organic molecules on Mars

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER A HUGE HOT BLOB ON THE MOON

Swirls of liquid iron may be trapped inside Earth’s core

Roman mausoleum discovered in the rubble of a London building site

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WHERE THE MICROPLASTICS HUMANS INHALE END UP

Scientists make the world’s first genetically modified snakes

WORLD’S DEEPEST CANYON IS HOME TO ASIA’S TALLEST TREE

Spider kills prey with gruesome tactic

Oldest active black hole in the universe discovered

Mysterious ‘Viking disease’ linked to Neanderthal DNA

Human impact on Earth’s tilt concerns scientists

THE ORION SPACECRAFT GETS A HEAT SHIELD FOR ITS MOON MISSION

WISH LIST • WILDLIFE WATCHING GADGETS

SUMMER’S HERE THREE ISSUES FOR JUST £5*

RISE OF THE AI CHATBOTS • How breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are making everyday chatbots smarter than ever

HOW CHATBOTS WORK • Using a range of sophisticated software and hardware, AI chatbots can perform complex tasks

GETTING SMARTER

FROM QUESTION TO ANSWER • How do we get from input to output with an AI chatbot?

CREATING AN AI CHATBOT • What was it like to give birth to a groundbreaking new AI? Andrew Mayne, science communicator at OpenAI, tells us

5 JOBS THAT AI COULD REPLACE

HARDWARE FOR AI • Artificial intelligence makes use of a range of sophisticated modern hardware

COULD AI EVER BE TRULY CONSCIOUS? • Tom McClelland is a lecturer in the department of history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University. He ponders the deeper questions about AI

CHATBOT AI BY NUMBERS

HOW BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS WORK • Our bodies need blood to deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste. How do we receive more when we run dangerously low?

RECEIVING BLOOD • How does the process of a blood transfusion work?

LAB-GROWN MEAT EXPLAINED • Would you eat chicken or beef that’s been grown in a laboratory?

MAKING MEAT • The process that puts artificially grown meat on your plate

HOW HARDNESS IS MEASURED • This scale helps scientists identify and categorise minerals

SCRATCHING MINERALS • How do these rocks rank on the scale?

SIZZLING HOT SUBSCRIPTIONS

MOTORBIKE EVOLUTION • From simple early designs to today’s speedy sporting tech, these two-wheeled vehicles have stepped up a gear

5 MAJOR MOTORBIKE MOMENTS

TWO-WHEEL ENGINEERING • Explore the basic anatomy and modern features of today’s motorcycles

FIVE LARGEST CRANES

HOW A CONSTRUCTION CRANE WORKS • Incredible engineering allows these lofty lifters to hoist hefty materials into the air with ease

INSIDE THE CABIN • What’s a crane made of and how is it operated?

DIGGING THE CHANNEL TUNNEL • How one of the world’s longest undersea passages came to be

BENEATH THE CHANNEL • How the Channel Tunnel connects the United Kingdom to the rest of Europe

HOW LIFE EVOLVES • Discover the biological pathways through time that led to the plants and animals of today

HUMAN FAMILY TREE • The road to becoming one of the great apes of the world

THE HONEYCREEPERS • The birds with beaks tailored to their...