Unpacked
Companion pieces that take an idea from something we have already published and explore it fully: the theory, how it was found, and where it leads.
26 pieces so farA greyed-out title opens once you’ve read the piece it goes deeper into.
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Goes deeper intoWhy the Beach Disappears Twice a Day
Why the Sea Bulges Away From the Moon Our poem about the tides said the far side of the Earth swells too. Here is the full reason, and what tides are quietly doing to the Earth and the Moon. -
Goes deeper intoA Vaccine Is a Wanted Poster for a Germ
Why Measles Needs Almost Everyone Vaccinated The vaccine piece said a vaccine shows your immune system a wanted poster. But the poster protects people who never saw it, too. Here's the one-line equation that says how many of us need to look. -
Goes deeper intoProduct Review: The Human Eye (Four Stars)
Your Brain Is Hiding a Hole in Your Eye Our review of the human eye said every eye ships with a blind spot. Here's how to find yours in thirty seconds, and what your brain is doing to hide it. -
Goes deeper intoFamily WhatsApp Group Confirms 5G Causes Colds
One Ultraviolet Photon Beats a Billion Radio Ones The nephew told the family group that a million feathers won't break a window the way one stone will, and got removed. Here's the experiment that proved him right, and won Einstein his Nobel Prize. -
Goes deeper intoCharging Your Phone Means Pushing Lithium Uphill
Why Fast Charging Slows Down at 80 Per Cent The charging piece pictured lithium being marched uphill into the graphite. So why does the march race to 80 per cent and then crawl? Because the last few seats in a crowded hall are the hardest to fill. -
Goes deeper intoLightning Strikes Same Building Twice, Ignores Famous Saying
Never Shelter Under the Tallest Tree Mr Bhalerao, having given up on the roof, chose the tallest tree in the society garden as his new safe spot. Here's exactly how a bolt chooses where to land, and why that tree is one of the worst places he could stand. -
Goes deeper intoIce Floats, Which Is Lucky for Fish
Why the Bottom of a Frozen Lake Stays at 4 °C The ice poem promised that the fish below swim on at four degrees all day. Why four, and not zero? The answer involves two forces fighting inside every drop of cold water, and a lake that flips itself over every autumn. -
Goes deeper intoMost of You Was Made Inside a Star
Why Stars Stop Making Elements at Iron The stardust poem says stars fuse their way up to iron and stop, "for when it fuses iron, the profit's gone". Here's the single curve behind that line, which also explains nuclear power stations and why a star's death takes less than a second. -
Goes deeper intoMan Cracks Knuckles for Decades to Annoy Mother, Science Backs Him
Why You Can't Crack the Same Knuckle Twice Mr Joshi has timed it many times: twenty minutes before the same knuckle will crack again. His wife confirms it. Here's what is happening inside the joint during those twenty minutes, and what it has in common with a bottle of soda. -
Goes deeper intoRaindrops Are Not Shaped Like Raindrops
Why Rain Doesn't Hit Like a Bullet The raindrop poem says rain "can sting, but never cuts you deep", because drag matches weight long before the ground. Without air, a drop from a cloud two kilometres up would arrive at about 700 km/h. Here's the maths of the brake. -
Goes deeper intoSun Promises Five Billion More Years, Apologises for Summer
The Sun's Core Is Less Intense Than a Compost Heap In its statement, the Sun said its protons occasionally tunnel through a barrier, and called it Tuesday. Here's the rest of the chain, the ghostly particles it fires through you every second, and the reason the Sun doesn't explode. -
Goes deeper intoThe Octopus Has Three Hearts and Blue Blood
Why Octopus Blood Is Blue and Yours Is Red The octopus poem says its blood is blue because "copper lends a bluish shade". Here's why copper and iron give different colours, why your veins look blue when your blood never is, and why an octopus gets out of breath. -
Goes deeper intoWhy the Monsoon Almost Always Turns Up in June
Why the Monsoon Arrives From the South-West The monsoon piece said moist ocean air flows in towards hot land. Then why doesn't it come straight from the south? Because on a spinning planet, nothing travels in a straight line, and the equator flips which way it bends. -
Goes deeper intoYour Phone Finds You Using Clocks in Space
Your Head Is Older Than Your Feet The GPS piece said satellite clocks run fast by 38 millionths of a second a day, and that engineers simply correct for it. That sounds like an excuse for a broken clock. Here's why it isn't, and how scientists measured time running faster at the top of a staircase. -
Goes deeper intoHow a Rock Ended Up Running Your Phone
How One Atom in a Million Turns Sand Into a Switch The silicon piece ended with nine-nines purity as "a blank page". Here's what chipmakers write on it: a few atoms of phosphorus and boron, placed with extraordinary care, which turn a crystal of rock into billions of tiny switches. -
Goes deeper intoPluto Isn't Sad, and You Shouldn't Be Either
How to Weigh Pluto Without Touching It The Pluto speech says early guesses made Pluto as big as Earth, and that it kept shrinking. What finally settled it was a smudge on a photograph in 1978, and one line of algebra any student can do. -
Goes deeper intoTrees Are Made of Thin Air
The Oxygen You Breathe Came Out of Water The tree poem says a leaf frees oxygen "from water, not the air". It sounds like a mistake. It isn't, and the way we found out involved purple bacteria, rotten-egg gas and a heavy kind of oxygen. -
Goes deeper intoGravity's Terms and Conditions (You Already Agreed)
Astronauts Are Falling All the Time and Missing Gravity's terms and conditions said astronauts float because they're falling "with very good aim". That sounds like a trick. Here's the exact aim required, worked out with a cannon Isaac Newton never fired. -
Goes deeper intoGuess How Many Times Your Heart Will Beat
How to Win the Guess-the-Sweets Jar The heartbeat speech argued that good guessing can be taught. Here's a chance to prove it at the next school fair, with one sum, one number to remember, and a crowd to help you.