How It Works - UK (2020-02)

Can humanssafely

©NASA

Can humanssafely

eatcat ordogfood?

©Getty

Oscar Schulz

Q There are three main t y pes of toxic secretion

in snakes designed to stop prey in its tracks.

Cytotoxins are rich in enzymes and kick-start

digestion of soft tissue before the prey has

actually died. Neurotoxins block chemical

signalsinthev ictim’scentralner voussystem.

Thesevenomscanparalysemusclesand

interruptrespiration.Haemotoxinsaffectthe

blood.Somestopbloodfromclotting,whichcan

leadtomassiveinternalbleeding.Other

haemotoxinskillbythickeningbloodtothe

pointwhereit can’tcirculate.AG

What in

a snake’s

venom makes

it poisonous?

Rough-scaledsnakevenombreaksdownflesh,

paralysespreyandinterfereswithbloodflowallatonce

©Getty

The large-scale

structure of the

universe consists of

filament-like

superclusters with

emptyvoids

betweenthem

JuliaMorrison

Q Petfoodmakersclaim

peoplecan.Humans

testitstaste,and

supposedlycan’t

distinguishdog

foodfrompaté,

butweneed

differentnutrients

toourpetssowe

can’tliveoffit.

AE

http://www.howitworksdaily.com

ScottMichaels

Q Thefirstphotographtookeighthourstodevelopduetotheslowshutterspeedrequired

toallowthecopperplate,coatedinbitumen,enoughtimeinthelightbeforeanimage

couldbecaptured.Asthechemicalsslowlyreactedtothelight,animagewasetchedinthe

surface.By1939,theDaguerreot y pecamerausediodine-coatedsilver-platedcopperwhich

reactedfarquickertothesurroundinglightsourceandthereforespedtheprocessup.JE

Why did early cameras take

so long to take photographs?

©Getty

An early sliding-box camera and

accompanying equipment from 1853

Patrick Butler

Q Just as stars clump into galaxies and

galaxies into clusters, so clusters of galaxies

congregate into even larger superclusters,

hundreds of millions of light years across.

Bet ween these superclusters are equally

enormous voids, containing almost no matter

at all. One of the largest of these cosmic voids,

360 million light years in size, is half a billion

light years away in the constellation Boötes.

From its centre, the sk y would look black in all

directions. AM

What is the Boötes void?

How It Works 085