Ice is the only common solid that behaves this way. Glass is smooth and you do not slide on it. Polished stone is smooth and you do not slide on…
The honeycomb is probably the most cited example of mathematics in nature. Rows of near-identical hexagonal cells, walls meeting at consistent angles, packed with no wasted space — and produced…
Ask why the sky is blue and you will get one of three answers. That it reflects the sea. That the atmosphere is somehow blue in the way tinted glass…
Olive oil occupies a strange position in the supermarket. It is one of the few products where the packaging carries a technical classification most shoppers have never had explained, and…
A bottle of champagne is under roughly five to six atmospheres of pressure. That is comparable to the pressure at a depth of around 50 metres of water, and about…
Try it. Run your fingers along your own ribs, or the sole of your own foot, using exactly the motion that would reduce you to helpless laughter if somebody else…