Science Facts

 H ow do these doors know to open as you approach? (Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay) There’s nothing more welcoming than a door opening for you. Without the need to be touched to open or close, automatic doors are essential in improving disabled access to buildings, facilitating hygiene in required areas and helping provide general convenience to commercial buildings. Self-sliding doors began to emerge as a commercial product in 1960 after being invented six years previously by Americans Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt. They started out as a novelty feature, but as their use has grown their benefits have extended within our technologically advanced world. Particularly useful in busy locations or during times of emergency, the doors act as crowd management by reducing the obstacles put in peoples’ way. They give us one less thing to tackle during daily life and the occasional quick escape. As well as making access both in and out of buildings easier for people, the difference in the ...

 G et the power of a superhero and freeze a glass of water with a single touch! Before you begin… If you’re under 18, make sure you have an adult with you. Image credit: Future PLC/ © Illustrations by Ed Crooks 1. Cool your water First, you need to freeze some purified water. You might think that you can make your own purified water for this experiment by boiling it for a few minutes, but that won’t remove the chemicals in the water, so you’ll need to buy specially purified water instead. Take three unopened 500ml plastic bottles of the water and place two of them in the freezer on their side. Image credit: Future PLC/ © Illustrations by Ed Crooks 2. Be careful! After 30 minutes put in a third bottle. Having more than one bottle will increase your chances of this working, so you can put in even more if you want to try this a few times! You need to leave your water in the freezer for two hours and 15 minutes in total. Make sure to leave the water as undisturbed as possible while it’...

1. Babies have around 100 more bones than adults Babies have about 300 bones at birth, with cartilage between many of them. This extra flexibility helps them pass through the birth canal and also allows for rapid growth. With age, many of the bones fuse, leaving 206 bones that make up an average adult skeleton. 2. The Eiffel Tower can be 15 cm taller during the summer When a substance is heated up, its particles move more and it takes up a larger volume – this is known as thermal expansion. Conversely, a drop in temperature causes it to contract again. The mercury level inside a thermometer, for example, rises and falls as the mercury’s volume changes with the ambient temperature. This effect is most dramatic in gases but occurs in liquids and solids such as iron too. For this reason, large structures such as bridges are built with expansion joints which allow them some leeway to expand and contract without causing any damage. 3. 20% of Earth’s oxygen is produced by ...