41 results for “Io”
Planets & the Solar System
Jupiter
Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, discovered by Galileo in 1610 and so large that they would
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
Digestion
A nine-metre tube turns a sandwich into the molecules that build and fuel you, with
Article · 4 min read
Space & the Universe
Space Exploration
In under seventy years, humans went from the first satellite to walking on the Moon, living
Article · 3 min read
Chemistry
Chemical Reactions
Burning, rusting, cooking and digesting are all chemical reactions: atoms swapping partners to make new substances
Article · 3 min read
Life & Biology
Evolution
Every species alive, including ours, descends from earlier ones, shaped over millions of years by a
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
Dinosaurs and Mass Extinctions
For 165 million years dinosaurs ruled the land, then nearly all of them vanished in a
Article · 3 min read
Plants & Fungi
Flowers and Pollination
Flowers are advertisements aimed at insects, birds and bats. The deal, nectar for pollen delivery, is
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Animal Migration
Every year billions of animals set off on journeys of thousands of kilometres, guided by the
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
The Periodic Table
One chart holds every kind of atom in the universe, arranged so that its pattern predicts
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Insects
Six legs, an outside skeleton and more species than every other kind of animal put together
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
The Immune System
An army of trillions of cells defends you against invaders you never notice, learns from every
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
What Is Life? The Cell
Everything alive is made of cells, tiny bags of chemistry that eat, grow, copy themselves and
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Whales and Dolphins
Mammals that went back to the sea, grew into the largest animals ever, and talk to
Article · 4 min read
Space & the Universe
The Big Bang
The universe began 13.8 billion years ago as something hotter and denser than anything we can
Article · 4 min read
The Human Body
The Senses
Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are the body's instruments for turning light, vibration and
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Mars
The red planet is cold, dry and nearly airless today, but rivers once ran across it
Article · 4 min read
Space & the Universe
Nebulae
The glowing clouds of gas and dust between the stars are both nurseries and graveyards. Here
Article · 3 min read
Chemistry
Acids and Bases
Lemon juice, stomach acid, soap and bleach all sit on one scale: pH. Learn what makes
Article · 3 min read
Chemistry
The Chemistry of Life
Every living thing is built from four families of carbon-based molecules: carbohydrates, fats, proteins and
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
Lungs and Breathing
Twenty thousand times a day you draw in air and your lungs, with a surface the
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Birds
Eleven thousand species of feathered, flying, singing dinosaurs. Birds navigate by the stars, see colours we
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
The Heart and Blood
A fist-sized pump pushes five litres of blood around 100,000 kilometres of vessels every
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Sound
Every sound you hear, from a whisper to thunder, is a vibration travelling as a pressure
Article · 3 min read
Life & Biology
Bacteria and Viruses
The smallest living things outnumber everything else combined and run the planet's chemistry. Most are
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Light
Light is a wave, a particle and the fastest thing there is. Everything you see is
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Photosynthesis: How Plants Eat Light
Every leaf is a solar panel that turns sunlight, water and air into sugar and oxygen
Article · 3 min read
Space & the Universe
The Life of a Star
Stars are born in cold clouds, burn for millions or billions of years, and die as
Article · 3 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Gravity
The weakest force in nature holds planets in orbit, lights the stars and shapes the universe
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Volcanoes
There are about 1,350 potentially active volcanoes on land, and far more under the sea
Article · 4 min read
Space & the Universe
Dark Matter and Dark Energy
Everything we can see makes up only about 5 percent of the universe. The rest is
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
Muscles
Six hundred muscles move you, pump your blood and push your food along. Every one of
Article · 4 min read
The Human Body
The Brain
A kilo and a half of soft tissue containing 86 billion neurons and more connections than
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
DNA and Genes
Inside every one of your cells is a two-metre-long molecule carrying the complete instructions
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
Ecosystems and Food Webs
No living thing lives alone. Energy from the Sun flows through plants, grazers and predators, and
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
The Origin of Life
Around four billion years ago, on a hot young planet, chemistry became biology. Nobody knows exactly
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Atoms
Everything you can touch is made of atoms, and atoms are almost entirely empty space. Here
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Energy and Heat
Energy cannot be made or destroyed, only moved and changed. Heat is the form it always
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
The Quantum World
At the scale of atoms the universe stops behaving sensibly. Particles are waves, things exist in
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Seeds
A seed is a plant packed for travel: an embryo, a lunchbox and a coat, able
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Trees and Forests
The largest and oldest living things on Earth are trees, and the forests they form hold
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
The Sun
A ball of hydrogen a million times the volume of Earth, fusing 600 million tonnes of
Article · 4 min read
