40 results for “water”
Chemistry
Water: The Strangest Ordinary Substance
water molecule can form up to four of them, and in a glass of water there
Article · 3 min read
Planet Earth
The Oceans
Water covers 71 percent of the surface, and almost all of that water, 97 percent, is in the ocean
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Photosynthesis: How Plants Eat Light
water and light. Put a seed in soil with nothing but water and sunshine and it grows
Article · 3 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Mars
water that was Everywhere orbiters look, they see the handwriting of water. Winding valley networks drained
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Weather and Climate
Water is the other half of the engine. The Sun evaporates about 500,000 cubic kilometres
Article · 4 min read
Chemistry
Acids and Bases
water. Bases that dissolve in water are called alkalis. They taste bitter and feel slippery because
Article · 3 min read
Animals
Reptiles and Amphibians
water, snakes that see heat. The cold-blooded animals have solved life's problems in their
Article · 3 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Jupiter
water, perhaps 100 kilometres deep, holding more water than all of Earth's oceans. Where water
Article · 3 min read
Plants & Fungi
Trees and Forests
water from the roots to the leaves. In a tall tree that water rises more than
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Whales and Dolphins
water and prey, then forces the water out through the baleen, trapping the food. A blue
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Comets, Asteroids and Pluto
water once seeped to the surface. Vesta, the second largest, has a crust, mantle and core
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Saturn
water's, so in a hypothetical ocean large enough, Saturn would float. Its clouds are a muted
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Sharks
water around a struggling fish. Most remarkably, pores around the snout filled with a conductive jelly
Article · 3 min read
Planet Earth
The Atmosphere
Water vapour varies from almost nothing over deserts to about four percent over tropical seas. That
Article · 4 min read
Life & Biology
The Origin of Life
water and a mixture of gases in a flask, passed electric sparks through it to imitate
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Carnivorous Plants
water flea or mosquito larva touches the trigger hairs by the door, it opens, water rushes
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Volcanoes
water through its entire history, while the atmosphere's water and nitrogen themselves were largely outgassed
Article · 4 min read
Space & the Universe
Exoplanets: Worlds Around Other Stars
water worlds with oceans hundreds of kilometres deep. There are planets orbiting two stars at once
Article · 3 min read
Animals
The Octopus
water through gills inside its body and can also jet that water out to swim in rapid
Article · 3 min read
Plants & Fungi
Seeds
water, fungi and insects. Then the seed dries, its metabolism slows to almost nothing, and it can remain
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
The Moon
water. The best explanation is dramatic. About 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was newly formed
Article · 4 min read
Chemistry
The Chemistry of Life
water-loving head and two oily tails, forms the membrane around every cell. In water these
Article · 3 min read
Life & Biology
Ecosystems and Food Webs
water, air, sunlight and climate. It can be as small as a rotting log or as large
Article · 4 min read
The Human Body
Lungs and Breathing
water vapour, about a kilogram of it a day. When breathing goes wrong Asthma narrows the airways
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Atoms
water, your hand, and cut it in half, then in half again, and keep going. About
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Electricity and Magnetism
water in a storm cloud rub together, charge builds up until the air can no longer
Article · 4 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Mercury and Venus
water ice hiding in them, delivered by comets and preserved for billions of years just a few hundred
Article · 3 min read
Planets & the Solar System
The Sun
water in a pot, carrying heat upward in vast rising columns. That boiling gives the surface
Article · 4 min read
The Human Body
Digestion
water, fibre and whatever could not be digested, moves on. Large intestine: the bacterial garden The large
Article · 4 min read
Chemistry
Chemical Reactions
water. Every carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atom that went in comes out again; they have only
Article · 3 min read
Space & the Universe
Space Exploration
water and life. The two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
Article · 3 min read
The Human Body
Skin, Hair and Nails
water in and germs out, senses the world, cools you down and even makes a vitamin
Article · 3 min read
Planet Earth
Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
water and life can exist. Earth is the only planet we know with active plate tectonics
Article · 4 min read
The Human Body
The Heart and Blood
water carrying dissolved salts, sugars, proteins, hormones and waste. The rest is cells. Red cells, about
Article · 4 min read
Animals
Animal Migration
waters of the poles to tropical lagoons to give birth, 8,000 kilometres each way, fasting
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
Sound
water and fifteen times faster in steel. Light is almost a million times faster than sound
Article · 3 min read
Planets & the Solar System
Uranus and Neptune
water, ammonia and methane. Astronomers call these compounds ices because they would freeze in the outer
Article · 4 min read
Matter, Energy & Physics
The Periodic Table
water; chlorine, bromine and iodine were all reactive, bad-smelling and formed salts. But nobody could
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Rocks, Minerals and Fossils
water, and then millions of years of luck. The vast majority of species that ever lived
Article · 4 min read
Plants & Fungi
Fungi
water and minerals, especially phosphorus, which the plant's own roots are poor at finding. In return
Article · 4 min read
