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...type of material making up the ground. Rugged rock outcrops appear dark and shadowed, while frost highlights the upper alcove and the steepest route down the slope. Given that there are ambitious plans to colonise Mars in the near future, it is surprising how much we still have to learn about what it would be like to actually live on the planet. Take the weather, for...

...types of binary stars orbiting each other, in a hunt for exotic stellar neighbourhoods. The CREDO experiment took a different approach, asking volunteers to collect their own data by using their mobile phones as high energy particle detectors. Human volunteers make a very real scientific contribution. There has never been a better time to get involved in science!Not every...

...type of die. Production runs in the range of 50–10 million are not unusual. Due to high tooling, material and process costs, production is usually only viable when there is no suitable alternative (e.g. turbine blades in unforgeable alloys), or where an appreciable reduction in machining can be achieved (e.g. hip prostheses). Production rates depend on material and...

...types: zinc, iron and manganese phosphates. The chemicals react with the metal and neutralise a thin film of the solution at the interface. In the neutralised film the solubility of metal phosphates is reduced, and they precipitate as crystals which are attracted to the surface of the metal electrostatically. Hydrogen embrittlement does not occur, unlike with...