Books

Are you smart enough to be an ISS astronaut? (Tim Peake © ESA/NASA)

Are you smart enough to be an ISS astronaut?

True or Poo? by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti is available now (£9.99, Quercus)

Can you separate the truth from the poop in these animal facts?

Professor Stephen Hawking, British theoretical physicist. Photographed at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge © Eleanor Bentall/Corbis via Getty Images

Can you solve these deviously difficult Stephen Hawking-inspired questions?

The wolf pack: sharp teeth and strong family units © Getty Images

The wolf pack: sharp teeth and strong family units

The platinum-iridium cylinder (right) was the primary standard kilogram for all metric measurements in the U. S. Known as Kilogram No. 20, it was a copy of the International Prototype Kilogram, which was preserved at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Sevres, France. Kilogram No. 4 (left, under double bell jar), a duplicate of No. 20, was used as a secondary standard. Noth cylinders were 39 mm in diameter and 39 mm. high; they were made of 90 percent platinum and 10 percent iridium. Re-comparison of Kilogram No. 20 with the international standard in 1937 showed that the United States standard had changed by only one part in 50 million during approximately 50 years.

Everyday science

A fond farewell to the humble kilo

Adapted from Everything You Know About Planet Earth is Wrong by Matt Brown, publihsed by Batsford. Illustrations by Sara Mulvanny.

Five “facts” about planet Earth that are completely wrong

Resisting a new concept: the discovery of zero

Everyday science

Resisting a new concept: the discovery of zero

Robin Ince

Inside the mind of a comedian – Robin Ince

circa 1799: The deathbed of George Washington (1732 - 1799), the 1st President of the United States of America (1789 - 1797). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Think injections are bad? These 250-year-old cures are way worse!

Finding the fun in science - Dara Ó Briain (Secret Science: The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes)

Everyday science

Finding the fun in science – Dara Ó Briain

Where does jealousy come from? © Getty Images

Where does jealousy come from?

An Alfred Edward Chalon watercolour of Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (nee Ada Byron) circa 1940 © Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Future Technology

How Ada Lovelace’s notes on the Analytical Engine created the first computer program

Can humanity survive in the age of AI? © Getty Images

Future Technology

Can humanity survive in the age of AI?

What we got wrong about pandas and teenagers © Getty Images

What we got wrong about pandas and teenagers