The AnswerBank Articles

Dyson sweeps the board

by Lisa Cardy THE thousands of 'Dyson devotees' around the world breathed a sigh of relief when James Dyson won his High Court battle with arch rivals Hoover at the end of last year. Press00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

The credit card strip: how does it work

by Lisa Cardy PhotoDisc.co.uk PEOPLE use them everyday. But how does that black strip on the back of credit cards allow us to buy things and is it safe The strip on the back of a credit card00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

Futuristic fashions

by Lisa Cardy IF you want to be cool this summer then a new invention from Australia is just the thing you're looking for. Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

A round up of your How It Works questions and answers

by Lisa Cardy THE mechanisation of all kinds of objects and things have been baffling you, but The AnswerBank has ironed your How It Works problems out. rbanucha wanted to know how to make his00:00 Mon 29th Jan 2001

How the Hubble Space Telescope works

by Lisa Cardy THE Hubble Space Telescope's has given us out of this world pictures of dust storms on Mars, the birth of stars, galaxies, black holes and the edge of the Universe. But how exactly00:00 Mon 29th Jan 2001

How microwave ovens work

by Lisa Cardy SILVER wants to know how microwave ovens work, so here's a whole article on the subject. Microwave ovens are one of the twentieth century's great inventions and are found in most00:00 Mon 29th Jan 2001

Black boxes: how do they work

by Lisa Cardy THIS was a recent question at The AnswerBank and it got some very thorough replies, click here to see them. Here is some more detail for you: An Australian scientist, Dr David00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Hearty welcome for Dr Tarantula

by Lisa Cardy THE sight of it may set your pulse racing, but its bite could save your life. US and German scientists have discovered that venom from a tarantula contains a protein that could wipe00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Dendrochronology: how it works

by Lisa Cardy Sea Henge, a 4,000-year-old mysterious circle of oak stumps found off the north Norfolk coast, has caused quite a stir when it was uncovered three years ago. But how exactly do they00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Bright future for humble sea worm

by Lisa Cardy WHAT lives at the bottom of the sea and is red all over, apart from when it's stripped blue and green It's the humble sea mouse, which is actually an iridescent worm. It has a00:00 Wed 10th Jan 2001

A plane that goes faster than Concorde

by Lisa Cardy CONCORDE may still be grounded after its fatal crash last summer, but already plans for an even faster jet are in the pipeline. The second-generation supersonic jet will travel at00:00 Wed 10th Jan 2001

Water-filled windows create a hot house

by Lisa Cardy WE'RE all interested in saving money and Frederick McKee has come up with an idea he claims will slash fuel bills. McKee, an Essex-based engineer has invented a way to keep buildings00:00 Wed 10th Jan 2001

Driving on air

by Lisa Cardy WORRIED about rising fuel prices Remember all too well the chaos of queing for petrol in the recent blockade Then a new car which runs on air will be just the sort of thing you're00:00 Wed 10th Jan 2001

Bond - and a long way beyond

East German secret police used radiation sprays to track dissidents behind the Berlin Wall. It sounds like a movie fantasy, but a detailled report has revealed how secret agents "with vibrating00:00 Thu 04th Jan 2001

A Mir something to worry about

By Anna Tobin THE DINOSAURS are said to have been wiped out by a giant meteor that hit earth many millions of years ago and it is often muted that the human race could meet a similar fate00:00 Wed 03rd Jan 2001

Genes for sale

By Lisa Cardy SCIENTISTS across the world are racing to be the first to patent the make up of hundreds of thousands of genes. But already, controversy is building over the use of the information.00:00 Wed 20th Dec 2000

Journey to the centre of the body

By Lisa Cardy REMEMBER the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage It may not be so fantastic, as scientists develop 'mini robots' to travel through the body's bloodstream, attacking tumours and scouring00:00 Sat 23rd Dec 2000

A voice lost and found

By Lisa Cardy A GROUNDBREAKING larynx transplant operation to give back the power of speech to throat cancer victims could be standard procedure within four years. But there are huge emotional00:00 Sat 23rd Dec 2000