Despite being non-venomous, the python remains one of the world’s most dangerous serpents. The African rock python, in particular, is a very deadly assassin, also notorious for being ill-tempered.

Pythons incapacitate their prey by literally squeezing the life out of them, coiling their long – sometimes seven-metre (23-foot) – bodies round the victim and tightening their grip until the animal, unable to breathe, eventually suffocates. That done, the python then sets about consuming their meal… in one go.

Equipped with a set of highly flexible jaws, stretchy skin and ribs hinged with extra-supple tissue, the African rock python can down its quarry whole. First the python slides its mouth over the head of the prey and then gradually moves its body along the length of the animal with the help of an expandable throat and abdomen. The animal is then digested over a matter of hours, or even days if it’s particularly large. Following such a meal, the python need not eat again for several weeks.

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Pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is so versatile because it can stick two surfaces – ideally flat ones – together without the need for heat, solvents or other substances in order to make it tacky. Instead, this amazing invention uses something as simple as a little pressure to make it stick fast.

Synthetic transparent cellulose acetate film (historically this was made of natural cellulose derived from plants like cotton or hemp) is made sticky through the addition of synthetic rubber resin, but how are these layers adhered together in the first place?
By first applying a primer to the side of the cellophane film that will host the adhesive, the manufacturers can then apply a very thin layer of the rubber-based glue. Next, by heating or applying hot air to the tape, any liquid present in the adhesive will evaporate, leaving behind a purer dose of glue.

Some other types of sticky tape involve laminating the glue to the tape using extreme pressure. The tape is then rolled onto a cardboard barrel for easy dispensing – often with the use of a clever device which keeps that elusive end of the tape accessible for the user.

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On the north-east coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland lies an unusual rock formation capable of drawing in millions of visitors from around the world every year. They flock to see a vast plateau of polygonal basalt columns, known as the Giant’s Causeway, which looks like a carpet of enormous steppingstones extending out into the Irish Sea. The basalt pillars that make up this amazing rock formation range in size from a matter of centimetres to tens of metres.

Although the Giant’s Causeway is so-named due to an ancient legend, its formation actually began some 60 million years ago when volcanic activity forced tectonic plates to stretch and break, causing magma to spew up from inside the Earth and spill out across the surface as lava.

The temperature of erupting lava can range from between 700 and 1,200 degrees Celsius (1,292 and 2,192 degrees Fahrenheit). However, upon contact with the surface it will immediately begin to cool. At first this cooling is extremely rapid and causes a hardened crust to form on top of the lava, which insulates the still liquid lava below. Because the lava is insulated this cooling becomes increasingly slow over time. While you could probably walk on the lava’s crust after about half an hour, thick lava flows can take many years to cool completely and become totally solid.

While the temperature falls the lava dries out, and it’s this drying that causes the solidifying lava to crack and form regular pillars of basalt rock. The size and shape of each basalt column is determined by the rate at which the lava cools and dries, and therefore the speed at which what’s called the ‘drying front’ moves. Scientists from the University of Toronto discovered that the slower the cooling the larger the basalt columns.