Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 118: Rainbow Science

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

W O B N I A R Colourful chameleons

E C N E I C S up e r u j n Co ow b n i a r a

Wow your friends with optical illusions

Make colour-changing paint WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 118

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

WELCOME!

I’m rainbow ready!

Riley

Paintbrushe s at the ready – this is a kaleidosc ope of colour! D edition of Whizz Pop Bang of rainbows and have a go at isc over the se cret science ma with some colour-changing ch king your own. Ge t creative em how chamele ons change colou ist ry expe riments. Find out r and why colourful coral re ef s around the world are turning white. Plus, optical illusions th at will blow your mind! It’s time to explore a world of colour!

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The Sun is out, so I’m making Sun prints!

Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Designer: Rachael Fisher Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Contributors: Nick Arnold, Joe Inglis, Tara Pardo, Isabel Thomas and Joanna Tubbs

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

As well as our writers, we also have a team of science advisers who help to ensure that our content is accurate, up-to-date and relevant. Our advisers include: palaeontologist Steve Brusatte; molecular microbiologist Matt Hutchings; robotics engineer Abbie Hutty; mechanical engineer Aimee Morgans; GP Dr Cathy Scott; astronomer Mark Thompson; physicist Dr Jess Wade; child psychologist Dr Naira Wilson.

To find out more, go to whizzpopbang.com/about

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Welcome to WHIZZ POP BANG – the magazine bursting with enticing articles, mind-boggling facts and hands-on experiments to get your child hooked on science! Whizz Pop Bang is a gender-neutral magazine with plenty of inspirational male and female scientists and content that appeals to all children.

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WHIZZ POP BANG is made by:

CONTENTS k.

Why are scientists creating a ‘poo zoo’, and which colour doesn’t really exist? Find out here!

THE SECRET SCIENCE OF RAINBOWS

We’re crazy about rainbows, but what exactly are they? And how can you make one at home?

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ANIMAL ANTICS

10

Find out how swivel-eyed chameleons can change the colour of their skin.

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AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

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COLOUR CHEMISTRY

12 16 17 22 Atom

Have fun investigating the science of pigments.

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Get creative with amazing colour-changing natural paints.

PULLOUT

Discover some mind-bending colourful optical illusions.

SPOTLIGHT

Why are the world’s coral reefs losing their colour?

24

HOW STUFF WORKS

Ever wondered what’s inside your TV or tablet screen?

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING… colourful animals. The animal kingdom is awash with colour!

26

MY AMAZING LIFE

Find out how a simple accident resulted in the creation of a wonderful new colour!

28

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I’d love to see pictures of your experiments! Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

35

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE Behold the captivating colours of corals.

32 34

Y’S WONDER CLUB

Ask our robot, Y, your burning science questions and share all of your adventures in science with the club.

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win an Ollyball to colour in and play with.

JOKES AND ANSWERS

Laugh out loud at some awesome jokes and find the answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

FIND THE SCIENCE EQUIPMENT Hidden on each double page is a piece of science equipment. Tick each one to find the complete kit!

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa WOOLLY MAMMOTH © Colossal Biosciences

MOUSE

Scientists trying to bring the extinct woolly mammoth back to life have created a woolly mouse! The scientists, from biosciences company Colossal, plan to use gene-editing to change the DNA of closely related Asian elephants, adding in mammoth genes to give them golden woolly coats and tolerance of cold temperature. Woolly mammoths lived in the Ice Age and went extinct just 4,000 years ago (much more recently than dinosaurs, which disappeared 66 million years ago), so the scientists have been able to collect wellpreserved mammoth DNA from the frozen remains of the animals. After perfecting these techniques in mice, they plan to move on to elephants next year.

The company says bringing back mammoths could help the environment, but some scientists worry it could be bad for the animals.

What do you think?

POO ZOO Researchers are collecting animal poo to help protect endangered species. Animal dung contains living cells from the animals’ intestines. These cells can be used to boost genetic diversity in animal populations, making them less likely to go extinct.

They could even be used for cloning – creating a whole animal from a single cell – and gene-editing to make animals more resilient. The researchers aim to collect poo from as many species as possible to create a ‘poo zoo’.

That scientist’s got poo on her overalls!

You mean her

Dung-arees?! © Bridgette Gower

© shutterstock.com

HOME SWEET HOME!

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT This moth tricks predators into thinking it’s a leaf by using a clever optical illusion. The wings of fruit-sucking moths look like three-dimensional leaves, but they are actually completely flat. Tiny scales on the moth’s wings reflect light, creating the illusion of a curved shape.

“This suggests that moths are exploiting the way predators perceive 3D shapes to improve their camouflage, which is very impressive,” said lead researcher Dr Jennifer Kelley from The University of Western Australia.

r ?!

© NASA/Keegan Barber

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are back home after being stuck in space for nine months! Their mission to the International Space Station was meant to last just eight days, but technical problems with their spacecraft meant they had to wait until a new one could bring them home. The stranded pair returned to Earth in March along with two other astronauts. As their capsule splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico, they were met by an unusual welcome party – a pod of curious dolphins! Back on solid ground, the astronauts are adjusting to Earth’s gravity. After so long in space, their muscles and bones need time to regain strength, but they’ll soon be back on their feet and ready for their next adventure.

PIGMENT OF YOUR IMAGINATION The colour purple isn’t real – your brain makes it up! The wavelengths of light you can see are called the visible spectrum.

This includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet – but not purple.

Infrared

Longer wavelengths

V isible spectrum

Read out more ab light on page 6!

Ultraviolet

Shorter wavelengths

© Bridgette Gower

Your eyes detect different wavelengths of light using cells called cones. There are three kinds of cones, and each wavelength of light will activate a different combination, sending a message to the brain to ‘see’ a particular colour. Red cones detect longer wavelengths and blue cones detect shorter ones.

Green cones detect the ones in the middle. But purple is made up of red and violet – a mixture of the longest and the shortest wavelengths in the visible spectrum – and your brain doesn’t have a way of combining these. It’s solution? The brain bends the visible spectrum into a circle, so that red and violet are next to each other, and makes up the colours between them (which don’t really exist) – creating purple!

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The secret science of

R AINBOWS out light. Light is radiation (like micro science is all ab waves, ra Rainbow dio wa e l c s i t t r h a a p t ves f a o c p t u l i k e e d waves. They t’s ma i d n a , ) s ’ y r e a r c X a l d l e n d phot a ons.

movie w motion lo s a e in g Ima n atom… n hitting a to o h p a f o

takes the to give The atom y but has rg e n e ’s n photo photon… releases a it o S . p u it

. of a wave the form s e k e) ta id s n to The photo netic (side g a m th o is b cientists The wave d down). S n a p (u . ic and electr etic wave n g a m o r t lec call it an e

What makes different sorts of radiation?

Light and other electromagnetic waves are the fastest things in the universe. They speed through space at 299,792.458 km per second.

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The difference is the wavelength – the distance between each peak or dip of an electromagnetic wave.

Light waves have a shorter wavelength than radio waves but a longer wavelength than ultraviolet or X-rays.

Radiation with shorter wavelengths has more energy when it hits an atom.

This is why UV (ultraviolet) radiation from sunlight can damage the skin.

WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF LIGHT?

Each colour has a different wavelength. Red is longer than blue, for example. Sunlight contains all the colours of the rainbow – but normally you can’t see them because they’re all mixed up to make white light.

MAKE A RAINBOW Yo u will need glass A A small mirror A sunny day White paper

W h a t y o u do 1. Partly fill the glass with water.

2. Wedge the mirror at an angle in the glass. Its higher side should be just under the surface.

3. Place the glass on the floor in the sunshine.

4. Place the paper about 1.2 metres away.

e)

HOW DO RAINBOWS WORK?

When light hits a clear material like water in a raindrop (or a glass), it slows down a little. If the light shines from an angle, the light bends. Longer light waves bend less. As a result, the colours in light separate out. They’re reflected inside the raindrop. We see them as a rainbow.

Yo u should find g refraction.

Scientists call this light bendin nd) light by Different materials refract (be refract light different amounts. You can also a prism. with a transparent object called

You can see a rainbow! It’s roughly in the direction the Sun is shining from.

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WHAT ELSE MAKES RAINBOW COLOURS? Bubbles, CDs and oil on water can all make rainbow colours, but not in the same way as a real rainbow.These colours happen because of light interference. When light hits a bubble, some of it bounces off the surface, while some goes through and reflects off a layer underneath. These two sets of light waves get in each other's way. If the waves are aligned (in step), they combine to make certain colours brighter.

If they are misaligned (out of step), they cancel each other out, making those colours disappear.

The colours you see depend on the angle you look at it from. This is called iridescence.

es in step Light wav Light waves o

ut of step

Try this mnemonic (say ne-mon-ic) to help you remember the colours of the rainbow:

Richard of York gave battle in vain 8 whizzpopbang.com

Can you make up a fun mnemonic of your own? Send it to Y@whizzpopbang.com

MAKE IRIDESCENT PAPER

CAN I SEE IRIDESCENCE ANYWHERE ELSE? There are lots of iridescent creatures, including certain birds, beetles and butterflies. Scientists found microscopic crystals cause iridescence in peacocks’ feathers. There’s even an iridescent snake called a rainbow boa.

Yo u will need

A shallow dish or large plastic lid Clear nail polish Black paper Newspaper Scissors A sunny day

W h a t y o u do

1. Cut a piece of black paper 5 cm square.

2. Pour a small amount of water onto the dish or lid.

3. Drip two drops of nail polish onto the water.

4. Straight away dip the piece of paper in the water and dry it on newspaper.

5. Once the paper is dry, hold it at different angles in the Sun.

Find the missing pieces of this rainbow!

Write the numbers in the white spots and check your answers on page 34.

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Yo u should find

You see rainbow patterns.

They’re caused by iridescence.

AL ANIM S TIC

AN

CHameleons

Our vet Joe Inglis is a colourful character – but he’s got nothing on the animals he’s investigating this month.

Chameleons are amazing reptiles that can change the colour of their skin. More than half of all chameleons live on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, but they are also found in mainland Africa, Asia and Europe. Most live in rainforests, but some species live in grassland and others live in deserts.

Most chameleons are pretty small, but a few species grow to over 60 cm in length, the size of a typical pet cat – MEOW!

The smallest chameleon, Brookesia micra, measures just 30 mm from its nose to the tip of its tail! It’s one of the world’s smallest reptiles.

Coat of many colours Chameleons are one of the few animals in the world that can change the colour of their skin. Scientists think they do this by relaxing or exciting their skin, which changes the arrangement of light-reflecting crystals called iridophores (say i-rid-o-fores) in their skin.

How many words can you make out of the letters in CHAMELEON? Turn to page 34 to see some examples.

w nk Gla

© Fra

10 whizzpopbang.com

Chameleons are completely deaf because they don’t have ears.

Answer on page 34

It’s almost impossible to sneak up on a chameleon because they can look in two directions at once. By moving their two eyes in opposite directions chameleons can see all the way around themselves. And, just like the zoom on a camera, they can also enlarge what they are looking at to get a really detailed view. This helps them spot tiny insects up to 10 metres away.

Hmm, do you think green and yellow suit me?

Chameleons’ tongues are three times as long as their bodies.

Answer on page 34

Blue means I love you!

Female chameleons use colour changes to let males know if they like them or not, and to show when they are pregnant. The most dominant males have the brightest colours, with the less important males being dull grey or brown.

Colourful communication Some animals change colour to disguise themselves by blending into their surroundings. But chameleons mainly change colour when they want to communicate with each other; for example, to let other chameleons know that they are angry or scared.

0.07 seconds

Once a chameleon has crept close to its prey it shoots out its super-long tongue at an incredible speed – it takes just 0.07 seconds for its tongue to reach its prey. The unlucky insect gets stuck to the end of the tongue by a suction cup, and then reeled back in to the chameleon’s mouth to be gobbled up – now that’s what we call fast food!

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© Shutterstock.com

EY E EY E

CO L O U R CHEMISTRY It's time to get creative!

WHAT GIVES THINGS THEIR COLOUR? We see objects when light bounces off them towards our eyes. White light is a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow. But when white light hits a coloured object, not all of these colours bounce off again. Some are absorbed (soaked up) by tiny molecules called pigments. We only see the colours that AREN’T absorbed.

Leaves are packed with a pigment called chlorophyll, which absorbs all colours of light except green.

ANCIENT ART By crushing and heating colourful rocks and soils, Palaeolithic (Stone Age) artists made paints for their cave paintings. They didn’t know it, but they were doing some of the world’s first chemistry!

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© Shutterstock.com

These rock p ain Mozambique tings from are 8,000 years around old.

SYNTHETIC PIGMENTS

Over the last 150 years, chemists have developed synthetic dyes and pigments to create thousands of colours. Pigments and dyes are chemicals, so they have to be carefully tested to make sure they are safe to use. This wasn’t always the case; Victorian children could buy sweets that were coloured using toxic mercury, lead and arsenic – yikes!

SWEET SCIENCE Have a go at some chromato graphy to find out which colours are in you r food!

Yo u will need

Sweets with colourful

sugar shells

Absorbent white

paper (e.g. watercolour paper or napkins) A cup of water

1. Place two or three different coloured sweets onto the absorbent paper (green, brown and purple sweets work well).

©DOMINIC ROONEY

W h a t y o u do

2. Dip your finger into the water and drip a drop or two of water onto each sweet. As the sweets become wet, some of the colouring will dissolve into the water. Watch as the colours spread outwards, slowly adding more drops of water as necessary.

The ancient Romans made a dye from mushed sea snails.

Answer on page 34

Yo u should find

The water travels slowly along the paper, carrying the dissolved food colourings with it. Some of the colourful chemicals stay dissolved for longer and get carried further away from the sweets, separating the colours so that you can see which dyes the sweet manufacturer used. For the sweets that use more than one dye, you will see the colours separating out, whereas for those that only use one dye, you’ll just see one colour.

13,000

The number of different colourful chemicals that have been recorded in the Colour Index.

This enormous list was started in 1924, and it’s very handy if you’re designing textiles, paints or cosmetics – or if you’re a forensic scientist matching fibres from a crime scene.

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INVISIBLE COLOURS Dyes and pigments can also absorb light that we cannot see, such as UV light and infrared light.

This can be useful in many ways; for example, we feel infrared light as heat, so dyes that absorb infrared light can be used to create clothes that trap heat.

Dyes you can’t see are everywhere, from flowers that attract insects by absorbing UV light to security features on banknotes. These work like normal dyes, but can do so much more.

We are still finding new opportunities where these types of dyes can be applied.

What do you call a colour that doesn't exist?

A pigment of your imagination!

t Dr Peter Broadbthen e at School of design s University of Leed

Hidden deep in our word search are some wonderfully colourful words. See if you can find them all and make your friends green with envy. The words may be written forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Check your answers on page 34.

ARTISTS

PIGMENT

DYES

REFRACTION

LIGHT WAVES

COLOUR

RAINBOW

RADIATION

IRIDESCENCE

VANTABLACK

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VANISHING COLOURS

MAKE SUN PRINTS A Sun print is a type of photo gram (an image made by placing obj ects onto a light-sensitive surface).

Black surfaces absorb every colour of visible light. However, most black surfaces actually reflect up to 10% of the light that hits them. This is why you can still see creases in black fabric.

Yo u will need

Brightly coloured sugar paper A selection of interestingly shaped objects Sticky tack (or stones) A dry, sunny day

THE BLACKEST BLACK

W h a t y o u do

1. On a sunny morning, stick sugar paper to an outside table or paving stones using sticky tack (or put stones at the corners to stop it blowing away).

In 2014, scientists in the UK created Vantablack – the blackest black ever seen. Vantablack is made from carbon nanotubes arranged like a forest of tiny trees. It soaks up 99.965% of visible light. Five years later, scientists in America developed an even blacker black that soaks up more than 99.995% of incoming light!

2. Arrange a selection of objects on the paper, using sticky tack or stones to hold lighter objects in place.

3. Leave for at least 6 hours (the longer the better).

4. At the end of the day, remove the objects.

Yo u should find

© Surrey Nano Systems

These two sculptures are exactly the same, but one is coated in Vantablack. e almost You can’t see any details becaus all the light is absorbed (whereas light is reflected off the gold sculpture).

The ultraviolet light in sunlight slowly breaks down the pigments in the coloured paper, causing the colours to fade. The objects you placed on the paper blocked the sunlight, so those areas stayed darker.

b... clu O C E

Emmi’s

NATURAL P A I N T S Find out how to make colour-changing paint, then make more paints from other things you can find in your kitchen! This is the most fun you can have with a cabbage!

1

Yo u will need

A red cabbage A sharp knife A chopping board A heatproof container (e.g. a measuring jug or ramekin) ¼ cup measure (or use an egg cup) A teaspoon A sieve A small jug

A selection of small containers or a paint palette Bicarbonate of soda Watercolour paper (or other plain paper) Paintbrushes Kitchen paper or an old tea towel A selection of foods to make other paints – see box on page 21

2 Put a ¼ cup of cabbage in a heatproof container and ask an adult to pour two ¼ cups (or two egg cups) of boiling water over the cabbage. Leave it for at least 15 minutes, then strain the liquid into the jug using a sieve.

Ask an adult pa to finely cho t of n u small amo . g red cabba e

3 Red cabbage paint changes colour if it is mixed with an acid or idic alkali substance! Ac ar eg lemon juice or vin li turns it pink and alka bicarbonate of soda turns it blue.

ll Pour half of the mixture into one sma ½a container and half into another. Add one of the teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into colour! nge cha id containers and watch the liqu on lem of e Repeat, this time adding a squeez juice or a splash of vinegar.

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4

Next, make more paints in different colours – look at the box on the right for more information and experiment with other ingredients you find in your kitchen!

Continued on page 21 ➜

5

brush and get Now pick up a paint s are very watery, creative! These paint a piece of kitchen so dab your brush on doesn’t get too wet. paper so your paper they dry. Do any of Watch your paints as ? them change colour

More

ECO

ideas...

More natural paint ideas:

Black bean liquid Cocoa powder Beetroot Turmeric Spirulina

Continued from page 16

I’d love to see your natural paint art! Take a photo and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag and email it to Y@whizzpopbang.com

en – it’s a food from your kitch th wi s int pa ing ak m s, or Try f-date herbs and spice t-o ou up e us to y great wa that wouldn’t food is preserved in the liquid that some tried: re are some ideas we usually be eaten. He th

root wi chopped cooked beet Pink: Mix a ¼ cup of ep for ter and leave it to ste a ¼ cup of boiling wa e paint ag ain, as in the red cabb 15 minutes, then str um packed the liquid from vacu instructions. Or use t! jar of pickled beetroo cooked beetroot or a beans, or from a can of black Grey: Use the liquid overnight. ak dried black beans the water used to so or coffee on of cocoa powder Brown: Add 1 teaspo oroughly. hot water and mix th of p cu ¼ a to er wd po eric on of powdered turm Yellow: Add 1 teaspo ly. ter and mix thorough and a ¼ cup of hot wa er or on of spirulina powd Green: Add 1 teaspo d an ¼ cup of hot water macha powder to a mix thoroughly.

whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

w where 1) A woman lives in a bungalo pink a everything is pink. She has uter, a cat, a pink fish, a pink comp wels. k to pink table, pink chairs and pin ?

What colour are her stairs 2) After the rain, I le mark. In the sky, a co ave my lorful arc.

What am I?

3) Five ducks sat in a row. rs They were the first five colou of the rainbow. The first duck The was not orange, red or blue. e second duck was between th red and green ducks. The red ck. duck was next to the blue du The fourth duck was yellow. ck?

What colour was the fifth du Colour this image using the colours indicated in each shape to reveal a hidden picture.

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PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making!

CRAZY COLOURS Try out these awesome optical illusions!

IN A SPIN Yo u will need

Thin cardboard (e.g. a cereal box) A drawing pin Sticky tack or modelling clay The double-sided disc

What yo u do

1. Cut out the circle on the right.

2. Stick it to the thin cardboard using small amounts of sticky tack and cut around the circle.

Find a printable version of the pullout here: bit.ly/4hHL30v

3. Push a drawing pin through the middle of the circle, then take it out and push it through from the underside of the card, so that the spike points upwards.

4. Put a small cone of sticky tack over the spike to use as a handle.

5. Spin your disc on a smooth, flat surface and watch what happens.

6. Turn the printed disc over and try the other side of the spinner.

Yo u will find

When you spin the coloured spinner, the colours disappear and the disc appears to be an off-white colour. That’s because when all the colours of light are mixed together, they appear as white light. When you spin the black and white disc, you can see some muted colours appearing, like brown, green, yellow or blue. This could be because different colour receptors in our eyes respond at different rates.

We’d love to see a photo of your spinner! Send it to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

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COLOUR CHANGER Which fish is the lighter colour?

What yo u do

Cut out this fish. Try moving it from the bottom to the top of the coloured background and watch it appear to change colour before your very eyes!

COLOURED FLAG

What yo u do

Stare at the dot in the centre of this flag for 45 seconds before immediately staring at some white paper or a white wall while blinking quickly. You should be able to see the Union Jack flag in its correct blue, white and red colours!

Yo u will find

20 whizzpopbang.com

As you stare at the flag, the colour-sensitive cells at the back of your eyes become tired of the turquoise, yellow and black. When you look at a white space those cells can no longer see those colours so well, which means that the opposite colours appear more vivid – you see blue in place of yellow, red in place of turquoise and white instead of black. This is called an ‘after image’.

TURNING GREEN

Colour the white squares in these pictures with a green pen or colouring pencil. What do you see? Do they look the same colour?

What’s happening?

The coloured squares that surround the green areas affect the way that you see the green colour. You see two different shades of green, even though you know that the colours are actually exactly the same because you coloured them! Nobody knows precisely why this happens, but it’s probably to do with the way your eyes compare or combine the green with the surrounding colours.

COLOUR CHALLENGE

Can you say which colour ink each of these words is written in?

It’s harder than you think! Your brain gets muddled as it tries to read the words instead of naming the colours.

YELLOW blue orange black red black GREEN PURPLE red Blue YELLOW orange GREEN red GREEN blue black PURPLE whizzpopbang.com 19

SPOTLIGHT Coral Catastrophe Underwater worlds

Coral reefs are a riot of colour. But recently, something strange has been happening – these vibrant reefs have been turning ghostly white.

Why is this happening, and what can be done about it?

Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean, bursting with life. Although they cover just 0.1% of the ocean’s floor, they are home to 25% of all marine species, from tropical fish and colourful sea slugs to turtles and sharks. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is so big it can be seen from space!

Not just colourful rocks Coral reefs are built by coral polyps – tiny animals, a bit like sea anemones, which build a hard, rocky ‘skeleton’ to hide inside.

Over many years, this grows into a reef.

Coral polyps have tiny plant-like cells living inside them called algae. The coral and the algae have a symbiotic (say sim-by-ot-ic) relationship, which means that they help each other. The algae make food for the coral and the coral provides a safe home for the algae. But this relationship is fragile, and the delicate balance can be disrupted when the environment changes.

While corals may look like rocks, they are actually living animals.

But the really amazing thing about corals is that they are also part plant! uch Dr Courtney CoIns titute

waii Scientist at the Ha logy Bio e rin of Ma

Mouth

Tentacles with stinging cells Algae

Living tissue linking polyps

Digestive sac

22 whizzpopbang.com

Skeleton

e yps

How many fish can you count in this scene? Check your answer on page 34.

Disappearing colours

When the sea water gets too warm, the algae produce toxic chemicals which makes the coral eject them.

Healthy coral gets its colour from its algae. Without it, the coral turns white. This is called coral bleaching.

If the water cools down, the coral can recover. But if it stays too hot for too long, the coral will starve and die.

Scientists have estimated that up to 90% of coral reefs could disappear over the next 20 years because of the climate crisis!

“Rising temperature due to climate change is the leading threat to coral reefs,” says Dr Courtney Couch.

“The more carbon dioxide we put in our air, the warmer our planet gets, which means more bleaching events.”

How can we stop this happening?

Scientists are busy working on ways to save our coral reefs.

Growing corals in labs or underwater nurseries and transplanting them onto damaged reefs.

Developing heat-resistant corals that can better survive rising ocean temperatures.

Growing artificial reefs on concrete blocks or sunken ships to provide new habitats for marine life.

Creating protected underwater parks where fishing and other harmful activities are restricted to help reefs recover.

“It’s not too late and everyone can do their part to help reefs no matter where you live,” says Dr Courtney Couch. “Share your own excitement about coral reefs and the urgent need to protect them with your friends and encourage others to start taking better care of our environment.”

START

Find a way through the coral maze.

Check your answer on page 34.

FINISH

whizzpopbang.com 23

Screens

HOW STUFF

WORKS

You’re probably used to looking at a television, tablet or computer screen, but have you ever thought about how they work?

Many TVs, computer monitors and laptops use liquid crystal displays (LCDs) to produce images.

Liquid crystals are special substances that can behave a bit like solids and a bit like liquids.

The tiny liquid crystals line up when electricity flows through them. This enables us to switch them on to let through light or switch them off to block light.

1

Circuit boards are the

‘brains’ behind the screen.

2

A backlight provides the light for the screen.

4 3

The first filter only lets through light that is vibrating horizontally.

24 whizzpopbang.com

The liquid crystals in this layer are arranged in lots of tiny squares called pixels.

When a liquid crystal pixel is switched on, it rotates the light so that it vibrates vertically and can pass through the second filter. When a pixel is switched off (like the one leading to the blue pixel in this diagram), the light continues to travel horizontally and cannot pass through the second filter.

5

The colour filter sets the colour of each pixel.

Screens display pictures that are made out of millions of tiny coloured squares called pixels, which together make a whole picture. The more pixels there are, the clearer the picture.

6

The second filter only lets through light that is vibrating vertically, i.e. from pixels that are switched on.

7

The glass cover protects the screen.

Many of the latest smartphone, tablet and TV screens use

organic light-emitting diode

Moving pictures are made up

(OLED) technology. Unlike LCDs, OLED screens don’t need a backlight because each tiny pixel lights up on its own, creating vibrant colours and deeper blacks.

Another new technology is mini-LED screens, which are like an improved version of LCD, using thousands of tiny lights for better brightness and contrast. Scientists are even working on micro-LED screens, which could one day be even better than OLED!

of lots of still pictures, shown one after the other. Your brain can’t keep up with all the still images so it merges them together and they appear to be one continuously moving picture.

whizzpopbang.com 25

.

g.. in z a m A ly e m o s e w A 0 1

A L U F R COLOU . is awash with colour The animal kingdom lourful creatures…

Check out these 10 co

1

Have you noticed that male birds are often colourful show-offs compared to females? This Mandarin duck’s spectacular feathers help him attract females – even though they make him a sitting duck when predators are around.

4

You are what you eat, and flamingos eat shrimp that are rich in red-orange pigments.

As flamingos grow, the pigments are stored in their feathers.

And the shrimp are pink because they eat algae that produce these pigments!

2 3

Its unusual colour is not the strangest thing about an okapi ’s tongue. At up to 50 cm long, they can lick their own eyeballs!

Rainbow-coloured rear ends make mandrills the most colourful mammals.

Before you laugh at one, be warned that the biggest, fiercest males have the brightest bottoms!

5

No hiding under rocks for this shocking pink dragon millipede.

Its bright colours warn predators that it produces deadly cyanide (which also makes it smell of almonds!).

S L A M I AN

6 7

Squid and octopuses have blue

blood. This is because their blood uses copper to carry oxygen around their bodies.

Your blood uses iron, which is why it’s red!

Prasinohaema skinks

have bright green blood, muscles and bones. It’s due to a pigment made when blood cells break down – the same one you see when you have a blue-green bruise. High levels of this pigment may help to protect the skinks from blood parasites.

9 10

8 Male bowerbirds collect and display colourful objects to impress females. Regent bowerbirds even decorate with blue-green saliva, painted on using leaves!

Australian Gouldian finches’ heads can be red, black or yellow.

Scientists have shown that females can control the sex of their babies by choosing mates according to their head colour.

The Malaysian orchid mantis looks like a flower. When insects fly over to investigate the pretty pink ‘petals’ they are gobbled up!

All photographs © Shutterstock.com

whizzpopbang.com 27

My AmaZ ing Life

Sometimes, the best discoveries are the ones you make by mistake.

This chemist created a whole new industry – by accident!

As a child growing up in the 1840s, I was fascinated by everything. I loved science but I was also quite arty – I really enjoyed painting and photography. One weekend, my parents took me to my grandfather’s old home and we discovered a laboratory there! It was very old and run down, but it worked. The experiments we did there were so exciting, and I fell in love with chemistry.

My teacher at school, Mr Hall, was great.

He said I had a natural talent for chemistry and encouraged me to become a chemist.

My parents were thrilled that I was doing so well at school, and the next year they let me leave for university early – I was only 15!

I studied at the Royal College of Chemistry – now part of Imperial College London. I really wanted to work with August Wilhelm Hofmann, the head of the college. After two years, I convinced him to make me his youngest assistant. Studying chemistry was very different in those days.

28 whizzpopbang.com

WILLI AM HENRY PERK IN WAS BORN IN LOND ON IN 1838

© English Wikipedia. - Scanned

photograph from F. J. Moore’s book,

A History of Chemistry (1918)

William Henry Perkin

Scientists had worked out that everything was made out of atoms, but nobody knew how elements joined together to make mixed substances called compounds. Almost everything on Earth is a compound, so this is a pretty important thing to know!

Wilhelm hoped to make a very important medicine by separating out the ingredients of a common compound – tar (a thick, gooey liquid made from coal). In the 1800s, malaria was a big problem for merchants and anyone who travelled abroad. The only treatment was a chemical called quinine, found in the bark of a tree. Extracting it from the bark was costly and time consuming, so quinine was very expensive!

We wanted to find a way to make quinine in the laboratory, so Wilhelm set me a series of experiments using coal tar.

I loved mixing different chemicals together to find out what happened. Every day was an adventure. After one of many failed attempts at making quinine, I rinsed out my flask with alcohol, but suddenly the whole flask turned bright purple! I wasn’t sure what I had made, but it was such a beautiful colour, it made me want to paint!

The next day, I told my brother Thomas and my friend Arthur about my discovery, and they were really excited about it too! I couldn’t conduct the experiments at the college because I was supposed to be making quinine. So Thomas, Arthur and I built a shed in my back garden and we turned it into a laboratory. © CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 / Research Outreach

Whenever we could, we would go down to the shed and experiment with the strange purple liquid. One of the first things we tried was pouring it over some silk. To our delight, the purple liquid dyed the silk! Even better, when we washed the silk, the dye didn’t wash away.

“I wasn’t sure what I had made, but it was such a beautiful colour, it made me want to paint!”

Taking it out in the sunshine didn’t make it fade either – the silk stayed a beautiful, bright purple. We knew we had found something wonderful, and we called it mauveine.

I love purple!

My dad wasn’t very happy about all of this, and neither was Wilhelm when we told him about the dye. They said that I should focus on serious work, and my dad even tried to convince me to give up chemistry and become an architect! But I didn’t listen.

We didn’t really have any good dyes at the time. Dyes were made from natural products, like crushed berries or beetles, and they were very expensive. They also tended to wash out easily and would fade quickly in the sunshine. Purple dyes were particularly expensive – only the richest people could afford to wear purple in the early 1800s. But mauveine was cheap and easy to make, and it never faded! I knew this could make me very rich, but I was only 18 years old and needed help to get started. I convinced my dad to give me money to start my first factory with my brothers.

It opened in 1857 and we called it ‘Perkin and Sons’.

I spent the next twenty years working hard to discover new dyes. I named one of them ‘Britannia Violet’, and another one ‘Perkin’s Green’. Everybody wanted to use our dyes and the company grew. In 1874, after nearly 20 years making dyes, I decided to sell the business and focus on scientific research. I wanted to understand the chemical structures of the dyes I had invented. I spent the rest of my life in the laboratory, doing what I loved – experimenting. I think I was a very lucky man!

William Henry Perkin was knighted in 1906, a year before his death. In the same year he was awarded the first ever Perkin Medal, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his discovery. The medal is still given out today to celebrate the achievements of incredible chemists.

Maybe one day you’ll win one too!

whizzpopbang.com 29

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club!

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Y, and other Whizz Po ce question Everyone whose scien is page gets answered on th ng wins a Whizz Pop Ba Science Joke Book, ome available in our awes at online science shop

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F oR

Hello Y, Why can’t there ever be another ‘me’ born?

CURIoUS K I DS

Thank you, from Oliver, aged 9

We loved seeing how many of you had a go at making the eggshell geodes from the Underground Adventures edition (Issue 114)!

genes What makes you ‘you’? A combination of your DNA (the (the es rienc expe your and ts) you inherit from your paren ns environment you grow up in and the things you do). Huma being one some of e chanc the so , have around 20,000 genes as born with exactly the same versions of each of those genes ibly incred but bly, possi ly etical theor you is extremely small – unlikely. Even ‘identical’ twins aren’t actually genetically s (changes identical – they often have a few different mutation ways ent differ as well as ent) accid by to their DNA that happen were n perso ical ident ically genet a if their genes work. And even se becau you, as same the ly exact be born, they still wouldn’t and had they would have grown up in a different environment e! uniqu letely comp are different experiences. You

Tabby, aged 7, and Etta, aged 10

Sebastian, aged 6, loves rocks and minerals.

His favourite is citrine quartz.

Harvey, aged 7 Harvey, aged 7

Eliott, aged 7, sent us this brilliant drawing of Y in space!

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Dear Y, What is outer space made of, and what created it? Thank you!

Liam, aged 7, with his awesome paper gemstone.

Sammy, aged 6 Outer space is mostly empty – but not completely. It contains small amounts of gas, dust, radiation, magnetic fields and mysterious things called dark matter and dark energy, along with galaxies filled with stars and planets. Scientists think that space was created by the Big Bang, an event 13.8 billion years ago that formed everything in the universe – including space and time! Since then, the universe has continued to expand, growing larger every second as galaxies move farther apart.

Every cubic centimetre of Earth’s atmosphere contains billions of air particles, but a cubic centimetre of space contains – on average – just one or two atoms!

Francis, aged 7, loved the Underground Adventures edition (Issue 114). He made this awesome model cave out of clay, complete with stalactites, stalagmites and a blind salamander!

Ollie, aged 6, Ben, aged 8, and Joan, aged 9, made this delicious looking ‘soil layer’ cake. They even labelled the different layers of soil!

Aariz, aged 9, made these brilliant paper crystals from the Issue 114 pullout section.

Hi Y, How are we able to talk to each other on phones?

William, aged 6 Being able to speak to a friend through a phone seems almost like magic! But it’s actually possible because of radio waves. When you speak into a phone, it changes your voice into electrical signals, which are sent as radio waves to the nearest mobile phone mast. These signals then travel to other phone masts (through the air or via underground cables) until they reach the mast closest to your friend, where they’re turned back into sound by their phone. The further away your friend is, the more masts the signal will pass through. If you speak to someone very far away, the signal is turned into microwaves (electromagnetic waves that can travel through space) and bounced off satellites in space, allowing it to travel longer distances.

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whizzpopbang.com 31

Test your mum/ dad/friend to

see what they know !

1 3

How much can you remember from this issue?

Test your knowledge with our super-duper quiz. Just tick the answers you think are correct, mark them using the answers on page 34 and then add up your score. If you need some help, check out the hints at the bottom of the page.

2 4

What small creatures did the Romans make purple dye from? a) Sea snails

What is the scientific name for light bending?

5 7

a) Reflection b) Rejection c) Refraction

imal are Which extinct an to bring scientists trying diting? back using gene-e moths a) Woolly mam b) Megalodons c) Velociraptors

What strange thing can an okapi do with its tongue? a) Tie it in a knot

What colour is a prasinohaema skink’s blood? a) Blue b) Red c) Green

6 8

What plant-like cells live inside coral polyps? a) Plankton

c) Blow raspberries

c) Kale

What are the light-reflecting crystals in a chameleon’s skin called?

c) Chameleopores

in prism!

c) Chicks

b) Algae

b) Invisospores

You end up

b) Mice

b) Lick its own eyeballs

a) Iridophores

What happens if you steal a rainbow?

What did W illiam Henry Perkin invent by mistake? a) Synthetic quinine

I scored...

b) Purple dye c) An invisibility cloak

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages…

1) Page 7 2) Page 13 3) Page 4 4) Page 27 5) Page 26 6) Page 22 7) Page 10 8) Page 29

1-3: In the dark 4-6: Bright spark 7-8: Flying colours

Find the answer to this puzzle and you could win one of three Ollyballs!

Fit the following words into the grid and then copy the letters from the coloured grid squares into the corresponding coloured squares below to reveal the answer to the joke.

E A

T E

!

IN

Colour conundrum

W

RED

WHITE

ORANGE

BROWN

GREEN

PINK

BLUE

PEACH

INDIGO

CREAM

VIOLET

GREY

What is a cat’s favourite colour?

The ultimate indoor play ball!

Ollyball Planet Earth Hit it! Kick it! Colour it in! This lightweight ball is perfect for having fun without any breakages.

WINNER

Issue 116 competition winner Thank you to everyone who sent in entries to our Spring competition. We loved all your fantastic spring photos! This lucky winner will receive an Explosive Science kit.

Sarah Neal, aged 7

Send your entry to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Colour competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post it to Colour competition, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please don’t forget to include your name, age and address.

Deadline: June 8th 2025. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com.

whizzpopbang.com 33

S E K O J

What do yo call a colou u rless rainbow?

A plainbow !

d white n a k c la b What’s over? and red all anda! p t n r u b n u As

What happened when crashed into a a red ship blue ship?

The crew were marooned!

We had an exam on rainbows.

I passed with flying colours!

What do you call a funny lizard?

A stand-up chameleon!

Page 9 – Rainbow puzzle 7 4 9 11

5

3

Answers

Page 13 – True/Untrue

10 2

Page 10 – Chameleon words puzzle You can make more than 150 words from the letters in chameleon! Here are some of them: name, clam, one, meal, lemon, ache, alone, me, chime, eel, lance, coal, ham, camel, home, on, melon, halo, man, nacho, enamel, mean, clone, heal, cola, no, hen, cone, leech, male, once, hole, ace, an, loan.

Page 11 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Despite not having ears on the outside, chameleons are not deaf; they can detect a wide range of sounds using their inner ears.

Page 11 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Their tongues are long, but not that long! When fully stretched out, their tongues are up to twice as long as the rest of their bodies.

TRUE: The Romans made luxurious purple dye from a stinky mixture of mashed sea snails that had to be boiled for three days.

It took 10,000 snails to make one gram of Tyrian dye!

Page 23 – Fish puzzle There are 30 fish.

Page 14 – Word search

Page 23 – Coral maze

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Page 18 – Riddles

Page 32 – Quiz

1) There aren’t any stairs (she lived in a bungalow)

1) c 2) a 3) a 4) c 5) b 6) b 7) a 8) b

2) A rainbow 3) Orange

Page 35 – True/Untrue TRUE: Fluorescent pigments absorb blue light, which can harm the coral, and emit it as green or red light, which the algae need for photosynthesis.

COLOURFUL CORALS

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

Some of the colours you see in a coral reef come from the tiny

algae that live inside them. These solar-powered battery packs photosynthesise (use energy from sunlight to make food for

Some coral pigments are fluorescent.

Answer on page 34

© lisnic / Shutterstock.com

the coral). To do this, they need to produce the green pigment chlorophyll as well as other yellow and brown photosynthetic pigments. The coral itself produces other colourful pigments – these are mostly purple, blue and red. They act as sunscreen to protect the algae by filtering out harmful wavelengths of light.

Craft a balancing butterfly

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