What on Earth! Magazine December 2023

TH F CHILASTESTE UK’S DRE -GRO N’S M WI AGA NG ZINE

BRITANNICA’S

What on Earth!

Winter 2023/24

MAGAZINE

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PLUS! TAKE A TOUR OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION LOTS TO READ : LOADS TO LOOK AT : ASK THE EXPERTS : QUIZ : JOKES : AND MORE!

LISTIFIED

CONTENTS

Strapped for cash? Find out eight unusual things that have been used as money on page 32.

A wild and wonderful world awaits you inside!

HOW TO CHAT...

CHIMPANZEE!

Learn how to converse with humankind’s closest relatives on page 12.

SEND IT IN

Turn to page 64 to see which schools teams are through to the fact-tastic What on Earth! Quiz Challenge finals.

REGULARS FACTOPIA!

Follow the trail of crazily connected facts on page 4 all the way from the biggest ever snowperson to salty sea flowers.

ASK THE EXPERTS WHAT ON EARTH! NOBODY KNOWS Learn all about Artificial Intelligence and why computers find it hard to tell dogs from muffins on page 37.

Page 8

Page 63

PUZZLES & GAMES Page 38

THE WHAT ON EARTH! QUIZ Page 50

COMPETITION!

INSIDE THE ISS

Blast off to the International Space Station on page 26 for an inside look at how astronauts live and work in space.

To win ALL the brilliant books featured in our Winter Issue, just answer this question: What is a topit?

Send your answer to editor@whatonearth.co.uk and a winner will be chosen at random by our jokes editor May. Good luck!

WORD UP!

Head over to page 42 to find out the fascinating origins of some Christmasthemed words.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

Discover how our ancestors invented farming and cultivated crops on page 58.

MAGIC!

EUREKA

Turn to page 18 to enter a world of magic, from famous magicians to magic words. Find out about playing cards, rabbits in hats, and what on Earth an ‘egg bag’ is!

Who has what it takes to drive the world’s fastest car? Find out on page 16.

JOKES & RIDDLES

Look out for this month’s selection, hand-picked by our jokes editor May, on page 66.

SEND IT IN! Email us your letters, photos and favourite facts to: editor@whatonearth.co.uk

You can also find all these books (and more!) at whatonearthbooks.com/ shop

ZANY FACTS

In 1914, during World War I, British and German troops held a spontaneous truce at Christmas.

They set up Christmas trees and played sports in the snow.

Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from the tallest snowperson and heavy metal sharks to… frost flowers!

By Kate Hale, Paige Towler and Julie Beer Illustrations by Andy Smith

A snowflake consists of multiple snow crystals that stick together. Every winter, scientists estimate

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 septillion) snow crystals fall from the sky

START HERE

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One of the tallest snowpeople ever built was so big it had trees for arms and truck tyres for buttons

The first artificial snow machine was invented in Hollywood in 1934 to create more realistic-looking winters for movies filmed in warm, sunny California.

When thunder and lightning happen during a snowstorm, it’s called

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The sound of icebergs cracking can be so loud that scientists sometimes pick it up with microphones at the equator

At the right frequency,

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Some sand dunes ‘sing’ – scientists think the sounds are caused by the size and movement of sand grains

can create lightning.

Continued from previous page

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The white sand on beaches in Hawaii is poo from parrotfish. The fish eat coral, which get ground up inside them and come out the other end

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An underwater music festival is held every year in Florida, USA. Some festivalgoers ‘play’ fish-themed instruments along to music from underwater speakers

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A male white bellbird has a long piece of skin, called a wattle, that hangs from its beak. But that doesn’t stop it from being the loudest bird on the planet.

Its call is as loud as the sound coming out of a speaker at a rock concert

Ice in the Arctic Ocean can be as thick as 10 mattresses stacked on top of one another

Narwhals, found in the Arctic Ocean, can have a long, pointed tusk that’s earned them the nickname ‘unicorns of the sea’.

Some narwhals even have two

Icy structures called frost flowers can form on Arctic sea ice. These delicate formations are three times saltier than the ocean and home to millions of microscopic organisms!

Bird poo helps keep the Arctic cool.

It creates gases that help form clouds, which reflect light from the Sun back into space

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PHOTOS

CATCH US IF YOU CAN!

This swirling shoal of fish is trying to swerve one of the ocean’s fastest predators: a striped marlin, which can swim at speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour!

OCEAN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR/ MERCHE LLOBERA

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Astonishin g photos f rom around th e world

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SANTA CLAWS

If you visit London’s Natural History Museum in December, you will be greeted by one of the rarest sights in Earth’s long history – a T.rex wearing a Christmas jumper. Merry Rex-mas everyone!

OVER THE RAINBOWS

Can you see a faint second rainbow above the first? It’s caused by light reflecting twice inside the raindrops.

This second reflection also causes the colour sequence of the rainbow to be reversed: red is now on the inner section, and violet is on the outer.

14TH EPSON INTERNATIONAL PANO AWARDS/ ROBERTO MOIOLA

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!

W O W

PHOTOS

COLD AS ICE

Did you know that water is the only common substance to be found naturally as a liquid, gas and solid? To find out more about frozen water’s amazing superpowers, turn to page 56…

WEATHER PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR/ ROSSI FANG

OOO H! RUFFLED FEATHERS

Sometimes it can seem as if animals are acting a bit like human beings – even when they’re not.

This pair of greenfinches, for example, look as if they might be having a furious row. But until we are able to translate birds’ chirps into English, we will never know...

COMEDY WILDLIFE AWARDS 2023/ JACEK STANKIEWICZ

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How to chat...

Chimpanzees are found in Africa and are humans’ closest living relatives. We have learnt to understand some of the sounds that they use to communicate – however, their behaviour can be unpredictable...

CHIMPANZEE

By Dr Nick Crumpton Illustration by Adrienne Barman

Huu h u h uu (What’s that?)

This quiet whimper is made by chimps when they are investigating something new.

E H U E E H H E E H (That tickles!)

Chimps laugh just like humans when they’re playing with their friends.

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KOAUU (Keep back)

Coughs are usually meant as threats.

HU-OO HU OO HU-OO HU (I’m e xcite d!)

-OO HU-AA HU-AA

The ‘pant-hoot’ is very common and is made whenever something exciting happens in the troop. Make sure you breathe in on the ‘hu’ and out on the ‘oo’s and ‘aa’s, getting faster and louder as you go!

Send It In!

We want to hear your best chimpanz ee impres Record yo sions! urself ma king the c noises liste himp d here and email the editor@w file to hatoneart The cham h.co.uk pion chim p will win the new b a copy of ook How to Chat Chick en!

Chimpanzees are clever creatures. Not only do they use their voices to send signals to each other, they also use their surroundings.

m d u u d m M U H T … and we’re dangerous!)

(We’re here

When a chimpanzee hits its feet against the base of a tree, it creates a loud, low noise. This sound can carry for miles to distant groups of other chimps.

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When chimpanzees feel threatened, they will often smack the ground to make low noises. They also make high-pitched screaming sounds.

TH U M P! (Stay BACK!)

SHK-SHK-SHAKE-SHAKE (See – I’m dangerous!)

Aggressive noises are often accompanied by the rattling of trees to add an extra element of scariness.

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Eureka!

The latest astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.

Wanted: supersonic car drivers The team responsible for the Bloodhound, a supersonic racing car, is preparing for another test run – and looking for a driver. The lucky driver will experience speeds of more than 1,290 kilometres per hour (km/h).

In the Bloodhound’s previous test it got up to 1,010 km/h. It’s already one of the fastest cars ever. But its team wants to make it the best of the best. They are updating the car’s engines and hope to make it a hybrid model, using an electric motor for the pump.

Hot on the trail of the ancient planet of Theia…

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Earth was still hot and half-melted like a giant ball of lava when Theia crashed.

Scientists think Theia formed in an orbit around the Sun that was very close to Earth’s orbit.

Bits of Theia and Earth flew off and eventually gathered together to form the Moon.

BLOODHOUND LSR

Where did the Moon come from? Scientists agree that the Moon probably formed when an ancient planet smashed into the Earth billions of years ago when the solar system was still forming. Scientists named this mystery planet Theia.

Many scientists thought that any evidence of Theia would have been melted in Earth’s mega-hot interior. However, scientists have recently come up with a new theory. They think that pieces of Theia are hidden beneath our feet. Years ago, Earth scientists discovered big mysterious blobs inside the earth. Now, scientists are exploring the possibility that these blobs were part of Theia.

Using computer models, they have shown that Theia could have created these giant blobs inside Earth. Smashing!

NEWS

Biologist’s heroic quest to bring back the butterflies A biologist named Tim Wong has successfully repopulated a stunning blue species of butterfly in San Francisco, USA – all by himself!

Wong found out that the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly was becoming rare in San Francisco. He decided to help bring these butterflies back. One reason they were disappearing is because they only like to feed on one kind of plant, called the California pipevine.

Wong only

BLOODHOUND LSR TOP SPEED SO FAR 1,010 kilometres per hour in 2019 SPEED GOAL 1,290 kilometres per hour LENGTH 12.9 metres WEIGHT 6,400 kilograms ESTIMATED COST about £12 million to prepare for the next test

knew one place to find the California pipevine – in the San Francisco Botanic Garden.

He got permission to take some clippings from the plants, and grew them in his own backyard. Then he built a butterfly enclosure with a screen to help protect his butterflies and caterpillars from animals. When he hatches caterpillars, he takes them to the Botanic Garden and the pipevine plants where they grow into butterflies.

You can help, too, by growing plants butterflies like!

How brushing can help beat allergies!

Scientists have developed a new kind of toothpaste that could help prevent serious reactions in people who have peanut allergies. Finding ways to prevent bad reactions can save many trips to hospital and even save people’s lives.

The new toothpaste contains a tiny amount of peanut protein. Over time, the amount of peanut in the toothpaste is increased. Scientists hope that by using this method they can help a person’s immune system slowly get used to the nuts.

1. Water or wind passes over a rock formation and wears it down.

2. Harder material forms the head and forces wind to flow around it.

1

3

2

3. Artists add details.

The natural beauty of Egypt’s Great Sphinx The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been mostly shaped by nature instead of sculptors!

Scientists suspect that desert winds may have worn down the rock that eventually

became the Great Sphinx into a lion-like shape through erosion.

Erosion is when natural forces like wind or water wear down rocks. Scientists tested this theory in a lab using models

made of clay. They put oval-shaped lumps of clay in tunnels that caused water to flow over them. The water ‘carved’ the lumps into lion-like shapes.

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Prepare to be amazed and entertained as we explore the spellbinding and secretive world of magic and magicians…

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F

or thousands of years many people believed in magic and thought that magicians genuinely had supernatural powers.

They believed that magicians could control both other human beings and powerful natural forces, such as the wind and the rain. People who were thought to possess these magical powers were also known as wizards, witches or sorcerers.

Today we understand that magic isn’t a supernatural force and that magicians’ tricks are just that: sneaky (though often ingenious) ways of making impossible things appear to be possible. Most modern magic tricks involve

‘sleight of hand’, which is an ability to move objects such as playing cards or silk handkerchiefs quickly and secretly. And the secrets to many magic tricks are now written down so that anyone can read and learn them – including you!

Have you ever thought about becoming a magician? Reading the following pages could help you on your way, as we meet some of the greatest magicians in history; discover the origins of famous magic words; learn some of the sneaky techniques that professional magicians use; and then show you how to master a sleight-ofhand card trick of your own!

WHY DO MAGICIANS USE RABBITS? Magicians are often associated with rabbits. For many people, the first magic trick they think of is pulling a white rabbit out of a black top hat.

But why rabbits and not cats or gerbils?

First of all, rabbits are quiet animals. They very rarely make any noise, so a magician can easily hide them without the rabbit alerting the audience

in the way a cat or dog might. Rabbits also generally stay still, unlike a hamster or gerbil, so you don’t have to worry about them wriggling around and knocking things over and ruining your magic trick. Much of a rabbit’s size is fur, so it’s easier than you might think to hide them in small spaces.

Rabbits appear much longer and bigger when

you pick them up than when they are sitting down. So when you pull a rabbit out of a hat and all its fluffy fur and long ears pop out, it’s very impressive!

Many magicians use white rabbits, which stand out against dark backgrounds and dark clothes. Plus, of course, rabbits are adorable!

Who doesn’t enjoy seeing a cute rabbit appear out of thin air?

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MAGIC

DYNAMO Real name: Steven Frayne Dates: 2002– present Top trick: Walking on water Did you know?

Dynamo is one of the most famous magicians in the UK and has performed all around the world.

In 2011 Dynamo walked across the River Thames while shocked onlookers watched from the banks and bridges.

ADELAIDE HERRMANN Real name: Adelaide Scarcez Dates: 1896–1926 Top trick: The phantom bride Did you know?

Adelaide Herrmann was known as the ‘Queen of Magic’.

She started out as an assistant to her magician husband Alexander Herrmann. After Alexander’s death, Adelaide continued the show on her own and became a celebrated magician herself.

8 MARVELLOU SHIN LIM Real name: Liang-Shun Lim Dates: 2009–present Top trick: Card tricks Did you know? Shin Lim learned much of his magic skills by watching YouTube videos. His own amazing card tricks have gone viral on YouTube, too. He has twice fooled Penn and Teller (see right) on their TV show and won two America’s Got Talent competitions.

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PENN AND TELLER

Real names: Penn Jillette and Teller Dates: 1975– present Top trick: The bullet catch Did you know?

Penn and Teller are famous for exposing how popular magic tricks are done and even have a television show called Fool Us on which other magicians can win a trophy if the senior magicians cannot figure out how their trick was done!

RICHARD POTTER Real name: Richard Potter Dates: 1811–1835 Top trick: Ventriloquism Did you know? Richard Potter was a magician, juggler, hypnotist and ventriloquist (which means someone who can make their voice sound as if it’s coming from somewhere else) who was born to an enslaved mother in the United States. Potter was a very versatile performer: as well as magic, he did song and dance and even fire eating!

He is also considered to be one of the first famous American magicians and one of the first African American celebrities.

PRINCESS TENKO Real name: Mariko Itakura Dates: 1978–present Top trick: Escape from a fiery aerial cable car Did you know? In the 1990s a cartoon was made about Princess Tenko called Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic. In it, Tenko and her team battled evil and collected special gems. At the end of each episode the real Tenko would perform a magic trick!

HARRY HOUDINI Real name: Erich Weisz Dates: 1890s–1926 Top trick: Escape acts Did you know? Harry Houdini was famous for escaping from all sorts of things – handcuffs, straitjackets, chains and boxes filled with water.

He even once escaped from the belly of a ‘sea monster’ that had washed up in Boston harbour!

US MAGICIANS PC SORCAR Real name: Protul Chandra Sarkar Dates: 1930s–1971 Top trick: Sawing a woman in half Did you know? PC Sorcar changed his name to sound more like ‘sorcerer’. When he performed his sawing a woman in half trick on the BBC in 1956, alarmed viewers called in to say they had witnessed a murder! (Thankfully it was just a very good illusion!)

SAY THE MAGIC WORDS Where six magical words and phrases come from…

Abracadabra!

This comes from Latin via Greek. It was the name for the supreme god. People would write it in a triangle shape as a magical way to ward off sickness and other ills.

Alakazam!

Nobody knows where this word comes from, although it’s thought maybe someone made it up to sound like a mysterious foreign word. Some people think it might come from the Arabic al-qasam, which means ‘the oath’.

Voilà!

This comes from French, meaning literally ‘see there!’

Hocus-pocus!

In the early 1600s this was a common name for magicians or jugglers. It is thought to be a silly phrase someone made up to sound like a religious blessing in Latin.

Presto!

Open sesame!

This comes from a translation of the story ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’.

Ali Baba uses this phrase to open a magical door.

This comes from Italian, meaning ‘quickly’. A magician might also say ‘Presto change-o’ to mean something changed quickly.

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MAGIC

HOW TO BE A MAGICIAN

STEAL

To secretly obtain a needed object.

Find out the sneaky tricks and techniques that magicians use to keep their audiences guessing – and the special words they use to describe them.

PATTER

Talking to the people who are observing the trick.

Some magicians use more serious ‘patter’.

Others prefer to tell jokes or stories.

MISDIRECTION

TOPIT

To draw attention away from a secret move.

EGG BAG

A bag that can be turned inside-out to hide an object or make it reappear.

A large pocket used to hide items.

FORCE

To sneakily make a spectator choose a card or object that you want them to take.

PLANT

An audience member who is in on the trick.

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DITCH

To secretly dispose of an unwanted object.

SHELL

A hollow object that can hide similar objects inside, such as a hollow ball which conceals a real ball.

LAPPING

To drop an object into your lap while seated to make it appear as if the object has vanished.

LOAD

To secretly move a needed object to another location.

MAGICIAN’S KIT MAGICIAN’S TOP HAT

MAGIC WAND

SET OF COLOURED SILK HANDKERCHIEFS

PLASTIC FLOWERS DECK OF PLAYING CARDS

SWITCH

To secretly exchange one object for another.

WHITE GLOVES

PALM

To hide an object in the hand.

FRENCH DROP

A move in which a small object such as a coin appears to vanish.

The magician makes it seem as if the object has been moved from one hand to the other but actually secretly keeps it in the first hand.

PLASTIC CUPS AND SPONGE BALLS

WHITE RABBIT

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MAGIC

PLAYING YOUR CARDS RIGHT M

any of the simplest and most satisfying magic tricks involve a deck of playing cards. And cards, as we saw on the previous page, are an essential part of many magicians’ equipment.

So here we present some fascinating facts about the history of playing cards, including why the standard deck is organised in the way that it is. Then on the right you can learn a sneaky card trick that magicians often use.

 Playing cards are thought to have been invented in China in the 9th century.  Before the four modern suits of clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds became popular, playing cards used to be swords, clubs, cups and coins.  Most paper playing cards are made of two layers of paper glued together. This helps to make sure that you can’t see through them.

game was 170  The world’s hours – that’s largest structure longer than made from There are more pos s a week! To playing cards ib le combinati ons of the break the was built by a 52 cards in a deck than there record, a 15-year-old are atom s of matt er group of players boy from India. on Earth. rotated in and out He used 143,000 of a card game playing cards to called Schafkopf. create models of famous landmarks in the Indian city of Kolkata.  Some historians think magic tricks may have first been developed by people finding  The longest time spent ways to cheat at card games. continuously playing a card

52 cards

Have you ever noticed that there are the same number of cards in a deck as there are weeks in a year?

2 colours

The black and red colours of the four suits are thought to represent night and day.

The Queen of Hearts

Many people think that the Queen of Hearts is based on another red-haired queen, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Although they do look similar, the card’s design was created long before Elizabeth’s birth in 1533.

However, all the queens were inspired by history. The Queen of Hearts is based on a Biblical figure named Judith.

13 different values

Within each suit there are cards with 13 different values. An Ace is the card with the lowest value and the King is the card with the highest.

HOW to How TO do DO The THE Glide GLIDE The glide allows a magician to keep control of a card on the bottom of the deck while appearing to move it elsewhere. Here’s how it’s done…

1

3

First, place the card you want to control on the bottom of the deck.

Show the bottom of the deck to the audience.

4

As you rotate the deck to face the floor, slide the card you want to control down about two centimetres with your other three fingers.

2

Hold the deck by the sides with your thumb and index finger opposite each other near to the top of the deck.

Your thumb and index finger hold the deck.

5

The ‘glide’ allows you to then remove a card that looks as if it’s on the bottom of the pack when it’s actually the second from the bottom. While your control card stays safely behind!

Your other three fingers will perform the sleight in step 4.

4 suits

The four suits of cards in a deck symbolise the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

12 court cards

There are 12 court cards in a deck (the Jacks, Queens and Kings) just as there are 12 months in a year.

Magic numbers

If you add up all the cards in a deck, starting with the Ace as 1 and the King as 13, you will get to a grand total of 364. Add in 1 for the Joker and that’s 365 – or the number of days in a year. Add in the other Joker and you can get up to a leap year!

Fun with floati

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International Space Station!

.

Columbus is the European Space Agency (ESA)’s first outpost in orbit. It includes a lab for ESA astronauts to do experiments in.

SPACE STATION FACT FILE

NODE 1 Node 1 is where the ISS’s kitchen is located. Most food is dehydrated and must have water added to it before eating. Astronauts bring favourite foods from their home countries to feel more at home on the space station.

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International Space Station

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COLUMBUS

The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit for 24 years. Over that time, more than 200 astronauts have visited it.

Let’s find out more about this home away from home – in space!

JUST HOW BIG IS IT?

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Look inside the...

Date first module launched: 20 November 1998 Date first inhabitants arrived: 2 November 2000 Wingspan: 109 metres Average speed orbiting the Earth: 5 miles (8 kilometres) per second Cost: £80 billion Number of visitors: more than 260 Current population: 7 (3 from USA, 1 from Japan and 3 from Russia)

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NODE 2 Up to 7 astronauts can stay on the ISS at one time. Most of their sleeping quarters are located in Node 2. The sleeping quarters are little rooms about the size of a telephone booth.

They have a sleeping bag inside, along with a laptop and the astronauts’ clothes and personal belongings.

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DESTINY The Destiny module is the lab for US astronauts from NASA. They do experiments to learn more about how zero gravity affects things and people and how humans can live in space.

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NODE 3 This is where the toilet is located. Node 3 is also where astronauts do their exercise.

On the bottom of Node 3 is the Cupola, where astronauts get amazing views of Earth.

DID YOU KNOW? ● The ISS is the most expensive object ever built.

And new parts are still being added! ● It cost £18 million to build and install a toilet on the ISS. ● Every day the ISS circles Earth 16 times. ● The living space on the International Space Station is slightly larger than a six-bedroom house. ● There are three floating robot assistants aboard the ISS called ‘Astrobees’.

Their names are Honey, Queen and Bumble. ● There are more than 50 computers on the ISS. ● Tourists may one day be able to stay at the ISS for the price of £27,000 per night (not including rocket fees). ● The ISS crew’s pee is filtered and recycled into drinking water. ● A pepperoni pizza has been delivered to the ISS.

BEAM The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an experimental module. It can expand when needed.

Currently it is used mostly for storage.

NAUKA

● Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber – the one from Return of the Jedi – was sent to the ISS to mark 30 years of the Star Wars movies.

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Nauka is the newest part added to the ISS, in 2021. It is part of the Russian segment of the space station. Nauka is used as a lab and also a place from which to do space walks and to dock with supply ships.

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FANTAS T IC FOS SILS In a fascinating extract from a brilliant new book by scientists Sarah Darwin and Eva-Maria Sadowski, we explore the story of evolution and how it has shaped the natural world – including you!

F

ossils are the preserved remains of once-living things. They are like pieces of a puzzle. Once assembled, they can build a picture of past environments. They can also

tell us a lot about the evolution of living things. Fossils typically range from about 10,000 years old to well over a billion years old. Without fossils we would know very

little about Earth’s history.

Because of fossils, scientists have been able to learn that dinosaurs had feathers and that the continents have been arranged in different shapes!

Leaving a trace Animals leave traces behind that can become fossils.

A trace fossil might be a burrow, footprints or even poo (fossilised poo is called coprolite). When animals walk over sludgy mud, they leave footprints. If the mud hardens and the prints get covered by sediment, they might end up as trace fossils.

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A giant sloth leaving footprints in the mud.

Jurassic Coast

North America

Europe

Europe Africa

South America

Australia

Pioneering people

Many fossils have been found on the Jurassic Coast in southern England.

Mary Anning (1799–1847) collected fossils from the Jurassic Coast in England.

Landslides in this area had revealed fossils from the Jurassic Period, which is when dinosaurs were alive. When Mary was 12 years old, she and her older brother found the first fossil ever identified of an extinct marine reptile called an ichthyosaur. Later she also found two plesiosaurs. Mary went on to become a world expert in palaeontology.

Sticky business Another way that fossils can be formed is when small living things, such as insects, spiders and plant parts, are trapped in sticky tree resin. The resin hardens and, over millions of years, becomes amber.

A flower trapped in amber.

A fly trapped in amber.

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How fossils are formed T

he formation of fossils is a rare event that only happens under special conditions. When living things die, they will usually be eaten by scavengers or will be decomposed by fungi and bacteria. Occasionally, if

the dead thing is buried by sediment, such as volcanic ash or mud, the decay can slow down and its body may turn into a fossil. Different types of fossils form depending on the conditions. Here’s how this might work with a snail.

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2

A snail dies.

The soft parts of its body rot away, leaving only the hard shell behind.

3

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An impression fossil.

Impression fossil

Cast

Mineralisation

The shell decays, leaving an impression in the sediment. When this impression is covered by another layer of sediment, the shape of the shell is preserved as a fossil.

The snail shell is covered with sediment that hardens to stone. When the shell decays it leaves a hollow mould. The mould is filled by more sediment, which hardens into a rock cast of the shell.

The snail shell is entirely covered with sediment. Minerals seep into the shell from the surroundings, gradually replacing the shell and crystallising.

The shell turns into rock.

Shell impression

Shell dissolves and the cavity is filled with sediment

Shell is replaced with minerals

Rock with shell impression

Cast of the shell remains

Shell has turned into rock

How to date a fossil 1. LOOK FOR LAYERS One way to figure out the age of a fossil is by seeing how deep it is buried. Older fossils are usually found in the lower layers of rock, while the younger ones are nearer the top.

that are found nearby. For example, a large sea creature called Parapuzosia seppenradensis lived about 80 million years ago. Any other fossils found near fossils of this creature would likely be around the same age.

2. SEARCH FOR NEIGHBOURS

3. EXAMINE THE ELEMENTS

If we know how old certain fossils are, we can work out the age of any others

Radioactive elements naturally occur in a type of rock called igneous rock. These

elements change into new elements over time, and we know how long this takes to happen. Scientists can compare the amount of the original element in the rock (shown here as the yellow dots) to the amount of the new element (the blue dots) to figure out the age of the rock. By calculating the age of the rock above and below the fossil, scientists can work out an age range for the fossil.

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Younger fossils

Younger igneous rock with radioactive elements

Fossil in sedimentary rock

Older fossils

Parapuzosia seppenradensis fossil

Older igneous rock with radioactive elements

Microfossils Some fossils, called microfossils, are so tiny that you need a microscope to see them. Microfossils form from living things, such as single-celled algae called diatoms, pollen from flowers and fish scales.

Pollen – tiny grains that are released from flowers in order to reproduce.

Passion flower pollen Sunflower pollen

Pine pollen

Diatoms – tiny organisms that live in water.

Evolution, written

by Sarah Darwin and Eva-Maria Sadowski and illustrated by Olga Baumert, is out now.

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LISTS

LISTIFIED! Prepare to be amazed (and amused!) by the unusual facts crammed into these irresistible lists.

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KER-CHING! Eight unusual things that have been used as money

of money on the tiny Pacific island of Yap possibly as early as 500 CE. Each stone can be up to 3.7 metres across and some of them weigh more than 4.5 tonnes.**

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Salt

These beans, which are used to make chocolate, were sometimes exchanged as currency by the Maya peoples in the 8th century in parts of Mexico and Central America.*

During the early years of the Roman Empire, it was common to pay for things with salt. Salt was rare and expensive because it was difficult to extract from seawater and transport around the world. Salt was used to flavour and preserve food, and as an antiseptic to treat wounds.***

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Cocoa beans

Stones

Giant disc-shaped limestone rocks called rai stones were used as a form

Rai stones have been used as money for centuries.

Shells

Archaeologists think that humans have been using

shells as currency for more than 3,000 years. In fact, they still have monetary value in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Here, shells are cut into small discs and collected on necklaces called strings.

These are then used as payment or gifts. One string is equivalent to approximately 1,000 Solomon dollars, or £97.

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Fish

In the 1600s, when the first settlers from England were making their homes in Newfoundland on the east coast of Canada, there was so little money available that people started paying for things with dried cod.

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*Another financially useful food is Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which you can give to the Italian bank, Credito Emilian, as a deposit when you borrow money from them. The bank then stores the cheese safely and will give it back only after you’ve repaid all the borrowed money. Each cheese has its own unique serial number so it can be traced by the police if it is stolen by bank robbers. Or mice.

Tea

Bricks made from compressed tea leaves were used as a form of money in China and other parts of Asia from the 19th century until the 1930s. The value of each brick depended on the quality and rarity of the tea leaves inside.

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Bottle caps

In 2005, a drinks company in Cameroon launched a competition in which people could win prizes in exchange for special tokens placed under bottle caps. The prizes ranged from a free drink to cars and mobile phones.

When other drinks companies launched similar competitions, bottle caps became so valuable people started to use them like money to pay for taxi rides.

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Playing cards

In 1914, the start of World War I in Europe led to a shortage of the metals used to make coins in Germany. To get round this problem, individual German towns were allowed to print Notgeld, or ‘emergency money’, on materials including playing cards, silk, linen and pieces of wood.

Notgeld has been used in some other countries as well. Below are some examples from France during World War I.

**The value of each rai stone is determined not by its size but by its history. So the more difficult the stone was to carve and transport, the more valuable it is.

As some of them are very difficult to move, ownership was recorded in oral history rather than by actually possessing the stones. There are still thousands of rai stones standing on the island of Yap. ***The modern English word ‘salary’ (which is the fixed amount of money that a worker earns) comes from the Latin salarium based on sal, the Latin word for salt.

You Are One in Seven Billion Fifteen features of the body that are unique to every human

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The shape of your skull.* The shape of your ears.

The ridges and folds in your irises.

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The pattern of blood vessels within the retina of your eye.**

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The shape of your bottom when you sit down.

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The patterns of your lip print.

The shape and positioning of your teeth.

The unique patterns of your toe prints.

The order of the genetic codes in your DNA.

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The smell of your body odour.

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The patterns of your tongue print.

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The sound of your voice.

The patterns of your fingerprints.

The way you walk.

*One way scientists can measure this is by seeing how sounds make the skull vibrate. **The retina is the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eyeball.

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The tiny ridges in the surface of your fingernails.

Listified! by Andrew Pettie and illustrated

by Andrés Lozano is out now.

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Treasure Hunt!

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ell. Clue: it relates to Christmas. Don’t worry if you get stuck – all the answers are revealed on page 64.

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Colour it in!

It’s time to get creative with your colouring pens and pencils.

Plus, don’t forget to send your finished artwork to editor@whatonearth.co.uk. We’d love to see it!

Ask the experts

Readers ask. Experts answer. Send your questions to: editor@whatonearth.co.uk Question: What is AI and how do ‘intelligent’ computer programs learn for themselves? From Dylan, age 12

GANNA POGREBNA Behavioural data scientist

Answer Artificial Intelligence (AI) is when machines show intelligence by observing, reasoning and guessing. Imagine you want to teach an AI program to tell if a picture is of a muffin or a dog. The difference might be essful AI The first succ extremely written in program was easy for eated 1951. It was cr you to me to play the ga recognise, . checkers but for a computer program it can be quite difficult! First you would show the program many pictures of muffins and dogs.

Each time, you would tell it, ‘This is a muffin’ or ‘This is a dog’. After the program 1 An AI computer program 2 It will then remember and 3 The computer program has seen many of these learns how to recognise a identify the characteristics then stores the information pictures, you test it dog by being given an ‘input’. that the dogs have in common. and uses it to decide whether by showing it a picture.

In this case, the input is a set This process is called ‘feature other pictures are of dogs, too.

The program makes of pictures of dogs. extraction and classification’. a guess based on what it learned. But just because a program can present its results the same way a human might, this does not automatically make the computer program ‘intelligent’.

To be considered muffins and dogs. recognise similarities. checks your homework but will not be able to truly ‘intelligent’, Now your program can Dogs generally have and tells you which learn and improve over the program needs observe the results of noses, and muffins answers were correct time. The feedback something called a its actions, remember don’t have ears! The and which were not. By loop is how you tell the feedback loop. Without them, and adjust its more it learns, the guessing and receiving program if it is right a feedback loop, the future actions based on better it gets at telling feedback many times, or wrong. This is like program can be smart feedback. How clever! the difference between the program starts to when your teacher

DOG

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Stumped? Don’t worry, you can find the answers to all the puzzles on page 64.

CHRISTMAS WORD SEARCH Can you spot the 20 festive terms hidden in our jumbo word search puzzle? Good luck!

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FIR GINGERBREAD HOLLY ICICLE MISTLETOE MITTEN

TOYS

CUBE IT! The six-sided shape on the left can be folded up to form a cube. Only two of the cubes to the right can be made by it.

Which are they?

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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE Can you spot all 20 differences between these two Christmas-themed illustrations?

WORD WHEEL Use the word wheel to help find the answers to the six clues below. All the answers contain the middle letter, and each letter can only be used once.

Clue: the edge of land as it meets the sea (9 letters).

Answer: Clue: a patterned sheet used to trace the same pattern on the surface below (7 letters).

Answer:

Clue: not making a sound (6 letters).

Answer: Clue: a light, narrow boat with pointed ends that is propelled by a paddle (5 letters).

Answer: Clue: a slow-moving animal with a shell (5 letters).

Answer: Clue: the part of a camera that gathers and focuses light (4 letters).

Answer:

T A O C N L I E S

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Picture Quiz

CHANGING ROOMS Can you find your way through our maze of square rooms?

Enter through the door marked with the red arrow, then try to find your way to the exit by going through the correct sequence of open doors. Good luck!

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FUTOSHIKI! Fill in the missing numbers so that every row and column includes the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Use the inequality signs as clues and make sure numbers always obey the inequality sign between them. This means that the arrows between the numbers always point towards the smaller number.

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   3

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Can you work out what you are looking at in each of these seven photos?

NUMBER TRIANGLES!

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In the triangles below, the numbers inside the squares are the sum of the two numbers in the connected circles. For example:

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Can you work out which number should appear in each of the circles? All the numbers in the circles are between 1 and 10 and a number can only be used once in each triangle.

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CONNECT THE PLANETS Draw a line to connect each pair of planets. You can’t use diagonal lines and the lines can’t cross or touch each other. You must fill the whole grid with lines but only one line is allowed in each square.

SUDOKU! Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3x2 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 6.

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W R U !

Xmas

Many people think that Xmas is a modern abbreviation of Christmas but it actually dates back to the 16th century! The X is thought to represent the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ, which is written as Χριστός in the Greek alphabet and pronounced Christos.

Say hello to all things linguistics and languages!

Tinsel

The word tinsel has been around since the 15th century. It comes from the Old French word estincelle, which means ‘spark’.

If you think that word reminds you a bit of ‘stencil’, you’re right – both words came from estincelle.

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his month we’re looking at some fun Christmas-themed etymology.

Etymology is the study of where words come from and how their meanings change over time. Etymology helps linguists make connections between one language and another or between old and new forms of a language. Let’s see what we uncover!

Christmas

Christmas is a Christian festival that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe was the son of God. The word Christmas comes from an old English phrase, Cristes maesse, which means ‘Christ’s mass’.

A mass is a Christian religious celebration.

Mistletoe

The word mistletoe has been around since before the 12th century, nearly a thousand years! Some linguists think the ‘mistle-’ part comes from a very old word meaning ‘droppings’ or ‘to wee’!

That’s because people found out mistletoe was fertilised by bird droppings.

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Bauble

This word has been used since the 14th century. It comes from the Old French baubel, which means a child’s toy, although nowadays you really shouldn’t play with them!

JANUARY 1 How to say ‘Happy New Year’ in 5 languages French: Bonne année!

Spanish: ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Japanese: Akemashite omedetou!

Swahili: Heri njema ya mwaka mpya!

Irish: Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhuit!

HIDDEN ANIMALS! Somewhere in these photographs, six sneaky animals are hiding. Can you find them and, even better, tell what type of animal they are?

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Did you spot them all? To see the answers, go to: whatonearth.co.uk/hidden-animals 43

PICTURE THIS! Amazing information about our world brought to life by infographics.

Infographics by Valentina D’Efilippo

How bony are you?

The skeleton does several vital jobs: it supports the body, protects the squishy internal organs and, in partnership with the muscles, allows you to move. Here we count all the bones in a skeleton – and pick out a few of the most remarkable.

28 bones Skull and jaw

54 bones Hands

52 bones Feet

HOW MANY BONES IN A SKELETON? An adult human skeleton typically has between 206 and 213 bones.

Did you know that about half of the bones in your skeleton are found in your hands and feet?

24 bones Ribs

33 bones

Neck and spine

10 bones

Arms and shoulders

10 bones

Legs and hips 44

EXTRAORDINARY BONES

Bones perform different roles and so come in different shapes and sizes. Here are four extraordinary examples.

Incus Malleus

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m

Stapes

SMALLEST Ossicles

LONGEST Femur

The malleus, incus and stapes, which together are called the ossicles, are the body’s smallest bones. Found in the ear, they transmit sound vibrations. The stapes is the smallest bone of all.

It would easily fit on the tip of your finger.

The femur, or thigh bone, connects the hip to the knee. It is both the longest and the strongest bone in the body.

FREE FLOATING Hyoid

HARDEST Petrous

The petrous forms part of the temporal bones on either side of the skull. Its main job is to protect the inner ear. It is the hardest bone in the body.

The hyoid is a small U-shaped bone below the tongue that helps you talk, breathe and swallow.

It is held in place by muscles, and by tough bands of tissue called ligaments. The hyoid is unusual as it is not directly connected to any other bones in the body.

WHAT ABOUT TEETH? Although teeth are part of the skeleton, they are not bones. You have two sets of teeth: 20 ‘milk’ teeth that fall out during childhood; and 32 adult teeth that replace them (see next page). Enamel, which covers and protects teeth, is the hardest substance in the human body.

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INFOGRAPHICS

Suture

e lls are mad Babies’ sku r e ft A . ones up of five b these five rs ea y w a fe me one! bones beco

Sealed-up suture

SKULL OF A NEWBORN

SKULL OF A PRIMARYSCHOOL-AGED CHILD

X-RAYS

An X-ray machine directs X-rays, which are rays of light that are invisible to humans, through the body. X-rays pass easily through the body’s softer parts, such as skin and muscle, but are blocked by the harder parts, such as bone. This creates a black-and-white photograph of the inside of the body, with the lighter, whiter areas of the photo representing bones.

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The growing skull These X-rays show the growth and development of the human skull from birth to adulthood. The newborn baby’s skull has gaps in it called sutures, which allow the skull to enlarge as the brain grows. By the time a child reaches about two years of age, these gaps seal up. Many bones within the body do this. This is why adults have fewer bones than children do.

Adult teeth behind the ‘milk’ teeth

Elongated jaw, pulled down by muscles responsible for chewing

SKULL OF AN ADULT

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INFOGRAPHICS

Your biggest muscle is… behind you!

Muscles help you do all kinds of important things, from running and jumping to breathing and digesting food.

The human body has more than 600 muscles in total, and their size, shape and strength varies depending on the job that they are designed to do. Here is a selection of your body’s most extraordinary muscles.

POWERFUL Masseter

LONGEST Sartorius

The masseter’s main job is to pull your jaw shut as you chew on food. It is among the most powerful muscles in the body for its size, allowing you to bite with tremendous force.

SMALLEST Stapedius

LARGEST Gluteus Maximus

The sartorius muscle runs down the length of your thigh and can be up to 60 centimetres long. It helps to control the movement of the hip and knee joints.

Located inside the middle ear, and ranging in size from 1 to 9 millimetres long, the stapedius is the smallest muscle in the body. It controls the vibration of the stapes, which is the body’s smallest bone (see page 45).

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The scientific name for the largest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus – it’s the muscle on your bottom. The gluteus maximus helps the body stand upright. You can feel it working when you walk up a flight of stairs.

RESILIENT Heart

The heart is one of the most hard-working muscles in your body. It can pump more than 7,000 litres of blood around the circulatory system each day and will beat as many as three billion times during an average human lifetime.

The wor d muscle comes from th e musculu Latin word s, which means ‘little m ouse’!

FAST-MOVING Extraocular muscles

This group of six muscles controls the movement of each eye. If you read this magazine for an hour, during that time these muscles will make about 10,000 coordinated movements!

Unlike human eyes, my eyes cannot move at all in their sockets. We owls have to turn our heads to look around.

HIGHLY FLEXIBLE Tongue

I have eight muscular arms.

Just imagine how flexible I am!

The tongue is actually a set of eight interwoven muscles, which gives it a unique ability to move in almost any direction. Your tongue has a similar structure to an elephant’s trunk and the arms of an octopus.

The awe-inspiring Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica is out now.

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QUIZ

The What on Earth!

Quiz Test your family’s brainpower by playing this special edition of the What on Earth! Quiz.

Regular readers may have an advantage because some of the facts appeared in previous issues of the magazine. Don’t worry if you don’t know them all, though – the answers are at the end of the quiz!

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1

Which living animal lays the largest eggs? a. Shark b. Ostrich c. Crocodile d. Elephant

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A wombat is a small marsupial. What shape is its poo? a. Rectangle b. Pyramid c. Sphere d. Cube

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As far as scientists know, which is the only species of mammal that cannot fart? a. Dolphin b. Platypus c. Sloth d. Manatee

Most species of caterpillar have how many eyes? a. None b. 2 c. 6 d. 12

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ANIMALS

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What is the collective name for a group of penguins? a. A colony b. A chattering c. A gaggle d. A waddle

NAME THE ANIMALS!

Here are the paw, hoof or footprints of five animals: a bear, an eagle, a cow, a duck and a frog. Can you work out which print belongs to which animal?

B

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If it were possible to drive through space in a car travelling at 100 kilometres per hour, how long would it take to drive across our galaxy, the Milky Way? a. 112,000 years b. 1.12 million years

c. 1.12 billion years d. 1.12 trillion years

SPACE & NATURE

c. Earthquakes d. Tornados

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How long can a saguaro cactus take to grow its first arm? a. 10 years b. 20 years c. 50 years d. 100 years

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What does a seismologist study? a. Weather b. Lightning

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In which direction do comets’ tails point? a. Towards the Sun b. Away from the Sun c. North d. South

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What is scientists’ name for the smallest category of iceberg? a. A growler b. A floater c. An icelet d. A bergy bit

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Continued on next page  51

QUIZ

 Continued from previous page

HUMAN WORLD

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Which of these sounds is the loudest? a. Aeroplane taking off b. Crowd in a football stadium c. Ambulance siren d. Balloon popping

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What was the very first Disney animated film? a. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs b. Pinocchio c. Bambi d. Fantasia

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The design of which worldfamous building was inspired by the shape of a peeled orange? a. The Taj Mahal in India b. The Guggenheim Museum in Spain c. St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, which is pictured on the right d. Sydney Opera House in Australia

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How many candles did American Ashrita Furman use to set a new world record for most simultaneously lit candles on a birthday cake? a. 2,585 b. 12,585 c. 32,585 d. 72,585

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Which is the most commonly used letter in the English language? a. A b. R c. E d. I

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HUMAN BODY

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Approximately what percentage of people are left-handed? a. 5 per cent b. 10 per cent c. 25 per cent d. 30 per cent

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What is the largest organ inside the human body? a. Brain b. Heart c. Lungs d. Liver

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What is the most common element in the body? a. Hydrogen b. Carbon c. Oxygen d. Nitrogen

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The patella is the scientific name for which body part? a. Kneecap b. Elbow c. Chin d. Heel

25 TOYS

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What is the best-selling computer game of all time? a. Minecraft b. Tetris c. Super Mario Bros d. Pokémon

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What is the world record for solving a Rubik’s cube while blindfolded? a. 6.22 seconds b. 16.22 seconds c. 56.22 seconds d. 1 minute, 22 seconds

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Which of these toys was invented by accident? a. Silly Putty b. Slinky

An adult human’s circulatory system contains about five litres of blood. Roughly how long does it take for this blood to move once all around the body? a. 20 seconds b. 2 minutes c. 12 minutes d. 20 minutes

c. Play-Doh d. All of them

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The word LEGO is an abbreviation of two Danish words, leg godt. What do they mean? a. Little bricks

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17 b. Coloured bricks c. Play together d. Play well

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Continued on next page 

25

Which of these classic board games was invented first? a. Monopoly b. Cluedo c. Tiddlywinks d. Scrabble 53

QUIZ

 Continued from previous page

GEOGRAPHY d. 40 times

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Which country contains the most trees? a. Brazil b. Russia c. China d. United States

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What is the national currency of India?

a. Peso b. Baht c. Rupee d. Yen

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30 a. 15 times b. 20 times c. 30 times

Approximately how many times could the United Kingdom fit inside the United States of America?

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What is the world’s largest desert, measured by total surface area? a. Sahara b. Arabian c. Gobi d. Antarctica

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You must travel for at least 40,000 km to circumnavigate, or go around, the globe. Which of these vehicles has done it in the quickest time? a. Hot air balloon b. Submarine c. Car d. Motorbike

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NAME THE FLAGS!

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Which ten countries are these the national flags of?

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Countries: A – Canada; B – Spain; C – Scotland; D – South Africa; E – Mexico. Flags: A – Malaysia; B – China; C – Germany; D – Sweden; E – Japan; F – Czech Republic; G – Argentina; H – New Zealand; I – Wales; J – Trinidad and Tobago.

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Answers: 1. b, 2. d, 3. d, 4. c, 5. a, 6. d, 7. c, 8. d, 9. b, 10. a, 11. d, 12. a, 13. d, 14. d, 15. c, 16. a, 17. b, 18. d, 19. d, 20. c, 21. b, 22. d, 23. c, 24. a, 25. a. 26. b, 27. c, 28. d, 29. d, 30. a. Animals: A – eagle; B – cow; C – bear; D – duck; E – frog.

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B A Can you recognise these five countries by their silhouettes?

NAME THE COUNTRIES!

ACTIVITY

Science magic!

Make water instantly turn to ice – just like magic – using the power of science…

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ere’s a bit of magic you can do in your kitchen using the power of science. With just a few materials, you can make water turn into ice – in an instant!

This is made possible by using a process called supercooling, which is to bring a liquid below its freezing point without it actually freezing.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE MAGIC Why does this work? It has to do with the way liquids freeze.

Like all other substances on Earth, water is made up of atoms. Those atoms are

Left: how your frozen sculptures will look!

arranged into molecules.

When the water is liquid, the molecules move and flow around each other.

As the water cools, the molecules move slower.

They start to line up into a rigid structure. It takes some time for the molecules to do this.

One thing that helps the molecules line up into ice crystals is having an impurity, like a mineral or a speck of dust, to form around. That’s why tap water doesn’t supercool as well as purified water. The other

thing that helps the molecules line up is banging or shaking the bottle which, as we'll see here, causes some of the molecules to run into each other and start forming crystals. This causes a chain reaction, and the rest of the water freezes quickly.

If you leave even purified water in the freezer for longer than 2–3 hours, the molecules will eventually figure it out on their own and the water will freeze.

STATES OF MATTER

The diagrams show water molecules in different states. In a gas (vapour) they are far apart. In a solid they fit together.

SOLID/ FROZEN SUPERCOOL GAS

LIQUID

WHAT YOU NEED bottles of water (purified or distilled water with no minerals is best)

ice cubes

a plate a glass

a grape (frozen) and string (optional) 56

INSTRUCTIONS

1

When the time is up, carefully remove a bottle from the freezer. It should still be in liquid form.

If it is already frozen, check your other bottles.

If all have frozen, let them melt and then try again for slightly less time.

Put your bottled water into the freezer for two and a half hours.

Make sure not to disturb it.

Top tip

Disturbing the water will cause the ice to form early. Ice may also form if there are too many impurities in the water.

2

3 Shake the bottle or hit it against a countertop or table.

You should see the ice crystals form instantly!

Top tip

The time it takes to supercool water will depend on the temperature of your freezer. You can put a bottle of regular tap water alongside your purified bottle. When the tap water freezes, the pure water will be supercooled.

Top tip

If your water remains liquid, it has not cooled enough. Put it in the freezer for another 15 minutes and try again.

SCULPTING WATER

You can use the other bottles to do other ice magic. Place an ice cube onto a plate. Carefully pour the supercooled water onto the ice cube. A stream of ice will form on top of the ice cube!

AND FOR ANOTHER TRICK...

For another fun trick, put a grape in the freezer along with your water. When your water is supercooled, carefully pour it into a glass, and then drop the grape inside or lower it on a piece of string. The ice will start to form around the grape!

57

THE BIG READ

Absolutely Everything!

Each month we feature an amazing story from world history taken from the bestselling book

by Christopher Lloyd, with illustrations by Andy Forshaw.

This month: the start of farming!

I

magine living in a world where there are no shops selling food. In this world there are no fields or farms, no breakfast cereal, no cakes, no cauliflower. You and your family live on wild fruits, nuts, roots and leaves. You scavenge leftovers of animals killed by predators. You roast meat or fish on a fire after a successful hunt or fishing expedition.

This was the way people lived for most of human history.

At this time, most of the people in the world were nomadic, which means they travelled from place to place instead of living in one place permanently.

Because they travelled around a lot, they owned no more stuff than they could carry. They didn’t even have bags until 14,000 years ago, so they tied their belongings together in a bundle. Some people today are still nomadic, but only a very few. That’s because of a crazy new idea that first appeared about 11,000 years ago.

Some of the first people to try out a different way of life lived in an area of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent. This was a rich land with just the right amount of rain for growing things. Forests of oak and pistachio trees thrived.

People known as Natufians had settled along the 58

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

The Fertile Crescent spans parts of several modern countries, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Israel and Egypt.

eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The sea provided them with fish. They also went up into the nearby hills to gather the seeds of wild grasses.

There were so many good things to eat that these people didn’t need to be nomadic.

They settled in small villages in round mud and clay huts and hunted wild animals and gathered food from the land and sea around them.

Natufian people loved dogs. All pet dogs today – from a pug to a poodle – are part of the same species, Canis lupus, and so is the grey wolf. Some wolves started to evolve into dogs as long as 40,000 years ago.

It probably began as humans and some of the gentler wolves started to befriend each other.

Humans helped friendlier wolves survive, and those gentler wolves mated together and had even gentler babies.

These friendly wolves – now dogs – were also work partners, probably helping

NILE

THE FERTILE CRESCENT The map above shows the area in the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent, shaded in green. Its rich soils and easy access to water from rivers, including the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile, made it especially well suited for farming and raising animals. with guarding and hunting and possibly carrying loads.

We don’t know for sure what work Natufian dogs did – or if they did any at all. All we know is that graves have been found

Our pet dogs evolved from ancestors of the Eurasian wolf. It is unlikely that humans bred them on purpose.

Instead, dogs and humans evolved side by side in a process called coevolution.

CASPIAN SEA

TIGRIS

Early town Fertile Crescent

EU PH RAT ES

Jericho

M ESO POTAM I A

PERSIAN GULF RED SEA

150 miles

in which dogs have been buried side by side with their humans.

As a dog lover myself, knowing that makes me feel close to these people from the far distant past.

So there they were, living a fairly easy life for about 2,000 years, when somebody (we don’t know who) had an idea.

These descendants of the Natufians started intentionally breeding animals and growing plants, not just hunting and foraging for wild ones. This was a tremendously big deal.

We call it agriculture, or farming. But the seeds they grew were very different from

the seeds farmers use today.

In the wild, seeds from grasses like wheat need to be as light as possible and loosely attached to the stalk. That way they have the best chance of being blown far and wide on the wind. But small seeds that fall easily to the ground are a nightmare for people gathering the seeds to grind, cook and eat. Instead, they want big seeds that stay firmly attached to the stalk. If a grain of wheat gets blown away by the wind, you won’t be able to use it for food because it’s gone – poof!

And once you start planting seeds yourself and not just

People have bred many plants to eat. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage all come from the same plant, bred differently! relying on nature to do it, you also need to be able to save some seeds to plant for next year’s crop.

So how did early farmers get bigger seeds? Looking back, it seems pretty simple, but of course somebody had to think of it. Over thousands of years, farmers saved the biggest seeds that stuck most firmly to the stalk and planted those the

following year. Over time, this careful choosing changed what the wheat was like.

This process is called artificial selection, or breeding.

Almost all the foods we buy at the shops today have become quite unlike their original forms. Animals and plants we use for food have been domesticated, which means humans have changed them from their wild forms. In most cases, our food has been changed to make it look better, taste more delicious, or just be easier to grow and store.

Continued on next page  59

THE BIG READ

DOG 12,000 years ago

DOG Although some scientists think dogs were domesticated as long as 40,000 years ago.

HORSE 6,000

WHEN ANIMALS WERE FIRST DOMESTICATED The human race’s progress on Earth is owed in part to the animals that we have used to help us throughout history. These domesticated animals carry us, pull machinery and help to cultivate fields. They provide food and clothing. As pets they offer companionship. As you can see in the timeline, this human harnessing of nature goes back for at least 12,000 years.

 Continued from previous page Once people in the Fertile Crescent started storing wheat, saving it to eat later or to plant the following year, mice began invading the wheat stores. And once there were mice, wild cats moved in to munch on the abundance of prey. That is the beginning of the domestic cat, which came to live near humans because that’s where the food was.

Not long after the start of wheat farming in the Fertile Crescent, people began farming rice in southern China and India.

Rice is an incredible crop.

It can grow in both very wet and 60

fairly dry areas, so that means different types of land can be turned into rice fields, called paddies. Rice gave the people who grew it the ability to support large populations and China and India are two of the most populated

Rice is the most important crop for more than half of the world’s population today.

SHEEP

GOAT

CATTLE

11,000

10,500

10,300

HORSE Horses first emerged on Earth around 4 million years ago. The earliest wild horses evolved in North America before spreading out to other parts of the world. Scientists think that horses were first domesticated in central Asia. All modern breeds of domestic horse belong to just one species, called Equus caballus.

ALPACA & LLAMA 7,000

WATER BUFFALO

DROMEDARY CAMEL

4,500

4,000

countries on Earth today!

At about the same time that rice farming appeared in southern China, people along the Yellow River up north started growing millet, another grass. Chinese and Indian farmers bred rice and millet just the way farmers in the Fertile Crescent bred wheat.

Could any of these farmers have learned from or even taught one another? We cannot know for sure, but it’s completely possible that these groups all invented farming independently. After all, at just about the same time, people in the Americas started farming, too. And we can be sure that nobody was travelling between the

Americas and the rest of the world that long ago. People in these two areas didn’t even know one another existed!

So, what were ancient Americans growing? The first crops they farmed were potatoes, beans, squash, peanuts and corn, which is also known as maize. Maize was probably domesticated in southern Mexico, starting with a grass called teosinte.

A teosinte ear has just five to ten seeds. Each seed is coated in a hard shell. That was great for wild teosinte seeds, which could survive a journey through the insides of even the most acidic animal stomach. It wasn’t so great for people who wanted breakfast, though. So farmers chose those plants with an unusually large

CAT Rats and mice were attracted to early human settlements by the chance to eat crops and other food.

It is likely that cats followed them. The first domesticated cats helped humans by hunting rodents and other pests.

CAT 9,500

ALPACA & LLAMA Alpacas and llamas were domesticated about 7,000 years ago in South America.

They are thought to have been bred from wild species called guanaco and vicuña.

PIG 8,000

CHICKEN Wild chickens are able to lay and hatch only a few eggs each year.

Domestic chickens, which have been bred to lay eggs more frequently, can produce more than 200 eggs in a year.

PURPOSE OF DOMESTICATION PIG Pigs were domesticated twice, the first time in China, 10,500 years ago, and the second time (shown here) in Anatolia, in what is now Turkey.

number of seeds as well as those with the softest shells.

Eventually they were able to turn teosinte into the highly nutritious crop we know today as corn.

The farming of domesticated corn seeds spread north and south.

People of the Andes Mountains in South America grew it. And so did people all the way up in what is now Canada.

Today, people and animals both eat corn. It’s the biggest seed crop in the world and is grown on every continent except Antarctica.

Another food we can thank the ancient Mexicans for is chocolate. The Maya, Toltec and Aztec peoples

Food (such as meat, milk, eggs) Commodities (such as wool, leather, fertiliser) Work (such as transport, towing farm machinery, hunting) Controlling pests (hunting, protection) Companionship

DUCK 3,500

Humans have domesticated many more animals, including rabbits, guinea pigs and honey be es.

Today

3,000

cultivated the cacao tree more than 3,000 years ago in a region we call Mesoamerica.

Beans from the tree were used to make a form of chocolate, which the Maya called the ‘food of the gods’.

It was given this name because the cacao tree was sacred to the Maya, who lived in what is now southern Mexico and parts of Central America.

If you have ever sneaked a taste of baking chocolate, you know that chocolate by itself is very bitter. That’s how the Mesoamericans liked it.

They drank it without sweetener for thousands of years before Europeans came along and decided to add sugar and extra fat and later to make it into bars.

These super-sharp tools, dating from 5,000 years ago, are made out of a natural glass called obsidian.

How do we know what people ate in the distant past?

Well, sometimes we are lucky enough to find their leftovers.

Archaeologists working in Chiapas, Mexico, found pieces of 4,000-year-old pottery with the remains of a chocolate drink in it. And archaeologists working in China found a pot containing 4,000-year-old noodles.

Obsidian is natural glass that forms when lava from a volcano cools quickly. It was a very precious material because it was brilliant for cutting animal skins to make clothes.

Obsidian occurs naturally in the rocky hills of central Turkey, but experts have found carefully shaped pieces

Continued on next page  61

THE BIG READ

In the 1500s, a Spanish Franciscan friar named Bernardino de Sahagún lived in what is now Mexico. Here are some illustrations he made of Indigenous corn farmers.

MAKING CHOCOLATE Cacao seed pods are harvested twice a year.

The beans and pulp inside are scooped out and left to ferment to develop the flavour.

Next, the beans are dried out and roasted.

Their shells are removed, leaving behind ‘nibs’. Grinding the nibs results in cocoa mass and cocoa butter. Nowadays, additional ingredients such as sugar and milk (for milk chocolate) are then added to create chocolate.

 Continued from previous page hundreds of miles away in ancient Jericho. How did they get there?

Jericho is one of the world’s oldest towns. It was founded

by Natufians and has been lived in continuously for about 11,000 years. Round houses from 9,000 years ago had more than one room and open spaces for cooking and washing. These early buildings were built on solid foundations, with stone floors and walls made of clay bricks.

62

Each home had its own special corner for storing food.

As farmers bred better crops, they were able to grow more than enough food to feed their families. This meant that even in places less rich in food than the Fertile Crescent, people could now swap extra food for useful or beautiful things other people had made.

Jericho is one of Earth’s oldest cities.

Some 20,000 people live there today.

It even meant that some people didn’t have to farm at all.

Instead, people who made things could trade them to farmers in exchange for food.

Well, what if you had been a wheat farmer in Jericho at that time? Perhaps you might have thought about swapping some of your precious seeds for a knife made of that natural obsidian glass found only in some far-off land. And if you wanted one, maybe your neighbour did, too.

Merchants are people who buy goods and then sell them.

This is called trade. When merchants started trading across long distances, they needed ways to transport their goods. They usually did this with domesticated animals.

And of course they needed plenty of goods to trade.

Eventually, trade led to a form of exchange very familiar to us today. We call it money.

Though all of these changes were made possible by the development of farming, the farmers themselves had a very hard life. There were no ploughs, tractors or combine harvesters to help back then.

Planting, weeding, digging, harvesting and grinding seeds into flour between slabs of heavy stone were just a few of the many tasks that had to be done by hand. Still, the farmers’ success in agriculture has helped lead to the world we have today, full of houses, supermarkets and restaurants, microwaves and food processors. :

MYSTERIES

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f t h e fo o t b a l l W rs o o ne r ld ro p h y. B in u T t C t i n w u 1 p me 9 , 8 Ri 3 r c h i n g fo r i , t ea .B it u ss t Cu p t r o p h y as

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63

d we ! l lo le n ea o t er s re w he as w r w y… fo o d a t

SEND IT IN!

Fingers on buzzers for our Quiz Challenge grand finals!

Huge congratulations to the hundreds of junior masterminds who recently took part in the online heats for The What on Earth! Quiz Challenge 2023!

Across the competitions for both individuals and schools, the questions were quickfire and tricky and the levels of general knowledge on display enormously impressive.

So a special well done to all those individuals and teams who qualified for the Grand Finals, which will be held in London at the historic Stationers’ Hall on the 27th and 28th November.

To see more photos and videos of our brilliant quizzers, go to: whatonearth.co.uk/ quizchallenge23 And don’t worry if you missed out this year. The What on Earth! Quiz Challenge is bound to return bigger – and even better – in 2024!

The Finalists 11–14 AGE GROUP Weaverham High School              

Loreto College              

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Edge Grove School              

Thorn Grove Primary School              

Westbourne Prep School

PUZZLE ANSWERS Treasure Hunt Hidden word: TINSEL

Changing Rooms

Futoshiki!

A

3

1  2

4

2

3

4

1

4

2

1

1

3  4  3  2

B

2

4

1

3 4  2  1  4 2

4

1

2

3

3

1

3

Word Wheel 1. Coastline 2. Stencil 3. Silent 4. Canoe 5. Snail 6. Lens

64

HISTORY fact of the month Send us your best Send your favourite fact to: editor@whatonearth.co.uk Pavlova – a dessert made from meringue, cream and fruit jokes!

– was supposedly created in New Zealand in the 1920s to look like Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova’s tutu!

Congratulations to readers Ivy and Leo who sent in the two rib-ticklers below.

And remember: if your joke, riddle or limerick is featured in a future issue, you will win a copy of the fun and fact-filled Listified!

So just send your favourite joke to: editor@whatonearth.co.uk

HA! HA!

What does

Santa

suffer from if he gets stuck in a

chimney?

-trophobia!

From Ivy, Claus age 7 gets stuck in a

If your photo, drawing, letter or favourite fact is featured in a future issue of What on Earth! Magazine, you will win a copy of the brilliantly bizarre History FACTopia!

So don’t delay and…

What did the

snowflake say to the

fallen leaf?

You are so

Christmas Word Search

N W G D S L A T Q S N O W B A L L H Q P K O H J Y L U S W Z Z H L H S G G T C R H Z B D C N L E E I X N U L O M D H Z E R B A B T M D A E R B R E G N I G N B S T L W S I Z M H B U V I H X E T H T E E J Y E Z Y R O W N H G L O U O T N W U N E H O X Q N O R T H P O L E F E S M V T C W T V C W A I I S H J L E B N A H R S V H E K T C K H L Y A W Y B Z T T P V Z E H L O G F V G C H T N Z M P V M L U S E E T K J M Q M N N M T T I B H V O R P H S S A G K V C U I V O S A G S L D H U W A I Z E J A P H O K F W N C M H U X Y W V M K X R M S I H U C L R O L R R G I I G Y C O E W Y Q A K V O R L H A F C P K Y Q L Z L P O M G X O A T H K F U E S I R S T L C W T H Z G Z U L S D H N S P S M K F D I P P K E W Y V I G M B N I A Q T I W N C C T Q B I Y W D P D R T E J K R U G N I D D U P S A M T S I R H C C

Spot the Difference

Connect the Planets

Raspberry

Mandrill

Number Triangles!

A

2

3

7

1

6

B

3 9

Sudoku!

Picture Quiz

Snowflake

last season!

From Leo, age 13

SEND IT IN!

Umbrella

Jelly

The Parthenon

Tortoise shell

5

6

1

2

3

4

2

3

4

5

6

1

3

2

5

1

4

6

1

4

6

3

5

2

4

5

2

6

1

3

6

1

3

4

2

5

5

5

6

8

C

10 14

4

Cube It! A

2

18 12

8

D

65

Who delivers young sharks’

presents

Quest What k ion: Christm ind of a can’t be s present beaten ?

at Christmas?

Answ A broke er: n drum!

Santa

Jaws!

What do you call a

snowman with a

six-pack? The

Abdominal Snowman!

Why did the reindeer help the

elderly chicken Because it would have been

cross the road?

Rude-olph him not to!

66

ca What do you a group of

ll

carol-singing T.rex?

Question: e What’s th ween t e b differencet and a h ig n k a reindeer?

Answer: on a d ra g One slays other and the igh! drags a sle

A tyranno

chorus!

Tickle your ribs and tease your brain with our favourite gags and riddles, hand-picked by our jokes editor May!

BRITANNICA’S

What on Earth!

MAGAZINE

Who is Rudolph the Reindeer’s

favourite !

A H HA! sleigh! pop singer?

What do you sing at a

snowman’s birthday party?

Beyon-

Fr-eeze a jolly good fellow!

Published by What on Earth Magazines Ltd, The Black Barn, Wickhurst Farm, Leigh, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 8PS Editor-in-Chief Andrew Pettie Editor Alison Eldridge Art & Design Director Mark Hickling Senior Designer & Illustrator Susanna Hickling Designer Dan Knight Production Sarah Epton Contributors Andy Smith, Andy Forshaw, Paige Towler, Christopher Lloyd, Andrés Lozano, Julie Beer, Kate Hale, Susanna Hickling, May, Valentina D’Efilippo, Rod Hunt, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Dr Nick Crumpton, Adrienne Barman, Eva-Maria Sadowski, Sarah Darwin, Professor Ganna Pogrebna With thanks to Andy Forshaw, Natalie Bellos, Helen Thewlis and the whole team at What on Earth Publishing Editorial Consultant Nancy Feresten Marketing Director Luise Mulholland Business Development David Falzani CEO, What on Earth Magazines Christopher Lloyd For Encyclopaedia Britannica Mary McCudden, Director, Middle School and Elementary Products Printing and distribution Warners Midlands PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH

!

L O L

How does

Good King Wenceslas like his

pizzas? Deep pan, crisp

and

even!

What was the

snow woman

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDY SMITH

doing at the

Question: What does Sa nta Claus eat for breakfast?

Answer: Mistle-toast!

greengrocer’s?

nose!

Picking her

Editorial enquiries editor@whatonearth.co.uk Subscriptions 01778 392479 whatonearth.co.uk Picture credits Selected library images from: Getty Images; Shutterstock; iStock; Alamy; NASA. What on Earth: Merce Llobera; Rossi Fang; Roberto Moiola; Jacek Stankiewicz.

Eureka: Bloodhound LSR. Copyright 2023 What on Earth Magazines Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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What on Earth! Magazine

‘THE UNIVERSE IS FULL OF MAGICAL THINGS’ Eden Phillpotts, writer