What on Earth!
A wild and wonderful world awaits you inside!
HOW TO CHAT...
Learn how to coo, babble and caw like a crow on page 12
SEND IT IN
Find out where readers like Eliza, pictured above, have been reading their magazines this summer on page 48
SNAP IT!
Check out eye-popping photos, including this upside-down aeroplane on page 6.
REGULARS
FACTOPIA
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts on page 4 all the way from a Celtic cat fairy to… hunting birds with boomerangs!
WORD UP!
Head over to page 20 to learn all about how languages borrow from each other. Plus, test your linguistics skills!
INSIDE THE BRAIN!
Head over to page 38 to see what’s going on inside the brain. Discover where the various lobes of the brain are located and what they do.
MONSTERS!
Turn to page 40 for a world tour of mythical beasts and monsters.
ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING
Our history of the world continues with the ingenious Olmec and other Mesoamerican cultures – plus, learn how to make Olmec hot chocolate on page 44.
EUREKA
Do sunflowers work as a team? Find out the answer on page 10
JOKES
& RIDDLES
Look out for this month’s spooky selection, hand-picked by our jokes editor May, on page 50.
TOP SECRET!
Shh! Amazingly unbelievable and totally top-secret facts are revealed on page 34
To win ALL the brilliant books featured in our October Issue, just answer this question: What country does the banshee come from? Send your answer to letters@whatonearth. co.uk and a winner will be chosen at random by our jokes editor May. Good luck! You can also find all these books (and more!) at whatonearthbooks.com/ shop
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from a Celtic cat fairy to… hunting with boomerangs!
By Kate Hale, Paige Towler and Julie Beer
Cats have whiskers on the backs of their front legs
The oldest known ghost story was written more than 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt START HERE
In Celtic mythology, the cat-sìth was a cat fairy that could grant blessings or steal souls
For centuries, visitors to the Tower of London have claimed to see the ghost of Anne Boleyn, the English queen who was beheaded by her husband King Henry VIII
Illustrations by Andy Smith
The
‘chief mouser’ is a cat whose job is to catch rodents for the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street
Male cats are more likely to be left-pawed, and females are more likely to be right-pawed
In 1949, a ship’s cat named was awarded a medal for raising morale and keeping ships rat-free Simon
According to legend, the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship that roams the waters off South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, where it sank
When they first learned about it, 18th-century British scientists thought that the platypus –a strange-looking animal native to Australia – was a prank
From the 1880s to the 1920s in Victoria, Australia, groups of ‘ghost hoaxers’ used sheets to dress up as spooky spirits and scare passers-by
The didgeridoo – an instrument made from tree branches or roots that have been hollowed by termites – has been played by Aboriginal people for thousands of years
Boomerangs have been used as hunting weapons for about 20,000years, butnotallofthemare designedtocomeback . SomeAboriginalpeoples usedreturningboomerangs
SNAP IT!
Astonishing photos from around the world
OPEN WIDE!
This brave snail was caught crawling on top of a baby saltwater crocodile’s mouth in Indonesia. Baby crocodiles are about 30cm at birth, but they can grow to be 5m long. Thankfully the baby crocodile let the courageous snail crawl away!
BIG MOUTH
This Nassau grouper (Epinephelusstriatus), photographed near a coral reef in the Bahamas Sea, almost seems to be yawning. These fish aren’t very particular about what they eat. They open their giant mouths and suck in whatever meal they can!
REACH FOR THE SKIES
This striking photo was taken in a forest of beech trees in Scotland. It shows how some types of trees don’t let their crowns touch. This makes a beautiful pattern, as the outer branches lose their leaves and look as if they are all reaching up to touch the sky.
DON’T LOOK DOWN!
This photo was taken during AIRPOWER24 in Austria, which is Europe’s biggest airshow. Some 250,000 people came to watch stunts like this one, in which Eskil Amdal flew his North American P-51D Mustang aeroplane upside-down!
ICY ISLANDS
This stunning photo shows the Norwegian islands of Svalbard, high up in the Arctic Circle. About 60 per cent of Svalbard’s land is covered in glaciers. It is home to many types of Arctic wildlife, including polar bears, whales, reindeer, Arctic foxes and seabirds such as puffins.
RED BULL CONTENT POOL/PREDRAG VUCKOVIC
Eureka!
The latest astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.
The giant Stonehenge stone that came from Scotland!
Scientists studying Stonehenge, a large and ancient circle of stones found in Salisbury, UK, have made an exciting new discovery. The altar stone found at the centre was transported some 750 kilometres or more from north-east Scotland!
Nobody is quite sure how or why Stonehenge was built. It is thought that it was constructed over 1,500 years, beginning about 5,100 years ago. The huge stones have mostly been traced to nearby areas in England, around 25 kilometres away. Others are from Wales, about 280 kilometres away. By testing rock samples, scientists worked out that the altar stone had come from Scotland. They are still not sure how the 6-tonne stone was transported, but they think it may have been by boat.
How sunflowers team up with one another to see the light
We have known for a long time that sunflowers and other plants move in order to get sunlight. But scientists weren’t sure why some of them moved in apparently random patterns. A new study has shown that sunflowers’ movement might not be so random at all. They move as a team so that they can all get enough light!
A group of scientists grew sunflowers close together and tracked their movements for ten days. They used the data
they collected to make a computer model, which showed that the pattern the plants moved in allowed for each of them to have optimal sunlight. Once the best light position was reached, the plants started to move less. Since other plants are known to move in similar ways, it is possible that other plants are also co-ordinating their growth patterns. Hopefully further study can help shine a light on the answers!
Scientists
WHERE THE STONES COME FROM
ALTAR STONE
The altar stone is found at the heart of Stonehenge, buried under other stones.
How LEGO is going green
The popular toy company LEGO has announced that it will make all of its toy bricks from renewable or recycled plastic by the year 2032. Plastic waste is very harmful to our planet. Scientists estimate there are more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans, which can be harmful to wildlife –and to humans. Because plastic breaks down very slowly, LEGO bricks could still be around in 1,300 years’ time. Making them out of eco-friendly plastic will help to stop new plastic waste being created.
AI creates amazing images by reading monkey’s brainwaves!
The pairs of images above look remarkably similar, but they weren’t photos taken of the same scene. Scientists have developed a new way to generate images using brainwaves. A macaque (a type of monkey) that had a transmitter implanted in its brain was shown the photos on the left. The images on
the right were created by an AI that read the monkey’s brain activity! Scientists hope that by training AI to interpret brainwaves, they can invent ways to help people who have lost their sight to be able to see again. Similar studies have been done with humans using fMRI, a type of scanner that doesn’t use a brain implant.
Do elephants have names for their friends?
Having names is a very useful way for humans to know who we are speaking to – or about! Until recently, it was thought that humans were the only animals to give each other names. But new research has shown that elephants and marmosets (small primates) might use specific names for each other as well.
Animals such as dolphins speak to other individual dolphins by mimicking their calls. But elephants and marmosets seem to have specific calls for individuals.
How do elephants talk to their friends?
CROW How to chat...
By Dr Nick Crumpton
by Adrienne Barman
Crows are some of the most intelligent birds in the world. They have lots of sounds that they can use to communicate. They love to chatter, so here are a few phrases to listen out for.
RATGATGA T G A T G ATGA
(Look out!)
The fast crow ‘rattle’ seems to be made only by females. They use it to alert their family to something, such as an incoming threat.
C AW (I’m calling in the troops!)
This call is asking for backup when defending territory.
Illustration
HO
U - H OUEEE
(I’m hungry!)
C- H OOO
(Don’t worry, I’m coming!)
Adults use this cooing noise to calm younger crows down. This is especially useful if they’ve been waiting for food!
GABURAH G A R AGLLE
(Babble, babble.)
Like human babies, crow chicks babble to themselves to work out how to make different noises.
(Hey, everyone, come here!)
The short ‘kho’ is used to assemble members of the family together.
How to Chat Chicken is out now.
DID YOU KNOW?
Spiderscanamputate, orcutoff,theirown legstoescapefrom predators!
This king baboon spider is rearing up to strike! It may also make a hissing sound by rubbing its legs together.
R S! R S!
SeE the biggest, smallest anD most dangerous sPiderS like never before! Amazing web-weAving! DeAth-defyIng stunts! feAtS of strength anD skill!
plus: look inSide a sPider anD discover how sPiderS differ fRom inSects!
Paper and plastic spiders come out to play for Halloween, but don’t forget that real spiders are around you all the time. Spiders live on every continent except Antarctica, and in every type of habitat. Spiders live in the forest, in the desert and at the beach. Some are probably living in your house right now!
You might think that all spiders are scary, but perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to judge. There are around 50,000 species of spider on Earth, so maybe you just haven’t found your favourite yet.
Plus, spiders have lots of superhero-like abilities that you might not yet know about. So read on to find out more about spiders and their amazing webs, eyes, disguises, silk, venom and more!
on next page
Spiders are among the most strange and extraordinary animals on Earth. Here we look inside a spider’s body to discover some of the secrets of its amazing anatomy. Plus, find out how spiders spin silk, immobilise prey and even soar through the air…
Spiders come in many different shapes and sizes. In fact, they are the most common and diverse of all the predators that live on land. This illustration shows what you would see if you were able to look inside a spider’s body!
Spiders have two body parts and eight legs. The spider’s stomach and brain are combined in one segment, called the cephalothorax. The other segment is called the abdomen. It contains the spider’s gut, heart, reproductive organs and silk glands. A spider is the only animal that digests its food outside its body. After capturing its prey, a spider covers it with digestive juices. The juices break down the prey’s body into a liquid that the spider then sucks up. Yum!
lI fE cYclE
Female spiders lay egg sacs that hold several to a thousand eggs. The young of most species of spider – which are called spiderlings – go off on their own when they emerge from the egg sac. Spiders change little in appearance as they grow. However, they do moult, or shed their outer covering, several times before becoming adults.
BAlloo NINg
Ballooning is an amazing process by which spiders float through the air using a thread or threads of their silk. These barely visible threads can catch the wind like a kite, so that the spider is lifted up and carried along by an air current, sometimes for days at a time. Ballooning journeys taken by spiders vary in length from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres!
Adult spider
Juvenile Spiderlings Egg sac
Female lays eggs
VENom
Almost all spiders produce venom, or poison. Many spiders inject venom into their prey to kill it quickly. Others first use silk wrappings to trap their victims. Although most spider venoms aren’t harmful to humans, those made by the black widow and the brown recluse spider are.
Spinnerets
Breathing organ
Legs
Mouth
OESOPHAGUS
SIMPLE EYE
VENOM CANAL VENOM GLAND
Pedipalp (for sensing and handling prey)
S pIN nINg SIlk
Spiders have silk-making organs called spinnerets near the back of their body. They spin silk from a liquid made by special glands. It becomes a solid thread after the spider pushes it out of its body. Spider silk is lighter than cotton and up to 1,000 times thinner than human hair. It is also very elastic, and can sometimes stretch to four times its original length without breaking. Spider silk is also incredibly strong. In fact, it is five times stronger than a thread of steel of the same diameter!
SpIDER s Vs INs Ect S
Many people mistakenly refer to spiders as insects, but they are actually arachnids. Here are some key differences between arachnids and insects.
S pIDER s' Pr E y
Spiders feed mostly on insects. Some are hunters that chase and overpower their prey. They typically have a good sense of touch or sight. Other spiders weave silk webs to trap flying insects. Bigger species of spider prey on bigger animals, such as frogs, birds, bats, lizards and, as you can see below, fish!
Number of legs
Number of body segments
Undergo metamorphosis? Wings? Antennae?
colos Sal WEBs!
Some tropical species of spider are social, which means they live together. They build huge webs that are home to hundreds of spiders, most of them female. They cooperate to build and repair the web. The pack of spiders also works together to catch and eat insects that get stuck in the web.
m ASt ER s of DISguiSE
Crab spiders (pictured below) don’t spin webs to trap prey but instead use camouflage to trick insects and then ambush them. Whether a flower is yellow, white, pale green or pink, female crab spiders can change their colour to match. If you see them spinning a web, it’s to hold their eggs. The clever Ariamnes spider (pictured above) is also a master of camouflage. This spider puts all of its legs together in a straight line so that it looks a bit like a twig from a plant. This helps it hide from hungry predators such as birds and wasps.
Biggest sPider
The Goliath birdeater is the largest spider in the world by length and weight. Despite the name, it rarely preys on birds (although it is large enough to!). This enormous spider lives in the rainforests of South America.
ownbodylength!
7 won D rous types of web
Did you know that not all spiders make webs? In fact, some scientists think 50 per cent or less of spider species make webs. Different types of spiders make different types of webs, as well. According to the Natural History Museum in London, there are seven main types of web:
rb webs
moSt DANgERouS
Sm AllESt s Pider
Scientists are not sure yet which spider species is the smallest, but among the contenders are Patudigua and Patumarplesi, both with bodies less than half a millimetre in length. If you had one of each species, they could fit together on the head of a pin!
amazing E y ES!
Most spider species have eight eyes, though some have six. However, despite all of those eyes, many don’t see very well. A notable exception is the jumping spider, which can see more colours than humans. Using filters in front of cells in their eyes, jumping spiders, which hunt during the day, can see in the red spectrum, green spectrum and in UV light.
The funnel-web spider is considered by many to be the most dangerous spider in the world. This Australian spider usually only grows up to about 5 cm in length, but its bite packs a dangerous punch. People have died from funnel-web spider bites, but not since antivenom and modern first aid were invented.
Purse webs are built to look like tubes on the ground. The spider hides inside to wait for prey!
W U ! R
Your guide to the wonderful world of linguistics and languages. This month: loanwords!
Languages often borrow words from each other as people from different places meet and their cultures mix. These words are called ‘loanwords’. For example, the words ‘pizza’ and ‘spaghetti’ are originally Italian words that are now also used in English. However, transporting words from one language to another sometimes changes them a bit, because of the
differences in grammar or sounds or other linguistic factors. Can you decode each of the loanwords on the right back into the original English words they have been borrowed from? Here’s an example to get you started: the Hindi loanword ‘botal’ is adapted from the English word ‘bottle’. Good luck!
Like the food, the word PIZZA was invented more than 1,000 years ago in Italy. Before the Italian word pizza became widely used in English, pizza was sometimes called ‘tomato pie’ by English speakers.
DECODING LOANWORDS!
Can you work out which familiar English words were adapted into the languages below? Write your answers on the lines and then check the answer key along the side to see if you are right!
JAPANESE
The English language includes loanwords and other linguistic contributions from more than 350 other languages!
LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH
Here are some words English has borrowed and the languages the words are borrowed from.
Banana (Wolof)
Easel (Dutch)
Guitar (Spanish)
Poodle (German)
Tsunami (Japanese) Salon (French)
Pyjamas (Hindi)
Umbrella (Italian)
Atlas (Greek)
HINDI:
hospital,
tomato,
sandwich; JAPANESE: 1. computer,
teenager,
ice cream; SPANISH:
bacon,
football,
roast beef
Colour itin!
Inside this 12-page activity section, you will find quizzes to do, puzzles to solve and fun activities to try. And don’t worry if you get stuck – all the answers are on page 32.
ANIMALS
1 Which of the following four words is also used as a collective name for a group of bats?
a. A swoop
b. A flutter
c. A cave
d. A colony
2 Approximately how long does it take a sloth to digest a single leaf?
a. A day
b. A week
c. A month
d. Three months
1 If all the blood vessels in an adult’s body were laid out end-to-end, approximately how far would they stretch?
a. 10,000 km
b. 50,000 km
3 Which substance makes up around 95 per cent of a jellyfish’s body?
a. Muscle
b. Jelly
c. Water
d. Rubber
4 In Disney’s popular animated movie
The Lion King, what type of animal is Pumbaa?
a. Wild boar
b. Warthog
c. Wildebeest
d. Weasel
HUMAN BODY
c. 75,000 km
d. 100,000 km
2 Whereabouts on your body would you find your glabella?
a. Your foot
b. Your forehead
c. Your throat
d. Your ear
3 Of the following four eye colours, which is the least common?
a. Green
b. Blue
c. Hazel
d. Brown
4 Which of these body parts continues to grow throughout a human’s lifetime?
a. Brain
b. Tongue
c. Stomach
d. Nose
EMOJI FOOD
Each of the emoji sequences shown on the right somethingrepresents you can eat or drink. Can you work out which food or drink it is in each of the five examples?
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!
NUMBER TRIANGLES
In the triangles below, the numbers inside the squares are the sum of the two numbers in the connected circles.
For example:
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.
SUDOKU
Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3x2 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 6.
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.
1
What substance are Olympic and Paralympic gold medals mostly made from?
a. Gold
b. Silver
c. Copper
d. Wood
2 In which popular video game franchise might you encounter the characters King Boo, Yoshi, Lakitu and Birdo?
a. Pokémon
b. Super Mario
c. Pac-Man
d. Sonic the Hedgehog
3
The first emperor of ancient Rome ruled from 27 BCE until his death in 14 CE. What was his name?
a. Augustus
b. Julius Caesar
c. Hadrian
d. Asterix
4 Which of these musical instruments was invented most recently?
a. Guitar
b. Piano
c. Saxophone
d. Violin
Here is an example:
In the three squares shown above, the number A must be less than 3 and greater than the missing number B. We know all the numbers must be between 1 and 4 , so therefore A must be 2 and B must be 1.
HOW TO MAKE A VAMPIRE BOOKMARK!
This book corner-biting Count will help you to keep track of your page.
10
Create eyes however you like – you can use googly eyes, draw them on with pencil or marker or cut out shapes from your paper.
TOP TIP! Ifyouuseallblack paper,youcanmake a bat bookmark followingthe same process.
1
Fold the skin-colour paper in half, making a triangle.
9 Glue on the hair, wings, mouth and fangs.
WHAT YOUNEED
8
Cut a square of red paper slightly smaller than your bookmark for the mouth, and two small triangles for fangs.
2
Fold the tip of one layer of the triangle down to the bottom edge.
3 Fold each corner in.
SQUARE SHEETS OF PAPER
(or origami paper) in black, white, red and whatever colour you want your vampire’s skin to be
5
TOPTIP! paperDifferentcoloursof monsters,couldmakedifferent too.Youcouldtryanyofthemonsters onourMonsterMap onpage40!
7
Use the pencil to draw wings on the black paper and then cut them out.
6
Cut a corner off the black paper and then trim it into your vampire’s hair.
4
Unfold the two corners and fold them up to the top to get a diamond shape.
Tuck the two corners into the pocket that has formed in the middle.
TOP TIP! How about athree-eyed, green-skinned monstertentacles?with
1
What is the only capital city to be located on two continents?
a. Bogotá
b. Bangkok, pictured above
c. Istanbul
d. Cairo
2 Aside from Vatican City, what is the only other country in the world to have a national flag that is square?
a. Nepal
b. Switzerland
c. South Korea
d. Bangladesh
3
There are around 50 seas on Earth – but only one without a coastline. What is its name?
a. Arabian Sea
b. Caspian Sea
c. Sargasso Sea
d. Aegean Sea
4 In which European capital would you find the famous cathedral of Notre Dame, pictured on the left?
a. Madrid
b. Berlin
c. Vienna
d. Paris
Four sneaky animals are hiding somewhere in these photos. Can you find them?
HIDDEN ANIMALS
Can you spot the 20 Halloween-related words hidden in our jumbo word search puzzle? Good luck! AUTUMN BATS
BLOOD
BROOMSTICK
COFFIN
EYEBALL
FRIGHT
GHOST
HALLOWEEN
LANTERN
MAGIC
PUMPKIN
SCARECROW
SKELETON
SKULL
TOMB
VAMPIRE
WAND
WITCH
ZOMBIE
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.
A link word is a word that can be added to the end of one word and the start of another word to create two new nouns. For example, the word FRIEND can be added to the end of GIRL to create GIRLFRIEND, and also added to the start of SHIP to create FRIENDSHIP. Can you think of link words that fill the gaps below and create two new nouns in each case?
1
Starting with the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, how many human beings in total have travelled to outer space?
a. 176
b. 376
c. 676
d. 876
2
UY Scuti, which is a star located near to the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is the largest known star in the universe. Approximately how many stars the size of our own Sun could you fit inside UY Scuti?
a. 1,000
b. 100,000
c. 1,000,000
d. 1,000,000,000
3
On the surface of which planet in our solar system would you find a huge rotating storm known as the Great Red Spot?
a. Uranus
b. Jupiter
c. Saturn
d. Venus
4 Spiral, lenticular, irregular, Seyfert and elliptical are all types of what astronomical object?
a. Galaxy
b. Black hole
c. Star
d. Comet 1
The six-sided shape on the left can be folded up to form a cube. Only two of the cubes on the right can be formed using it. Which are they?
Can you spot all 2O differences between these two spooky illustrations?
CUBE IT!
Use the word wheel to help find the answers to the clues below. All the answers contain the middle letter and each letter can only be used once.
Clue: a frightening or unpleasant dream (9 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a country’s national song (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: an optical illusion seen in the desert (6 letters).
Answer:
WORD WHEEL
Clue: the period of a king or queen’s rule (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: the third-closest planet to the Sun (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a big cat only found in Asia in the wild (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: to fasten with cord or string (3 letters).
Answer:
sphinx
Chameleon
Cheetah
MAPIT
PEOPLEPOWER!
Thismapshowswhatareaallthe humansaliveonEarthtodaywouldfilliftheycrowded intooneplace–plusotherfascinatingpopulationfacts!
100 km
DID YOU KNOW?
According to the United Nations, the global human population is predicted to peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion people!
2.51 billion
All the people born in the 21st century so far would fit onto the Isle of Man! 1 metre 1 metre
5 PEOPLE
HOW WE CREATED THIS MAP
To calculate what area all the people in the world would take up if they were standing side by side, we first had to decide how closely they would be standing to each other. We decided that five people would fit standing together in 1 square metre. Next we took the global human population (8.17 billion) and divided it by 5 to work out how many square metres all those people would fill up. You can see what this looks like on the map below!
DID YOU KNOW?
Wembley Stadium in London seats 90,000 people. So you would need 90,778 Wembley Stadiums to seat all the people alive today!
117 billion
All the people who have ever lived would fill an area (23,400 km2) slightly bigger than Wales and the county of Cheshire and the Wirral.
8.17 billion
All the people alive today would fill an area (1,634 km2) slightly bigger than Greater London!
TOP
SECRET FACTS!
Journey through some of the world’s most amazing and incredible secret and hidden facts – but shh! You didn’t hear them from us…
Words by Paige Towler and Alison Eldridge. Illustrations by Andy Smith
1
There’s a butterfly garden within Singapore’s Changi Airport where only passengers on flights are allowed. Over 1,000 butterflies from as many as 40 different species live in this special tropical habitat.
2
In the 1960s, two people escaped from Sovietcontrolled East Berlin by hiding, one at a time, inside a hollowed-out statue of a cow The city of Berlin was split into East and West by a huge wall manned by armed guards from 1961 to 1989. Some people risked their lives to cross from one side to the other.
3
According to legend, only two people on the planet officially know how to fold a napkin in a style called the Hapsburg fold, originally created in Austria. The 200-year-old technique bends the napkin into the shape of a flower and then bread rolls are inserted into some of the folds. It takes 3–4 minutes to complete the fold.
4 So many nuts are hidden by squirrels during the autumn that the squirrels often forget where they’ve buried them!
5 Made in the 18th century, the toilet in one house in Belgium is disguised to look like a stack of books. The walls around the toilet look like bookshelves.
6
Stradivarius violins make a unique sound among violins. Experts think it’s the result of Stradivari, the 17th-century violin-maker, soaking the violins’ wood in a secret mix of chemicals. Stradivarius instruments are still highly prized today. One violin has been valued at about £15 million! It is now part of a museum collection.
7 Located in China, the imperial palace known as the Forbidden City was off-limits to everyone except the emperor and his guests for nearly six centuries. Now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.
Changi Airport’s butterfly habitat includes a 6-metre waterfall!
‘Wire fu’ helps actors appear as if they are floating or flying while performing stunts.
8
For centuries, women in Suriname have worn headscarves called angisa that can be folded in many different ways to communicate secret messages. The folds and fabric patterns can mean anything from love to anger!
9 A hidden compartment in a 700-year-old Buddhist statue contained some 150 historical artefacts, such as scrolls, figurines and other relics.
10 In ninja and kung-fu movies featuring near-impossible stunts, actors rely on a technique known as ‘wire fu’ (above): being hoisted by wires so thin as to be invisible or later digitally removed.
11 According to legend, famed Mongol leader Genghis Khan asked to be buried in secret. His followers hid the location so well that, to this day, nearly 800 years later, no one has found it!
12 In the Middle Ages, the glassblowers of Venice, in what is now Italy, were required to move to the island of Murano to protect their secret methods – and they weren’t allowed to leave! All of the furnaces were moved to the island as well. Glassmakers on the island of Murano kept their techniques secret for hundreds of years.
Continued on next page
Continued from previous page
13
One company in the UK turns escape maps, created for soldiers in World War II, into clothing. The original maps were printed on silk, which made them durable and quiet to use. Some were hidden in Monopoly boards! One silk map was turned into a wedding dress in 2016.
14 When a tin miner in Nigeria uncovered a statue, the find led to the discovery of the Nok people, members of a previously unknown ancient civilisation that existed more than 2,000 years ago.
15
One house in the desert of California, USA, is nearly invisible because it is made almost entirely of mirrors
16 One cemetery in New York, USA, has a grave for secrets. Visitors whisper their confessions to the tombstone or write them down on slips of paper, then put them into a hole in the stone.
17 In the 1990s, a statue’s head was stolen from a cemetery in Canada –only to be returned some 20 years later! It is still not known who took the head or why.
18 The source of the Nile River was once thought by some to come from waters hidden within a mystical range of mountains called the ‘Mountains of the Moon’. They appeared on maps even though they didn’t exist!
21
For hundreds (or even thousands) of years, women in parts of China communicated between themselves using a secret language called Nüshu. Women taught each other the language while doing embroidery and singing together. Having their own written language allowed women to communicate their feelings of unhappiness to each other in secret. They would use it to write letters or to embroider fabric with poems, songs or other works.
This mouthbrooding fish protects its eggs in its mouth.
The Nok people’s sculptures are thousands of years old. They were only discovered in 1928.
19 ‘Backmasking’ is when a singer records a message backwards onto a song that is playing forwards. The listener can hear the secret message only by playing the song in reverse. The famous 1960s British band The Beatles did this for their song ‘Free as a Bird’ – the backwards message at the end of the song says ‘Turned out nice again’.
20 One British artist makes sculptures so small that they can fit inside the eye of a needle and need a microscope to be seen. He holds a Guinness World record for the smallest hand-made sculpture, at 0.078mm long and 0.053mm wide. It fits inside a strand of hair!
22
To keep their eggs safe, some species of fish carry them in their mouths in a process called mouthbrooding. Some fish will continue to protect their young in their mouths until the young can survive alone.
23 Saraswathi Rajamani, India’s first-known female spy, started working to help India gain independence when she was just 16 years old. Rajamani and other female spies disguised themselves as boys and infiltrated British troops to gather information. She once rescued a captured colleague by pretending to be a dancer and drugging a British officer.
24
The owner of a First Nations art gallery in Alberta, Canada, has a secret basement collection dedicated to artworks depicting a bulldog named Zsu Zsi. The dog often made appearances at the gallery and was friendly with the artists and patrons.
The ‘Hall of Zsu Zsi’ has more than 60 works featuring the dog, including paintings, sketches, carvings, masks and even a guitar!
26 Since the 1950s, government mapmakers in Switzerland have hidden tiny drawings – such as of animals and people – in official topographic maps.
25 A team of thieves managed to clear out six display cases of jewels worth millions of pounds from a museum in the Netherlands – without getting caught on security cameras –and authorities still have no idea how they did it. So far two of the jewels have been recovered by police, who are still looking for the thieves.
27 A Japanese engineer has developed a real-life invisibility cloak that uses tiny light-reflecting beads to hide its wearer.
28
Known as the ‘Easter Island Heads’, the moai (right) – giant statues carved by the Rapa Nui people on an island off Chile – also have enormous bodies that have sunk into the ground. The huge statues were carved more than 500 years ago to honour chieftains and other important people who had died. So far more than 1,000 have been found around the island.
The largest moai are 10 metres tall and weigh nearly 90 tonnes!
29
In England in the 1950s, a secret 35-acre underground city called Burlington was built to house up to 4,000 government workers. The city was meant to serve as a bunker for government officials to hide in if there was a nuclear war. The hidden city even had its own telephone switchboard and a BBC broadcasting studio!
Secret FACTopia!, written by Paige Towler and illustrated by Andy Smith, is out now.
INSIDE THE BRAIN!
The brain takes all the information from your different senses and processes it, allowing you to act and decide what to do about... well, everything. For centuries, how the brain worked was largely a mystery to humans. But scientists now know that different areas of the brain are responsible for different things. This illustration shows some of the jobs performed by different parts of your brain.
Infographics by Valentina D’Efilippo
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN
The brain has three main sections: the forebrain, at the front; the midbrain, in the middle; and the hindbrain, at the back. These are shown in the diagram below.
Midbrain
The midbrain is in the brainstem. It controls eye movement and processes sight and sound.
Forebrain
This is the largest section of the brain. All of the lobes in the diagram on the right are in the forebrain.
Hindbrain
This part of the brain includes the cerebellum (in the diagram on the right). It controls survival functions such as breathing.
SOLVING PROBLEMS
FRONTALLOBE
FOOD IN WORDS OUT
SPEECH
SMELL
SCENT IN
TOUCH AND PRESSURE TASTE
PARIETAL LOBE
LANGUAGE
RECOGNISING FACES
HEARING
DID YOU KNOW?
Whenyouareawake, yourbraingenerates enoughelectricity topowerasmall lightbulb!
READING
TEMPORAL LOBE
BALANCE AND COORDINATION
AWARENESS OF THE BODY’S ENVIRONMENT
PROCESSING IMAGES
OCCIPITAL LOBE
CEREBELLUM
Monster Map!
Kids (and grown-ups!) all around the world sometimes feel afraid of monsters, even though we know that they aren’t real. You might be surprised to discover that there are different types of monsters that are feared or even admired in different places. Some have been in stories for centuries, while others were made up recently. Read on to meet some marvellous monsters and find out where they come from…
This monstrous creature with a horse’s head, bat wings and a pointed tail is said to roam the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
12. LIGHTNING BIRD (SOUTH AFRICA)
This creature comes from the folklore of the Zulu tribe of southern Africa. It is said to be a bird the size of a human, which drinks blood and can summon thunder and lightning.
13. EL HOMBRE CAIMAN (COLOMBIA)
The Alligator Man (as he is called in English) is a legend from northern Colombia. He is said to have gotten potions from a witch doctor to turn into an alligator and back into a man.
11. AMMIT (EGYPT)
In Ancient Egyptian, ‘Ammit’ means ‘swallower of the dead’. She was a figure in Ancient Egyptian mythology who ate the souls of the unworthy. She had the head of a crocodile, torso of a cat and rear of a hippo!
Zombies have become popular in film, but they have a much longer history. The first stories of reanimated corpses called zombies (zombi) come from the Haitian religion of Vodou.
10. WEREWOLF (IRAQ)
The first story of a person being changed into a wolf is in the EpicofGilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest-known written works, which comes from Ancient Mesopotamia (now in Iraq).
14. ZOMBIE (HAITI)
15. JERSEY DEVIL (UNITED STATES)
2. BANSHEE (IRELAND)
The banshee (bean sí in Irish) is a type of female spirit from Irish folklore that screams and wails to announce that someone will die soon. She often has long flowing hair.
1. KRAKEN (SCANDINAVIA)
This legendary sea monster was said to be like a colossal giant squid. It was believed to be powerful enough to pull ships into the watery depths.
9. NAGA (INDIA)
5. BABA YAGA (RUSSIA)
Baba Yaga is an old woman from Slavic folklore, sometimes said to be a witch. She lives deep in a forest in a hut that stands on chicken legs, and in some stories she eats children!
3. FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER (GERMANY)
Frankenstein’s monster was made up in the early 1800s by English teenager Mary Shelley. You can read more about the monster on page 42!
4. COUNT DRACULA (ROMANIA)
The famous vampire was made up by Irish writer Bram Stoker and might be based on a real person. Find out more on page 43!
6. GODZILLA (JAPAN)
Nagas are half-human half-serpent beings that appear in many Asian religious myths. They are said to bite evil people and are able to take human or part-human form.
8. YETI (HIMALAYAS)
The Yeti, also called the Abominable Snowman in Western culture, is said to be an ape-like creature that roams the Himalayan mountains in Asia. Yeti myths are similar to those of Bigfoot in North America.
Godzilla first appeared in the film Godzilla in 1954. He was created as a giant reptile who stomps on cities. In some films he breathes fire – and in some he’s a robot! There have been 38 films starring Godzilla so far.
7. YARA-MA-YHAWHO (AUSTRALIA)
This frog-like vampire with bright-red fur comes from the Aboriginal mythology of Australia. It is said to drop out of trees and onto people in order to drink their blood.
Frankenstein’s monster
Origin story
Frankenstein (or, more properly, Frankenstein’s monster) has been featured in many books, comics, films and television shows. But do you know where he got his start? You might be surprised to discover that this fabulously famous monster comes from a book written in 1816 by a teenage girl! Author Mary Shelley was just 19 when she came up with the story during a writing competition on holiday with her friends.
Frankenstein’s monster
AGE: Newly born
HEIGHT: 2.4 metres
ABILITIES: Survived a gunshot; taught himself to speak in just a few days
FIRST APPEARANCE: The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, published in 1818.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom (author), Germany (character)
NOTABLE APPEARANCES: Frankenstein (1931), HotelTransylvania (2012), Franken Berry breakfast cereal and his own superhero comic series in the 1960s!
DID YOU KNOW?
Frankenstein is considered by some to be the first sciencefiction novel ever written.
Based on a true story?
The book Frankenstein is about a scientist who gives life to a human-like creature. In some depictions, the monster is made of dead bodies brought back to life by being electrocuted.
You might think that this is all completely made up, but it was actually based on scientific discussions of the time. In the late 1700s,
just a few decades before Mary Shelley was born, people had finally developed a way to save humans from drowning, similar to today’s CPR. Since this was a big change in medicine, it made many people worried. Maybe they didn’t understand life and death so well after all. Were there other ways people could be brought back to life or saved from death?
Frankenstein and the Monster
A lot of people think that Frankenstein is the name of the monster from the book, but it’s actually the name of the scientist who creates him, Dr Victor Frankenstein. The monster is referred to as ‘the creature’ or ‘thing’ and other horrible names. The story leaves one to wonder: between a creature suddenly given life or the man who abandons him and calls him horrible names, who is the real monster?
DID YOU KNOW?
In the 1960s and 1970s a vampire was believed to live in London’s Highgate Cemetery!
Count Dracula
AGE: Centuries old
HEIGHT: Called ‘tall’ in the book (perhaps about 1.8 metres)
ABILITIES: Shapeshifting, hypnosis, control of animals
FIRST APPEARANCE:
The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, published in 1897.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland (author), Transylvania (character)
NOTABLE APPEARANCES: Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), YoungDracula (2006), the Castlevania video game series and self-service checkouts at Poundland.
Count Dracula
Origin story
Dracula is perhaps the best-known vampire story, and the character of Dracula has made appearances in books, films and even modern cartoons such as Hotel Transylvania. He originally comes from a book published by the Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897. While nobody is quite sure how Stoker came up with the idea, most experts think he was inspired by the real-life prince Vlad III of Transylvania, also known as
Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was a very bad man indeed, who killed his enemies by driving stakes through them. In the book Dracula, the vampire is finally killed with a wooden stake.
A brief history of vampires
Many cultures throughout history have told stories about people returning from the grave, which became the
vampire stories of today. But hundreds of years ago, people didn’t have a good enough knowledge of science to separate fact from fiction. Some beliefs included: babies born with teeth were more likely to become vampires, people born on Christmas Day were more likely to become vampires, and a person might become a vampire if a cat jumped over their dead body!
Vampire disease
Experts think that some parts of vampire myth may have come from the symptoms of real diseases. Porphyria is a disease that can make people sensitive to sunlight. Pellagra makes the skin thinner. Rabies can cause biting and even sensitivity to light or garlic. People nowadays know more about diseases and how to treat them, so we don’t see people who have them as often. And we don’t go jumping to such monstrous conclusions about them!
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: ancient Mesoamericans!
When you think of chocolate, you might imagine unwrapping a chocolate bar or licking an ice cream before it melts. But the first people to eat chocolate didn’t have sweet treats or ice cream or even sugar or milk! If you’re a chocolate lover, you’ll want to thank the ancient Mesoamericans.
Mesoamerica is a historical region that stretched from what is now the southern part of North America through to what is now Central America. Researchers think some of the very first chocolate eaters were ancient Mesoamericans in what is now southern Mexico in about 1500 BCE. They somehow figured out an amazing thing: if you 1) save the seeds embedded in the white flesh of the cacao fruit, 2) ferment them for four to ten days to allow the alcohols in them to change to lactic or acetic acid, 3) dry them in the sun, 4) roast them over a fire, 5) remove their shells and 6) grind them up, you get a fantasticsmelling grit. You can use that grit to make a chocolate drink which gives you a nice feeling of calm alertness.
We know the Olmec, one
of the earliest complex Mesoamerican peoples, drank chocolate because archaeologists have found pottery in their graves with traces of a chemical called theobromine. Cacao seeds have this chemical in them. Beans from the cacao tree were used to make a form of chocolate, which some Mesoamericans called ‘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. They drank it at weddings and to treat illnesses. According to Mayan mythology, humans were created partly from chocolate. The Aztecs prized chocolate so much that they even used cacao seeds as a form of money. But what did the stuff taste like? Not at all like Cadbury! 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.
(Try for yourself using our
Rubber is extracted from the rubber tree by using a tool to scrape off a section of bark. Sap then drips out and is collected in a bucket, often tied to the tree.
Olmecs
Everything!
This giant stone head was carved by the ancient Olmec.
Cacao seed pods (1) 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 (2). Their shells are removed, leaving behind ‘nibs’. Grinding the nibs results in cocoa mass (3) and cocoa butter.
recipe on the right!) They drank it unsweetened for thousands of years before Europeans came along and decided to add sugar and extra fat and later made it into the bars we buy at the shops. Dreaming up drinking chocolate is amazing enough on its own, but the Olmec are known for another incredible invention! The name Olmec means ‘rubber people’, and they got this name because they worked out how to make rubber by mixing rubber tree sap (called latex) with sap from morning glory vines. If you mix equal parts of those liquids, you get a very flexible substance. Shape it fast, before it dries, and you have a great bouncy ball. Spread it on cloth, and you get a waterproof poncho. You can also mix 75 per cent latex and 25 per cent morning glory sap and get a long-lasting, sturdy material, a bit like plastic, that can be shaped into waterproof containers.
The Mesoamericans were also probably the first people in the Americas, and one of the first in the world, to use a symbol for zero.
Continued on next page
How to make chocolate like the ancient Olmec!
Ingredients
•2 tablespoons of roasted cocoa nibs (they have already gone through steps 1–5 of the process described in the main article)
•1/2 litre boiling water (ask an adult for help when handling boiling water and appliances)
nibs into a litre measuring jug or other container with a pour spout. Add the cayenne pepper if you like.
3 Pour the boiling water over the ground cocoa nibs and stir.
4 Wait for 1O minutes, stirring the mix halfway through.
•Optional: a pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
1 Use a pestle and mortar to grind the cocoa nibs to the size of ground coffee. (You could also use a coffee grinder or small food processor.)
2 Put the ground-up cocoa
5 Gently pour the liquid into a cup, letting the cocoa sludge stay at the bottom of the jug.
6 Set the cup in the fridge until cool, give your drink a stir, and enjoy! (Once you’ve tried it, you might want to cheat a little by adding sugar or honey and milk or a plant-based substitute. The Olmec will never know!)
Nowadays, additional ingredients such as sugar and milk (for milk chocolate) are added to create chocolate treats.
ILLUSTRATED BY SUSANNA RUMIZ
Stone ring Spectators Playing alley
The Mesoamerican ball game
The Mesoamerican ball game is one of the world’s oldest continuously played sports. It has evolved into a game that is now called ulama in Mexico. In some versions of the game, players use their hips to hit the ball back and forth. In others, they use paddles or their forearms. The object is to get the ball past a score line. Some ancient courts included a stone hoop. Passing the ball through the hoop may have instantly won the game.
Continued from previous page
The zero symbol is important because we use it for more than just showing the idea of nothing. We also use it as a placeholder. For example, if we want to write a symbol for one hundred and two things, we write 102. The one means ‘one hundred’. The zero means ‘no tens’. And the two means ‘two ones’. The zero keeps the tens place empty so we know what places the other numbers
belong in. The Maya used zero as a placeholder when making calendars. It is thought they got the concept of zero from the Olmec.
The Olmec were great artists as well. They sculpted what we now call colossal heads. These were huge portraits carved into boulders. Some were taller than a professional basketball player and weighed more than twenty tonnes. No one knows why the Olmec built these heads, but they looked like individual people, so archaeologists think
Bench
Passing the ball through a stone ring may have won the game.
they might have been portraits of powerful rulers. Did their rulers want memorials to themselves, the way the Egyptian pharaohs did? Were the giant faces intended to get the attention of the gods?
As if their feats of cookery, maths and art were not enough, the Mesoamericans were also masters of sport! They invented a ball game as early as 1650 BCE which spread throughout their area and north into what is now northern Mexico and the south-western United States. This game is thought to have been a combination of athletics and religious worship. Major issues and disputes between rival kingdoms may have been decided in the ball game, too. It was the gods’ decision who would win and who would lose.
awful, but it could have had an important purpose. Though there is evidence that the Olmec, for instance, had soldiers who protected trading routes, it doesn’t seem as if they went to war over territory. So, it is possible that the ball game was used as a way to prevent war. And of course it was only possible because rubber trees and morning glory vines grew in that part of the world, and the rubber could be used to make balls. Nature shapes people as much as people shape nature. :
Winning was very good news. But some researchers have speculated that losers may have been sacrificed to the gods. The idea of sacrificing a team of ball players sounds
Watch people play the ancient Mesoamerican ball game!
This colossal Olmec head sculpture was found near Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America, on the Peru/Bolivia border.
Stone ring
26theThenumberofwheelsonworld’slongestlimousine.
CARS
IN NUMBERS...
14.5 million Thepriceinpounds oftheworld’smost expensivenewcar in2019,theBugatti LaVoitureNoire.Only onewaseverbuilt.
180,000
The cost in pounds of one of the world’s most expensive speeding tickets.**
371
The longest distance in kilometres driven by a car tipped up on its side and balancing on two wheels. The record-breaking stunt was pulled off by Italian Michele Pilia in 2009.
1.4 billionTheestimatednumber of carsintheworld . *
304.5
The top speed in miles per hour of the world’s fastest road car, the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+.
30,000 Thenumberofindividual partsfoundintheaveragecar.
4,890,993
The number of kilometres travelled by Irv Gordon in his 1966 Volvo P1800S, the longest total distance driven by a single car.
1885
TheyearthatGerman engineerKarlBenzbuilt the first car. Benz went on to help found the Daimler-Benzcompany, which launched the Mercedes-Benz car line in 1926.
* No wonder it’s tricky finding a parking space!
** The ticket was issued in Switzerland, where the size of a speeding fine is partly calculated based on how wealthy the driver is.
Mathilda-May won’t go anywhere without her copy!
It looks as if Ella has found a four-legged fan of our Big Cats issue!
Flo and Harry enjoying the great British summer at Stonehenge.
Not many tennis players are as multi-talented as Clara!
Where do YOU read your magazine?
Over the summer, we challenged readers to send in photos of the wild and wonderful places where they enjoy reading What on Earth! Magazine. As you can see, we received some fantastic photos! Whether it’s shooting down a waterslide or reclining on a giant deckchair, our readers clearly know how to read the magazine in style! Everyone featured in this issue will win a book voucher to spend on... more amazing things to read! To see a gallery of all the brilliant entries, go to: whatonearth.co.uk/photos
Ruby enjoys a sunny day out at the spectacular Pont du Gard in France.
Sammy knows that reading can take you anywhere in the solar system! Have What on Earth-loving Evie and Josh shrunk in the wash?!
Catherine, Saoirse and Niamh put their feet up in the Lake District.
Faith gets down to business with our gooey DIY slime activity.
Harrison was supposed to be helping to clean the family camper van…
Published by
What on Earth Magazines Ltd, The Black Barn, Wickhurst Farm, Leigh, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 8PS
Editor-in-Chief
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Editor
Alison Eldridge
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Mark Hickling
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Susanna Hickling
Production
Sarah Epton
Contributors
Andy Forshaw, Andy Smith, Paige Towler, Rose Davidson, Julie Beer, Valentina D’Efilippo, May, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Kate Hale, Dr Nick Crumpton, Adrienne Barman, Dan Knight
With thanks to Andy Forshaw, Natalie Bellos, Helen Thewlis and the whole team at What on Earth Publishing
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Library images from: Getty Images; Shutterstock; Alamy; iStock; Nature Picture Library; NASA. Snap It: Graham Niven, Pedrag Vuckovic, Daniela Tommasi. Eureka: Thirza Dado.
Copyright 2024 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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AGE CATEGORIES
Would your school like to enter a team of four contestants into this year’s What on Earth! Schools Quiz Challenge? There are two age categories: Junior (8-to-11) and Senior (11-to-14)
HEATS
(with What on Earth! Magazine paying for your team and teacher’s trip to the capital).
THE GRAND FINAL!
The live online heats take place between the 6th and 11th November. The online heats, which feature general knowledge questions inspired by What on Earth! Magazine, are exciting and fun. They will be hosted by our very own What on Earth! quizmaster – plus, there will be lots of
HOW TO ENTER
prizes to be won! The ultimate prize is, of course, to qualify for the Grand Final in London
The top four schools in each age category in the online heats will enjoy an amazing day out in London for the Grand Final, which will be held at the historic Stationers’ Hall (pictured left) on Friday 29th November. Our finalists will compete for trophies, medals, prizes and the chance to be crowned What on Earth!
Schools Quiz Challenge Champions 2024!
It is easy and free to enter. Just show this page of your magazine to a grown-up or a teacher at your school and ask them to visit www.whatonearth.co.uk/quiz to find
Question: I don’t have eyes but once did see. I once had thoughts but am now cold and empty. What am I?
Answer: A skull!
Question: What has 13 hearts but no eyes or ears?
Answer: A deck of cards!
Tickle your ribs and tease your brain with our favourite gags and riddles, hand-picked by our jokes editor May.
WhatQuestion: is favouriteDracula’s thing to draw? Answer: Blood!
WhereQuestion: do zombies love to go swimming?
TheAnswer: Dead Sea!
