Discover how to make giant bubbles using your very own bubble wand on page 62.
EUREKA!
Zoom to page 10 for the latest inventions and discoveries, including this amazing hoverbike!
Plus, find out how just hanging around helped sloths to survive.
REGULARS
FACTOPIA
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts on page 4 all the way from a bloodcoloured waterfall to… a shipwreck-exploring robot!
HOW TO CHAT FISH
Ever fancied gabbing with a gourami or having a chat with a clownfish? Learn how to understand fish on page 12
WORD UP!
This month: amazing alphabets! Learn more about your ABCs – and the alphabets of other languages – on page 14.
YUCK! 10 VERY SMELLY THINGS Page 16
MAP IT Page 58
THE WONDERS OF ICE CREAM
Turn to page 26 for ten deliciously fascinating facts about ice cream, including its ancient origins and weirdest flavours!
SEND IT IN!
Find out what our readers have been up to on page 64, including a local environmental campaign launched by Emily, below.
PUZZLES & GAMES
Test your knowledge and tickle your brain with our super-sized puzzles section on page 27
THINK DIFFERENT!
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu shared wisdom that’s still relevant today. Learn more about this great thinker on page 55
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from a blood-red waterfall… to a shipwreck-exploring robot!
By Kate Hale, Paige Towler, Julie Beer and Rose Davidson
by Andy Smith
START HERE
Blood Falls is a red waterfall that runs off an Antarctic glacier. It gets its blood-red colour from iron in the water
During flyboarding, riders are propelled 14 metres into the air on jets of water
At a raft rodeo, white water rafting teams paddle into waves and do tricks while seeing which team can stay afloat the longest
Amazon river dolphins have been observed doing a ‘trophy lift’ – lifting live turtles above the water to impress females
Scientists think the leaps and spins that spinner dolphins perform in the air let fellow dolphins know where they’re going or if danger is ahead
Illustrations
Inhorsesurfng,athletes ridinga surfboard arepulledalongthe water by a galloping horse
Seahorses are some of the world’s slowest swimmers – only moving about 1.5 metres every hour
The blue whale may be the biggest animal on the planet, but it typically swims at a speed of only 8 kilometres per hour.
The United States Navy trains bottlenose dolphins and sea lions to find and retrieve equipment lost at sea
A man once swam more than of the Amazon River to set a
4,828 kilometres through the piran h a -infes ted waTers
world record for distance swimming
A red-bellied piranha gets most of its food by nipping at the tails of larger fish in South American rivers
Dolphins use their teeth to hold on to fsh, not to chew them – they swallow their food whole
Archaeologists used a humanoid robot diver to recover artefacts from a sunken shipwreck!
POP-UP PENGUINS
This leaping penguin in Atka Bay, Antarctica has a distinctive trail of water coming from behind its tail. This means it has released bubbles of air from its feathers in order to accelerate its leap. Now that’s what we call penguin power!
NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY/STEFAN CHRISTMANN
SNAP IT!
Astonishing photos from around the world
SNAP IT!
PHOTO FINISH
This amazing picture is what is called a composite, which means it’s a collection of photos put together. It was taken during the men’s 100m final during the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Combining many images allows you to relive the whole super-speedy event all at once, without missing a beat!
BEARING UP
This mother brown bear spotted in Lake Clark National Park in Alaska, USA, wanted to have a refreshing walk after her nap. But her two cubs had a different idea – they wanted a free ride! When they are born, baby brown bears are about the size of a chipmunk. As this mama knows, they soon grow!
FLOATING LILIES
LOOP THE LOOP
The spectacular planes of the Flying Bulls Aerobatic Team were snapped performing these daring stunts during a hotel opening in Montenegro.
This pretty photo of beautiful floating lily pads was taken at a cenote in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. A cenote is a type of natural sinkhole that often forms a pool. In order to get a clear photo without the plants moving, photographer Chris Gug had to hold very still – and hold his breath a long time, too!
RED BULL CONTENT POOL, PREDRAG VUCKOVIC
Eureka!
Scientists create the world’s smallest violin
Scientists in the UK have built an amazingly tiny violin! It is smaller than a speck of dust and can only be seen through a microscope (above). The violin is just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide – smaller than the width of a human hair. Unfortunately, the violin can’t be played! It was created to show the precision of modern nanotechnology.
Brilliant new contact lenses help you see in the dark!
Scientists in China have developed a new type of contact lens that could help people see in the dark. The lenses use a special material made with nanotechnology to detect near-infrared light – which is normally invisible to humans – and convert it into visible red, green and blue light. The technology
works a bit like night-vision goggles, but those are bulky and need a power supply. These new lenses could offer a lightweight, energy-efficient alternative for people with impaired vision or colour blindness. Remarkably, in early tests, the lenses could even detect infrared light through closed eyelids!
The latest astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.
Flying bike takes to
Inspired by the speeder bikes in Star Wars, a company in Poland has developed a futuristic flying vehicle called the Volonaut Airbike. This amazing bike is designed to reach speeds of up to 120 kilometres per
hour! Unlike helicopters and drones, which rely on spinning propellers, the Airbike uses jets of gas to create a powerful thrust. Built from carbon fibre, it’s up to seven times lighter than a typical motorbike.
Scan the QR code to watch the flying bike in action!
Near-infrared light, which is normally invisible to humans.
Red, green and blue light
the skies!
Sloths move so slowly that green algae grows in their fur, providing camouflage that helps them hide in trees.
How sloths hung on to survive
Modern sloths are small, slow-moving mammals that live in trees. But in ancient times, there were many different kinds of sloths – including giant ground sloths as big as elephants that roamed the land. Scientists have recently discovered that giant sloths evolved at least three different times, but in the end, smaller, tree-dwelling sloths had the advantage.
Why? Giant sloths were easy targets for hunters. Living high up in the trees turned out to be a much safer – and more successful – survival strategy.
Hang in there, friends!
The Airbike can also hover in mid-air!
Its lightweight design helps the Airbike to fly fast.
A giant ground sloth (in red) could stand 4.5 metres tall. Modern sloths (green) are less than 1 metre tall.
FISH How to chat...
By Dr Nick Crumpton
by Adrienne Barman
You might not think of fish as being too chatty. But schools of fish can make a real racket! Here are some of the noisiest fish from around the world.
Bur r r
(You’re cute!)
Croaking gourami fish are very social. They use frog-like sounds to attract potential mates.
Th u ummp
(Let’s give each other room.)
If there are lots of blotcheye soldierfish in one place, it can be tricky to find food. So they make this sound to ask their friends for a bit of space.
Illustration
KNOC K - K N O C K - KNOCK
(Let’s rumble.)
Blacktail shiners make knocking noises to scare off their rivals.
Sometimes, Atlantic cod make a grunting sound at the end of arguments.
GRRRRR U N T
(Beat it!)
I don’t want any trouble…
Clownfish back down from fights by shaking their heads quickly.
DID YOU KNOW?
Herring make high-pitched chirps by shooting air out of their anuses. So, in other farting!words,
W U ! R
THIS MONTH: amazing alphabets!
By Alison Eldridge, Illustrations by Susanna Hickling
English speakers typically learn the alphabet when we’re very young. After that, we seldom give it a second thought because using the alphabet feels so natural. But when you pause to
consider it, it’s pretty amazing that every sound in over 150,000 English words can be written using just 26 characters. Here’s another startling fact: ours is just one of more than 100 different
alphabets used around the world today. This month we’re exploring some interesting alphabets and other amazing facts about how people write!
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs used more than 700 symbols. Imagine having to memorise them all!
DID YOU KNOW?
The word alphabet comes from the frst two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta.
PANGRAM
A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. The most famous example is: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Can you create your own pangram?
LATIN – MOST WIDELY USED
The English alphabet comes from Latin, the language spoken by the ancient Romans. Other European languages, including Spanish, French, German, Polish, Dutch and Croatian, use the Latin alphabet, too. In fact, the Latin alphabet is used to write around 70 per cent of the world’s languages! However, not all Latin alphabets are the same, and many include extra characters that you
don’t find in the English alphabet. Here are four examples:
ñ (Spanish) sounds like ‘ny’ in canyon
ä (Finnish) sounds like the ‘a’ in cat
ß (German) sounds like a double ‘s’, as in miss
ö (Icelandic) sounds like ‘ur’ in fur
KHMER – MOST LETTERS
Khmer, spoken in Cambodia in Southeast Asia, has the longest alphabet in the world, with 74 letters. Luckily for people learning Khmer, not all the letters are used in everyday writing.
The Russian alphabet has 33 letters, including one called the soft sign (Ь). The soft sign is completely silent but changes how the letter before it sounds.
Twyndyllyngs is the longest word in English that doesn’t include any of the five main vowels. It’s a rarely used word meaning twins.
ROTOKAS – FEWEST LETTERS
Looking for an easy alphabet to learn? Try Rotokas, a language of Papua New Guinea. It uses only 12 letters: a, e, g, i, k, o, p, r, s, t, u and v.
HANGUL – MOST HELPFUL
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, was designed in the 15th century with the intention of making reading and writing easy. Hangul’s 14 consonants are based on the shape your mouth makes when saying them. Its 10 vowels use lines and dots to represent Earth, the Sun, and the human being. Hangul is one of
the only alphabets in which the way the letters look is directly connected to their pronunciation. Above are some examples of consonant symbols from Hangul.
1. (sounds like g): shaped like the tongue touching the roof of your mouth
2. (sounds like n): shaped like the tongue touching the gums
3. (sounds like m): shaped like a closed mouth
4. (sounds like ng): shaped like an open throat
Papua New Guinea has many cultures –and 839 languages!
The Khmer alphabet comes from Indian script.
YUCK!
Hold your nose as we celebrate 10 of the stinkiest things on Earth.
2 BOMBARDIER BEETLE
Do not bother a bombardier beetle. When threatened, it blasts a boiling-hot, foul-smelling chemical spray from its rear end. The stink repels predators – and the spray can burn, too!
1 LESSER ANTEATER
Although this furry creature looks cute, don’t get too close. It’s more than five times smellier than a skunk and uses its dreadful pong to keep predators away.
3 SEA HARE INK CLOUD
When threatened, these large sea slugs release a purple-black ink that doesn’t just hide them – it smells absolutely revolting. The inky mix contains a foul-smelling chemical cocktail designed to confuse and repel predators, making them instantly lose their appetite.
4 VIEUX BOULOGNE CHEESE
Scientists used a special smelling machine – nicknamed the ‘electronic nose’ – to confirm that this French cheese is officially the smelliest in the world.
5 DURIAN FRUIT
The durian fruit’s smell is so disgusting that you are not allowed to carry one on buses and trains in Japan. But if you’re brave enough to try a durian, the yellow flesh inside tastes sweet and creamy, like custard.
6 SURSTRÖMMING
Eaten as a delicacy in Sweden, fermented herring is considered one of the world’s smelliest foods. The fish is fermented for months, creating a smell so overwhelming that it’s usually eaten outside – and away from other people!
10 TITAN ARUM
This enormous plant, also known as the corpse flower, can grow over three metres tall and emits a stench so awful it can be smelt half a mile away. Often compared to rotting flesh, garlic and old cheese, the smell is so strong it can make people faint.
7 HOATZIN BIRD
This blue-faced bird from South America is nicknamed the ‘stinkbird’ because it smells like cow poo. The smell comes from gases produced by the bird’s unusual method of digesting leaves, which is similar to a cow’s.
8
WOMBAT POO
Wombats are famous for doing cube-shaped poos, as well as for the strong, musky smell of their droppings. Wombats leave these stinky cubes on rocks and logs to mark their territory.
9 PENGUIN POO
Penguin colonies may be cute, but they also stink! Penguin poo builds up in giant piles and smells like a mix of rotten fish and the chemical ammonia.
osaursClash of the
IllustratI ons by Vector that Fox
rs!
From razor-sharp claws to towering tails, dinosaurs evolved to win an epic battle for survival. so which dinosaurs had the edge –
Tyrannosaurus rex
Years 68–66 million years ago
Type Carnivore
Height 3–4 metres at its hip
Weight 5,000–7,000 kg
This dinosaur surely needs no introduction. The fearsome ‘king of the tyrant lizards’ (as its name translates) ruled in the Late Cretaceous period, the final era of the non-avian (non-bird) dinosaurs. T. rex was a massive predator, up to 12 metres long and 4 metres tall. It weighed as much as an elephant and its 60 sharp teeth grew up to 20 cm long!
Dinosaurs are often thought of today in terms of their extinction. We talk about why they died out, and how they could no longer survive. But dinosaurs were actually hugely successful in the grand scheme of time.
They ruled the planet for around 170 million years. In comparison, modern humans have only been around for about 300,000 years. That means dinosaurs lived more than 500 times longer than us! During that enormous span of
time, dinosaur species rose and fell. While some, such as this T. rex and Triceratops, probably competed against each other for survival, not all dinosaurs lived at the same time. And some of them evolved amazing features to help them become
top predators or formidable opponents. Let’s take a look back in time at some dinosaur facts and features to see how dinosaurs became so massive – and massively successful!
Continued on next page
Awesome herbivores!
If you ask someone to name a dinosaur off the top of their head, many people will go straight to the formidable predators such as T. rex. It’s understandable that we’re drawn to remember animals with massive teeth and claws – after all, we evolved to avoid huge predators, too! But herbivorous (plant-eating)
HADROSAURS
Years 78–74 million years ago
Type Herbivore
Height 3–4 metres
Weight 6,000–7,000 kg
dinosaurs were no slouches. They had to find ways to survive against those threats. Different species evolved their own tactics depending on their habitats and the dangers they faced. Some dinosaurs, such as the Hadrosaurs below, probably relied on safety in numbers. They travelled together (see page 24) and
These massive two-legged herbivores roamed the land that is now North America. The name means ‘sturdy lizard’. Hadrosaurs are often called ‘duck-billed dinosaurs’ because of their distinctive, flattened mouths. They also had intriguing crests on the tops of their heads. Scientists think these crests may have acted as resonating chambers, helping the dinosaurs to produce loud calls to warn others.
STEGOSAURUS
WHAT CAME BEFORE?
The history of Earth stretches back to the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago. Life on Earth began between 3.5 and 3.7 billion years ago when the first single-celled organisms evolved. All living things on Earth are their descendants. Hundreds of millions of years
Years 152–145 million years ago
Type Herbivore
Height 3–4 m at the hip
Weight 4,500-6,000 kg
Stegosaurus is known for the line of bony plates along its back. The plates may have helped to deter predators, or to regulate the dinosaur’s body temperature. Stegosaurus’s main form of defence, though, was its spiked, club-like tail, which was a fearsome weapon. The scientific name for this four-spiked tail structure is a thagomizer!
DID YOU KNOW?
later, more complex life began to appear. Before the time of the dinosaurs, life evolved in the seas. Eventually, life moved onto land, and insects, amphibians and reptiles evolved. The first dinosaurs emerged around 245 million years ago.
Sixty-fve per cent of known dinosaur species were herbivores. The rest were carnivores or omnivores.
had hollow spaces inside their crested heads that scientists think allowed sound to reverberate and grow louder so that their warning calls could be heard further away.
Other dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus, Therizinosaurus and Styracosaurus – and others you may have heard of, such as Ankylosaurus – took a
different route, and evolved armour and weapons on their bodies to help defend against predators.
Spikes, clubbed tails and huge claws probably gave these massive and often slow-moving herbivores an advantage in battle when they needed it.
THERIZINOSAURUS
Years 85–70 million years ago
Type Probably a herbivore
Height 4–5 metres
Weight 5,000–6,000 kg
Therizinosaurus, found in what is now Mongolia, is known only from a few fossils. But what fossils they are! The aptly ‘scythenamed
lizard’ had huge claw bones, more than 50 cm long! It may have used its massive claws to defend itself against predators like tyrannosaurs.
STYRACOSAURUS
Years 76–75 million years ago
Type Herbivore
Height 2–3 metres
Weight 2,500–3,000 kg
This huge herbivore was probably slow moving and lived in herds. Like its relative Triceratops, Styracosaurus had horns
on its nose and a frill lined with long spikes, which it could have used to defend itself against predators. The number of spikes seems to have varied, with some having six and others eight. It probably lived alongside a carnivorous relative of T. rex called Daspletosaurus.
Why were dinosaurs so huge?
Not all dinosaurs were big. Some, such as the fearsome Velociraptor were about the size of a turkey! But it’s true that many dinosaurs we know from the fossil record were absolutely massive. In fact, titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus Patagotitan, and Puertasaurus were among the largest animals ever to live on land. They are thought to have weighed as much as ten elephants and may have rivalled a blue whale in length! But how do animals get that big, and why aren’t today’s animals that big, too?
Scientists aren’t completely sure, but they think that it came down to body adaptations. All dinosaurs stood upright with pillar-like legs, rather than legs that go out to the sides like a lizard’s. These sturdy limbs helped support enormous weight, which is why the biggest dinosaurs were four-legged. Like birds – their modern-day descendants –some dinosaurs had hollow bones, which made them lighter. Dinosaurs also evolved to breathe and use energy efficiently, helping them grow and survive at such giant sizes. As for why some herbivorous dinosaurs like Giraffatitan became so enormous, it also helped to be able to reach and eat leaves at the tops of trees. And when you’re this massive, even the largest predators will steer well clear! 90
HERBIVORES CARNIVORES
Common features
Walked on four legs – most herbivores walked on all fours, at least part of the time, to support their large bodies.
Flat, grinding teeth –their wide, ridged teeth were perfect for chewing
– while fossils don’t usually show colour, some herbivores probably used patterns or muted tones to hide from predators, like today’s reptiles do.
Body armour – many had thick skin or bony armour. Others had horns, spikes or frills to defend themselves. Some, such , even had protective eyelid plates!
Common features
Walked on two legs – most meat-eaters were bipedal, giving them speed and agility. Sharp, jagged teeth – ideal for slicing flesh, they cut like rows of steak knives.
Powerful jaws – large predators had huge, bone-crushing bites. – many had curved claws on their hands for gripping and slashing prey. – big hearts and lungs gave carnivores energy to chase prey. Large livers helped them digest protein-rich diets.
DROMAEOSAURUS
Years 76–74 million years ago
Type Carnivore
Height 1 metre
Weight 15 kg
The fast-moving, two-legged predator shown here may have stalked herds of dinosaurs like Parasaurolophus It had razor-sharp teeth that curved backwards to grip flesh, and a large, curved claw on each hind foot used for slashing. Its name means ‘running lizard’.
Did dinosaurs work together?
Teamwork is a key strategy for survival, whether you’re on the attack or trying to defend your herd. By studying dinosaur footprints, scientists have found that certain species of herbivorous dinosaurs moved in groups. Travelling together allows animals to keep watch for each other. Those on the edges of the herd can alert
the rest if they see a threat approaching – just like these Parasaurolophus may have done if they spotted a hungry Dromaeosaurus! Herding animals also often place their young or sick in the middle, so strong, healthy dinos on the outside could fend off danger. Scientists studying fossils have discovered that a dinosaur called Mussaurus patagonicus
used herding behaviour. The remains of eggs and hatchlings were found in one area –a kind of dinosaur ‘school’ – which may have been guarded by some herd members while others searched for food. Working together meant everyone could eat without putting the young at risk of predators or egg theft.
There is also some evidence that certain carnivorous dinosaurs may have hunted in packs. Group hunting allows predators to take down prey much larger than they could manage alone – which was helpful when herbivores were massive! However, this kind of collaborative hunting takes brainpower, and scientists
are still exploring how intelligent dinosaurs really were. Tyrannosaur fossils suggest these dinos may have sometimes lived and acted in groups. If they did hunt together, what a fearsome sight that would have been!
PARASAUROLOPHUS
Years 77–73 million years ago
Type Herbivore
Height 4–5 metres
Weight 5,000 kg
Parasaurolophus is thought to have lived in herds, like the one shown here, as there is often safety in numbers. This duck-billed dinosaur had a unique crest on its head, which may have acted as a trumpet to alert other Parasaurolophus if danger was near — such as a sneaky Dromaeosaurus lurking in the bushes…
WHAT CAME AFTER?
About 66 million years ago, a huge meteorite struck Earth near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The impact caused mass destruction – unleashing tsunamis, wildfires and gases that clouded the skies and cooled the planet. The effects
of the asteroid eventually wiped out around 75 per cent of all living species, including almost all of the dinosaurs. But the life that survived continued to evolve – while the surviving descendants of the dinosaurs still live among us today as birds.
Ice c r eam! 10 fascinating facts about…
THE ORIGINS OF ICE CREAM
Ancient Chinese royalty mixed snow with milk and rice to make a frozen treat, while Roman emperors sent servants to collect mountain snow, mixing it with honey and fruit for an early sorbet.
EVERYONE LOVES VANILLA!
Even though there are hundreds of wild and wacky ice cream flavours, vanilla consistently tops surveys around the world as the most popular.
WHO EATS THE MOST?
People in New Zealand eat more ice cream per person than anyone else – over 28 litres each year! The US comes second with 21.
FIFTY LICKS
Scientists have estimated that it takes the average person about 50 licks to finish one scoop of ice cream. Try it to test your tongue power!
Some of the strangest flavours of ice cream include garlic, horse meat, blue cheese and even pizza. In Japan, you can find squid ink ice cream, and in Scotland, there’s even haggis-flavoured ice cream!
THE BIGGEST ICE CREAM SUNDAE
The biggest ice cream sundae ever made weighed over 24 tonnes – roughly the same as four elephants! It was created in Canada and had more than 100 flavours, mountains of whipped cream and thousands of cherries.
MADE OF MILK
To make just one gallon of ice cream, you need about five litres, or large bottles, of milk! The volume of milk used is why ice cream tastes so deliciously rich and creamy.
DID YOU KNOW?
freeze-driedNASAoncedeveloped ice cream for astronauts,butitwasmostly usedasafungiftonEarth, andnotactuallyeaten inspace.
Inside this 16-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 42.
ANIMALS
1 Which is the only one of the following types of big cat –lions, tigers, leopards (including snow leopards) and cheetahs – that cannot roar?
a. Lion
b. Tiger
c. Leopard
d. Cheetah
2 How many times a second can a woodpecker peck on a tree trunk?
a. 2
b. 5
c. 10
d. 20
3 A wombat is a small marsupial. What shape is its poo?
a. Cube
b. Pyramid
c. Sphere
d. Rectangle
4 Which of the following words is sometimes used as a collective noun to describe a group of hippopotamuses?
a. A yawn
b. A thunder
c. A parade
d. A squelch
5
What is the fastest speed at which a chameleon, such as the one pictured below, can stick out its tongue to catch an insect?
a. 40 km/h
b. 60 km/h
c. 80 km/h
d. 100 km/h
5
WORD LADDERS
Change the word WARM to COLD in 4 moves by changing one letter at a time. Each new word you create by changing a letter must be a proper word. Then try changing RATS to MICE and LOAD to HERO.
HUMAN BODY
1 Approximately how many individual bacteria are estimated to be found within a human mouth?
a. 50,000
b. 50 million
c. 50 billion
d. 50 trillion
2 The patella is the scientific name for which body part?
a. Kneecap
b. Elbow
c. Chin
d. Heel
3 Approximately what percentage of people are left-handed?
a. 5 per cent
b. 10 per cent
c. 25 per cent
d. 30 per cent
4
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
Heart 1
5 In which part of the body would you find small bones sometimes referred to as the hammer and the anvil? a. Feet b. Ear c. Nose
NUMBER TRIANGLES
In the triangles below, the numbers inside the red circles are the sum of the two numbers in the connected white hexagons. For example:
Can you work out which number should appear in each of the hexagons? All the numbers in the hexagons are between 1 and 10 and a number can only be used once in each of the triangles.
The six-sided shape on the left can be folded up to form a cube. Only two of the cubes below can be made by it. Which are they?
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.
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.
Can you work out what you are looking at in each of these six photos?
Each of the five emoji sequences below represents a common phrase. Can you work out which phrase it is in each example?
1
What is the name of the biggest rocket to have ever been launched into space?
a. Space Launch System, pictured above
b. Ariane 5
c. Starship
d. Space Shuttle
2 How many of the eight planets in our solar system have rings around them?
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
3 If it were possible to drive through space in a car travelling at 100 kph, how long would it take to drive across the Milky Way?
a. 112,000 years
b. 1.12 million years
c. 1.12 billion years
d. 1.12 trillion years
4
4 Why do astronauts sometimes go underwater while wearing spacesuits?
a. To simulate zero gravity
b. To test the spacesuits are waterproof
c. To exercise in them
d. For fun
5 In which direction do all comets’ tails point?
a. Towards the Sun
b. Away from the Sun
c. Towards the North
d. Towards the South
HIDDEN PHRASES
Each of these pictures represents a common expression. Can you work out what each visual clue is trying to say?
Use the nine letters in the word wheel below to help find the answers to the eight clues. All the answers contain the middle letter, and each letter can only be used once. Good luck!
Clue: an exciting journey or experience that involves trying new things (9 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a person who has served in the military but has now completed their service (7 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a wide street or road that often has trees planted along the sides (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: the outdoor world of plants, animals and wildlife not related to humans (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a cold, treeless region in the Arctic where the ground stays frozen (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a large black bird that is known for making loud croaking sounds (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a thin fbre in your body that carries messages to and from your brain (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: located in Italy, it is Europe’s largest active volcano (4 letters).
Answer:
Hunt!
Plus, figure out what the 10 hidden letters spell.
Can you spot these 20 things hidden in the picture below?
Clue: it’s a type of building often seen in big cities. Don’t worry if you get stuck –all the answers are revealed on page 42.
Illustration by Rod Hunt
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!
3
1 Approximately how high is a regulation basketball hoop used in the NBA, shown right, off the ground?
a. 8 feet
b. 9 feet
c. 10 feet
d. 11 feet
2 Which of the following four sounds is the loudest in decibels?
a. Aeroplane taking off
b. Crowd in a football stadium
c. Ambulance siren
d. Balloon popping
3 Approximately how many different colours do carrots naturally grow in?
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. More than 5
HUMAN
HUMAN WORLD
4
What is the most visited building or monument in the world, attracting more than 15 million people each year?
a. Eiffel Tower, France
b. Statue of Liberty, USA
c. Buckingham Palace, UK
d. Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
5
The name of the world-famous toymaker LEGO is an abbreviation of two Danish words, leg godt When you translate this pair of Danish words into English, what do they mean?
a. Little bricks
b. Coloured bricks
c. Play together
d. Play well
CONNECT THE DOTS
Draw a line to connect each pair of dots. 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.
B
1
Approximately how many Olympic-sized swimming pools could be filled every minute by the water flowing over Niagara Falls?
a. 17
b. 37
c. 67
d. 97
2
Two countries have square flags: Vatican City, above, and which other country?
a. Belgium
b. Switzerland
c. Egypt
d. Peru
3
Which of the following four major cities lies furthest to the north?
a. Toronto, Canada
b. London, UK
c. Amsterdam, Netherlands
d. Chicago, USA
4 Which of the following four countries contains the most trees?
a. Brazil
b. Russia
c. China
d. United States
5 Approximately how many times could the United Kingdom fit inside the United States of America?
a. 15 times
b. 20 times
c. 30 times
d. 40 times
LINK WORDS
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 words. 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.
FRIEND GIRL
SHIP
Can you think of link words that fill the gaps below and create two new words in each case?
1
What is mostly responsible for giving flamingos, pictured on the right, their distinctive pink colouring?
a. Exposure to sunlight
b. They have natural pink feathers from birth
c. The algae and shrimp they eat
d. Water pollution
2
Which famous scientist proposed the theory of gravity?
a. Charles Darwin
b. Marie Curie
c. Albert Einstein
d. Isaac Newton
3
What is the most commonly used letter in the English language?
4
What do bees collect to make honey?
a. Dew b. Nectar c. Seeds d. Sap
5 You must travel for at least 40,000 kilometres to circumnavigate, or go around, the globe. Which of these vehicles
LUCKY DIP
BRIDGE PUZZLE
Draw bridges between the red islands so that the number of bridges connected to each island equals the number written inside the circle.
RULES
1.
The bridges must be straight lines and cannot bend.
2. The bridges cannot intersect with each other.
3. The bridges can be horizontal or vertical but not diagonal.
4.
The maximum number of bridges connecting two islands is two.
SUMMER WORD SEARCH
Can you spot the 20 words associated with the summer holidays in our jumbo word search puzzle? Good luck!
Search
Treasure Hunt The hidden letters spell: SKYSCRAPER
Picture Quiz
Quiz Answers
Animals: 1. d, 2. d, 3. a, 4. b, 5. d.
Human Body: 1. c, 2. a, 3. b, 4. a, 5. b. Space: 1. c, 2. c,
1. c, 2. d, 3. c, 4. b, 5. a.
Emoji Idioms
B.
Mount Rushmore
Watermelon
Marina from above
Sunflower Coral A gecko’s eye
These two grey squares are the same colour!
BELIEVE IT! EYE DON’T
Amazing optical illusions that trick your brain…
Adelson Checker Shadow Illusion
Look closely at the squares labelled 1 and 2 in the image above. Which one do you think looks darker? And which one looks lighter? Most people say that square 1 is obviously darker than square 2. But guess what? They’re actually exactly the same colour! Don’t believe us?
Head to whatonearth.co.uk/illusions or scan the QR code below to see the proof for yourself! So, how does this mind-boggling illusion work? It all comes down to how your brain tries to make sense of what you’re looking at. The square labelled 2 appears to be in the shadow cast by the apple, while square 1 is not. Your brain knows from experience that
shadows make things appear darker than they really are. So, applying its knowledge of light and shadow to this image, your brain tries to ‘correct’ what you’re seeing. It assumes that square 2 must be a lighter shade of grey outside the shadow – and so it appears brighter than square 1. This famous illusion was created by – and named after – the American vision scientist Edward H. Adelson. It’s a perfect example of how easily our brains can be tricked by contrasts of light and colour – and how what we ‘see’ isn’t always what’s really there!
Where are we in the
The observable universe is about 93 billion light years in diameter, which is mind-bogglingly big!
It’s likely that, if you’re reading this magazine, you live on planet Earth. But where exactly is Earth? The best way to work it out is to look at a series of space maps. The first map, top right, shows Earth’s position within our solar system. The second map, bottom left, zooms out to show the solar system’s position within our galaxy, the Milky Way. While the photo shown bottom right gives a sense of the billions of stars and galaxies in the observable universe, which is all the known universe that can be seen through powerful telescopes.
...IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY
A galaxy is a collection of stars, clouds of gas and dust particles that move together through the universe. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy. It has four spiral arms. The solar system is located in one of these spiral arms, and it orbits the centre of the galaxy once every 250 million years.
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
100,000 light years
DID YOU KNOW?
Just as the Moon orbits Earth and the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun orbits the centre of the galaxy!
When it is dark and clear enough outside, you can catch a glimpse of the awesome Milky Way in the night sky!
universe?
Here’s where to find planet Earth.
...IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The solar system consists of the Sun and everything that orbits, or travels around, the Sun. This includes the eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and their moons, dwarf planets, and countless asteroids, comets and other small, icy objects. Earth is about 150 million kilometres away from the Sun.
...IN THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE
The Milky Way is part of a neighbourhood of about 30 galaxies called the Local Group. But that is just a small collection. It is estimated that in the observable universe there are up to 2 trillion galaxies. And the universe may be much bigger than what we can observe now using the technology we have today!
one-thousandth of a light year
20 machines that changed
Join us on a fascinating journey through time, as we celebrate some of history’s most ingenious inventions.
100 CE
Hero of Alexandria describes what is thought to be the first steam engine, called an aeolipile. It has a rocketstyle jet engine with nozzles that spin when heated.
c250 CE
A south-pointing chariot built in China features large wheels, a system of gears, and a figure on top with its arm held out. The figure always points south no matter which way the chariot is going.
1959
550 CE
Byzantine armies use giant slings called traction trebuchets to besiege walled towns and cities. After the design is improved in the 12th century, it proves a decisive weapon during the Crusades (1096–1291).
1908
Henry Ford’s Model T Ford rolls off the production line to become the world’s first affordable car.
The world’s first hovercraft, the SR-N1, invented by the UK’s Christopher Cockerell, crosses the English Channel.
1964
The first Bullet Train enters service in Japan between Tokyo and Osaka. It has a top speed of 210 kph.
1206
Kurdish engineer Al-Jazari creates an elaborate water-clock with the first moving time-telling figures. Each half-hour a ball rolls from the top of the clock to trigger an elephant driver’s mallet to strike a cymbal.
1903
Bicycle shop owners Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first powered, heavier-than-air human flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA, in the Flyer – a home-built aircraft with a light aluminium internal-combustion engine.
1969
Thanks to the Lunar Module Eagle, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans ever to walk on the Moon.
1981
Columbia blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is the first reusable spaceship and part of a fleet of NASA’s four US Space Shuttles.
the world!
1440
German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invents the moveable-type printing press, and books become cheaper to buy. The most popular book is a Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible, first printed in 1455.
1620
1877
Enrico Forlanini, an Italian engineer, makes the world’s first successful helicopter. The steampowered, unmanned vehicle rises by 13 metres and stays up for 20 seconds after lifting off in Milan.
1983
American aerospace company Lockheed develops the F-117A Nighthawk, the first aeroplane to use stealth technology to hide from radar.
Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel builds the first working submarine and holds trials in the River Thames in London. It is powered by oars and is shown off to a large, admiring crowd flanking the river, including King James I.
1876
1863
Nikolaus Otto’s stationary internal-combustion engine generates circular motion. Ten years later, fellow German engineer Karl Benz makes the first three-wheeled motorwagon, which is driven by his wife Bertha on the first long-distance car journey.
1783
French engineers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier build a hot-air balloon carrying a sheep, a duck and a rooster to see if they can survive at high altitude. The flight reaches 450 metres and lasts eight minutes.
1829
The world’s first underground railway, the Metropolitan Line, is opened in London, running from Paddington to Farringdon.
George Stephenson’s Rocket wins a competition to decide which locomotives should be used on a new railway from Liverpool to Manchester, UK. The Rocket uses an efficient fire-tube boiler designed by French engineer Marc Seguin.
2014
Richard Noble designs a new supersonic car, Bloodhound SSC, that aims to be the first car to top 1,609 kph.
2023
The International Space Station celebrates 25 years in space. In total, the ISS has now hosted more than 270 people from 21 countries. It’s expected to be operational until at least 2030.
WE ARE ALL ANIMALS
Humans are animals, too! Join us as we explore the amazing ways we are just like them.
By Ben Hoare & Christopher Lloyd.
Snakes don’t have eyelids. So they can’t blink or close their eyes – even when asleep!they’re
DID YOU KNOW?
Illustrations by Mark Ruffle
We all have clocks
All animals can tell the time. Or rather, animals know when it’s a certain time of day, week, month or year. For example, animals know when to wake up and when to go to sleep, when to search for food and when to set off on a journey. Animals know these things because they have built-in clocks. These ‘body clocks’ are nothing like the ones in phones or by our beds! But they can be still be very accurate.
We don’t fully understand how body clocks work, but the scientists who study them have made some exciting discoveries. The research
DID YOU KNOW?
Male moose shed and regrowtheirantlers everyyear.Eachsetis usuallybiggerthan the
last!
has shown that the ‘clocks’ operate inside our cells and that animals have them in virtually every tissue and organ. These clocks monitor things such as how bright or dark it is and are sensitive to changes in day length, air temperature and the phase of the Moon. Animals that live on the seashore have clocks that monitor the rise and fall of the tide. Somehow, the body clocks release chemical messages that change the animal’s body and behaviour to match the time of day and time of year. Body clocks control the daily patterns of activity followed by every single animal on this planet.
Sunrise
Wood thrushes start to sing and moose look for food at dawn.
Sunset gathering
On winter evenings, the fading light tells starlings it’s time to gather. As the birds assemble at their roost site, or resting place, they make amazing shapes in the sky. Their massive swirling flock is called a murmuration.
The master clock
Most animals have a master clock that’s in overall control of their body’s timekeeping. Gibbons start each day by singing together. In mammals like us and gibbons, the body clock consists of two small blobs in the brain. Each blob is about the size of a poppy seed and contains around 10,000 nerve cells.
DAWN
Daylight Chipmunks and mourning cloak butterflies are only active in the daytime.
Sundown
Lynx do much of their hunting at dusk, as it gets darker.
Nightfall
Barred owls and fireflies take to the skies as night falls.
24 hours in a forest
Many animals are awake during the day and sleep at night. Others are active during the hours of darkness, sleeping by day, or are mainly active at dawn and dusk.
A third eye
Lizards, frogs and some fish have something very special called a ‘third eye’, which is on top of their brain. They can’t see with this structure, but it is able to sense changes in light and dark. Using this information, their body can get ready for different daily activities.
Keeping time
Body clocks are not unique to animals – far from it. Almost all living things have these timing systems, including plants, moths, the blue mould growing on an old slice of bread and even some types of bacteria floating in the ocean. Angel’s trumpet flowers open only at night to attract moths.
An iguana’s ‘third eye’
Camouflage
Bees often sleep with their jaws clamped firmly on to a leaf or the stem of a plant. The bees stay perfectly still so that they blend in with the plant and predators don’t see them.
Sleeping bag
Slumber party
Bee-eaters like to have ‘sleepovers’. The colourful birds spend the night in groups, snuggled together on the same perch.
We all need sleep
You might be wide awake at the moment, but it’s likely you’ll spend a third of your life asleep. Every other creature on this planet needs sleep, too. Even fruit flies and worms nod off! Sleep is as essential to animals as the oxygen we breathe and the food that we eat.
The sleeping habits of animals vary. Some species, including humans, like to snooze at night when it’s dark. Others, such as owls and bats, prefer dozing in the daytime. Many
Parrotfish wrap themselves in mucus, a kind of slime, before going to sleep. The slimy ‘sleeping bag’ probably keeps them safe from bloodsucking parasites. Like other fish, they sleep with their eyes open!
animals divide each 24 hours into short periods of sleep and activity. Chinstrap penguins, for example, take more than 10,000 tiny naps a day, each lasting only a few seconds!
Animals get the rest they need in many different ways, but the curious thing about sleep is that experts can’t agree on what it’s actually for! What we do know is that if an animal stops sleeping completely, it’ll die within weeks. Sleep is definitely good for us, we’re just not sure exactly why. Maybe one day we’ll find out.
Bedtime
Chimpanzees climb trees in the evening to go to sleep. Each chimp uses its powerful arms to pull several branches together to make itself a comfortable leafy hammock.
Zebras are able to sleep standing up. Their knees ‘lock’ in place, so they don’t fall over. Horses, elephants, giraffes and bison can also sleep standing up.
Sweet dreams
Scientists suspect that domestic cats and dogs dream when they’re sleeping, like we do. As they doze, their body twitches and their head and legs move, in a similar way to sleeping humans when we have dreams. It’s possible that other creatures dream, too. But why do animals dream and what do they dream about? That we don’t know – not yet anyway.
Half asleep
Sperm whales, dolphins, sea lions and birds can put half their brain to sleep while the other half stays active. This enables them to give their brain some rest and at the same time swim around or fly through the sky. You could say that these animals are ‘half asleep’!
Sleeping mid-flight
Swifts sleep in mid-air while flying. At sunset, they climb higher and higher into the night sky, then fly slowly in wide circles as they sleep.
We Are All Animals, by Ben Hoare & Christopher Lloyd and illustrated by Mark Ruffle, is out now
WHO WAS LAO TZU?
Imagine a man so wise his words still guide millions, yet so mysterious we’re not even sure he existed. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu is traditionally seen as the founder of Taoism – a spiritual path focused on living in harmony with the universe. He is credited with writing the Tao Te Ching, a brief but profound book of ancient wisdom. Regardless of whether Lao Tzu was a real historical person or a legendary figure, his ideas continue to shape the way people think about life, nature and balance.
WHEN AND WHERE DID LAO TZU LIVE?
Lao Tzu is thought to have lived during the 6th century BCE in China. He worked as a record keeper in the royal court of the Zhou Dynasty, giving him access to ancient texts that probably shaped his thinking.
HOW DID HE THINK DIFFERENTLY?
Lao Tzu taught that everything follows a natural force called the Tao. Rather than resisting it, wise people should live in harmony with this flow. He championed wu wei – meaning effortless action or going with the flow –encouraging people to act naturally rather than
Original people who changed the world.
forcefully. He also wrote that simplicity and humility were the keys to peace and wisdom.
HOW DID HIS IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD?
Lao Tzu’s teachings became the foundation of Taoism, one of China’s three great spiritual traditions alongside Confucianism and Buddhism. Over time, Taoism developed into a religion with temples, rituals and gods inspired by his philosophy. His ideas about living in harmony with nature have shaped Chinese art, poetry, medicine and martial arts.
The Tao Te Ching is one of the most translated books in history, and continues to inspire millions today.
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
Leave all things to take their natural course.
Failure is the foundation of success and the means by which it is achieved.
This month: Lao Tzu.
Illustration by Esperanza Hickling
Every second...
Have you ever wondered what all the people on Earth are up to? At any one moment, lots of them are laughing, cycling or even reading a magazine (just like you). Here’s an estimate of how many times various things are happening, on average, every single second of the day.
£500 is spent on frozen pizza
2 cars are sold
4 babies are born
20,000
plastic bottles are used
4 million emails are sent
The next time you go to the toilet to do a poo, consider that more than a million other humans are also doing a poo at exactly that moment!
2 people die
10,700
2,300
2 planes take off
Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica, with infographics by Valentina D’Efilippo, is out now
chocolate bars are eaten (100 g each)
plastic bottles enter the ocean (about 350 kg)
MAPIT
DID YOU KNOW?
There are more than 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. That’s more islands than in the other oceans combined. Some, such as Hawaii and the Galápagos, are famous for their unique animals.
JUST HOW BIG IS THE PACIFIC OCEAN?
The Pacific is so vast that you could fit all seven continents inside it and still have room left over! Covering more than 165 million square kilometres, it is by far the biggest and deepest ocean on the planet. The name Pacific comes from the Latin word pacificus, meaning peaceful. When Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan crossed it in 1521, the waters were calm, so he called it Mar Pacifico, or ‘peaceful sea’. But don’t be fooled – it can be wild and dangerous!
ANTARCTICA
DID YOU KNOW?
The deepest place on Earth is in the Pacific. The Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep is so deep – over 10,000 metres – that if you dropped Mount Everest in, it would still be underwater!
DID YOU KNOW?
The Pacific is home to Point Nemo – the world’s loneliest spot. Point Nemo is so far from land that the closest people are usually astronauts in the International Space Station!
$30 million ThepricetheCodex Leicester,acollection ofsciencewritingsbythe Italianartistandthinker LeonardodaVinci,was soldforin1994,making ittheworld’smost expensivebook.
IN NUMBERS... BOOKS BOOKS
41 million
The number of books in the US Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world.
223
The number of different words used in The Cat in the Hat.* 1
The average number of books the former US president (and speedy reader) Theodore Roosevelt read each day.
The number of words in the seven-book Harry Potter series.
The numberofwordsinthelongestsinglesentence in ap u blishedEng lishnovel, TheRotters ’ClubbyJonathanCoe.
260
The average number of words per minute that an adult can read. How many words can you read in 60 seconds?
6
The number of people it takes to carry the Klencke Atlas, one of the world’s biggest books.**
*Its author, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), wrote it after being challenged to write a story using fewer than 225 familiar words. **First printed in 1660, the atlas is 1.75 metres tall and 1.9 metres wide when open. ***The text is so small you need a microscope to read it!
The watery stuff in your mouth is called saliva (or spit). As you chomp and chew on your food, the saliva helps to turn the food into a slushy, mushy pulp that is easy for you to swallow. When you see, smell or even just think about tasty food, your brain sends a signal to your mouth to release the saliva – so that you are ready to eat!
WACKY FACT
Taste buds don’t work properly when they’re dry. They need saliva to keep them wet. Our mouths ooze more than a litre of saliva a day. That’s enough saliva to fill four cups!
You can’t see your taste buds. They are tucked inside pink and white bumps called papillae.
How do bees buzz?
When busy bees fly, they beat their wings really fast. All that flapping makes the air wobble very fast, and it’s this movement that our ears hear as the buzzing sound. Bees can also make a buzz without flapping their wings. They shake the middle bit of their bodies to tell each other
things such as ‘I’ve found a tasty flower’ or ‘Look out – there’s an enemy nearby!’
WACKY FACT
New queen honeybees quack and toot! They make these noises to let the other bees know that they’re ready to fly off and start a new hive.
Bumblebees shiver their buzzy bodies against the inside of some plants to shake out a dusty food called pollen.
The light and energy we get from the Sun make life on Earth possible.
How hot is the Sun?
The Sun is a big, burning ball of hot gases, but it’s not the same temperature all over. It’s made up of layers that we call zones. The hottest zone is in the middle: the core. The temperature here is about 15 million °C. In the middle zones, the temperature falls to between 2 million and 7 million °C. The surface of the Sun is about 5,500 °C. But that’s still hot enough to make diamonds melt and boil!
THE SUN’S LAYERS
CORONA
About 2 million °C
The temperature of this zone gets hotter the further it is from the Sun’s surface!
PHOTOSPHERE
The surface we can see 5,500 °C
Finally, the Sun is surrounded by a layer of gases, and the outermost layer of the Sun is called the corona. Here, the temperatures shoot upwards again! In fact, it’s 300 times hotter here than at the surface – a fact that scientists are still puzzled by.
WACKY FACT
It can take energy 170,000 years to travel from the Sun’s inner core to its surface!
First Big Book of Why, writtenby SallySymes and Kate Drimmer,and First Big Book of How, writtenby SallySymes and Saranne Taylor,are both out now
Summer’s here –so it’s the perfect time to get outdoors and have some soapy, bubbly fun!
Try our top ‘bubble juice’ recipe and learn how to make giant bubbles!
YOU WILL NEED
HOW TO CREATE GIANT BUBBLES
If you’d like to make seriously BIG bubbles, you need bubble juice and an equally big bubble wand! Luckily there’s an easy way to make these using materials you probably have at home…
HOW TO MAKE THE BUBBLE MIXTURE
HOW TO MAKE A BUBBLE WAND
Water
1 Measure out 1 litre of water into your bucket.
2 sticks, about 50 cm long Bucket
Guar gum
Measuring cup or jug
Spoon
Washing-up liquid
Rope, string or yarn
2 Measure out 50 ml of washing-up liquid in a measuring cup or container.
3 Add the guar gum (1.5 grams) to the washing-up liquid.
4 Stir the washing-up liquid vigorously until the guar gum powder is fully distributed.
5 Pour the washing-up liquid mixture into the water and stir for 30 seconds. If there is still some of the mixture left in the cup, add a little water to loosen it and pour it in.
6 Dip in your bubble wand and blow!
1 Tie a piece of rope (1 metre) tightly across the top ends of your two sticks, about 2 cm down from the top. This will form the top of your bubble wand.
2 Then, tie the ends of a longer rope (1.25 m) to each side of the shorter rope, about 5 cm from the end tied to the stick. The ropes form the wand.
3 This should create a continuous circle or triangle shape when you lift the sticks apart. If your rope slips, you can secure it with a piece of masking tape.
4 Dip your rope into the bucket of bubble juice and hold it out as you walk. Or, flick the string so that the wind blows a giant bubble for you!
Fan Yang of Canada created a bubble wall 50.9 metres long in Beijing in 2009. The largest known free-floating soap bubble was about 96 square metres, which is about the size of a large classroom. It was made by Gary Pearlman in the US in 2015.
In 2017 in Czechia, 275 people stood inside a soap bubble together! In order to set the record, all of the people had to be at least 1.5 metres tall and be standing upright.
The longest-lasting soap bubble didn’t pop for 108 days! It was created by Scottish physicist James Dewar.
THE SCIENCE OF BUBBLES
Bubbles are held together by surface tension. That’s the force that pulls molecules in a liquid towards each other – forming an invisible ‘skin’ on its surface. It’s why water forms droplets, and why some small insects can walk on water. When you add a surfactant (such as washing-up
Surface tension in action!
liquid) to water, it lowers the surface tension. That means the water can stretch and bend more easily, trapping air inside and forming bubbles. The surfactant molecules surround the water molecules, creating a stretchy film. Bubbles pop when this film breaks and the air inside them escapes.
Soap molecules
Water molecules
BECOME A BUBBLE EXPERT
Bubble enthusiasts refer to the liquid used to make bubbles as ‘bubble juice’. There are many different ways to make bubble juice – and customise it – depending on what type of bubbles you are trying to create.
The two ingredients all bubble juice needs are water and a surfactant such as soap or detergent. (For more about surfactants, see above.) Washing-up liquid is most people’s go-to surfactant for making bubbles.
The most frequently used addition is a polymer, which is a certain type of molecule that helps bubbles form and makes lots of bubbles. For the
Soap molecules
recipe here, guar gum is used. You can buy guar gum at most supermarkets or online – but don’t worry if you can’t get it. Water and soap are what matter most.
To make your bubbles even tougher, you can add a pH adjuster, such as baking powder. This makes your bubble juice less acidic. Try adding ½ a teaspoon of baking powder and see how your bubbles change.
After you’ve created your first batch of bubble juice, try experimenting with different quantities of ingredients that you use. This can affect the colour and thickness of your bubbles. Air
SEND IT IN!
Why Emily’s on a mission to clean up her local streets
Meet the What on Earth! reader who has launched her own anti-litter campaign.
When 9-year-old Emily from Dulwich in London saw her local streets covered in rubbish and dog mess, she decided it was time to speak out. She wrote a brilliant article that begins ‘Our environment is very important so listen up please!’, and includes photos of fizzy drink cans and other litter left carelessly scattered around her neighbourhood. Emily’s article makes a powerful case, and she is now sharing it with her local MP. Well done, Emily! To congratulate you on your community-spirited campaign, we’ve sent you a copy of It’sUptoUs – a beautiful book about protecting the planet. Have any of you launched an eco-friendly campaign in your school or local area? We’d love to hear about it – and maybe even feature it in a future issue!
Winners revealed in the big Humanimal art contest!
In our April issue, we invited readers to take part in a global creative competition run by our friends at Humanimal Trust. The theme? To show how humans and animals are more alike than we often realise – inspired by We Are All Animals, our new book featured on page 49.
More than 100 young creators from countries including Turkey, China and Lithuania entered their
Making headlines: Emily with her article calling for cleaner streets.
WINNER: AGES 10–11
JAMIE CASHA
paintings, photos and more. And the two artworks shown above were worthy winners of the 7–9 and 10–11 age categories. Siwoo Kim from the UK captured the
WINNER: AGES 7–9
SIWOO KIM
kindness of people rescuing animals from Australian wildfires, while Jamie Casha from Malta imagined a humanlike body built from animal parts. Huge congratulations to
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
Production
Sarah Epton
Contributors
Vector That Fox (including cover), Andy Forshaw, Andy Smith, Paige Towler, Rose Davidson, Julie Beer, Valentina D’Efilippo, Kate Hale, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Dr Nick Crumpton, Adrienne Barman, Rod Hunt, Dan Knight, Ben Hoare, Mark Ruffle, Sally Symes, Kate Drimmer, Saranne
Taylor, Esperanza Hickling, May With thanks to The whole team at What on Earth Publishing
Editorial Consultant
Nancy Feresten
Business Development
David Falzani
CEO, What on Earth Magazines
Christopher Lloyd For Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mary McCudden, Director, Middle School and Elementary Products
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.
Happy campers Catriona and Flint the Border Terrier enjoying the June issue.
Birthday girl Robyn clearly has a head for numbers!
Siwoo and Jamie – and thank you to everyone who took part!
Question: I have branches but no leaves, a trunk but no bark and roots but no soil. What am I?
Answer: Afamilytree!
What do you twelve eyes? with call a spider To get to the other slide!
spiiiiiiiiiiiider! A What is made of a sneeze? and sounds like leather Did you maths teacher’s hear about the A shoe! It grew square roots! plant?
Question: What is always coming soon yet never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow! Why did the microscope? cross the amoeba
Send your name, age and favourite joke to our jokes editor May at jokes@whatonearth.co.uk. If your joke is featured in a future issue of the magazine, you will WIN a copy of Secret FACTopia!
do
Question: What loses its head in the morning but gets it back again each night?
REFER A FRIEND!
To celebrate our third birthday, we are inviting you, our fabulous subscribers, to recommend What on Earth! Magazine to your friends and family. If your friend becomes a subscriber too, there are fantastic FREE GIFTS on offer as rewards for BOTH you and them… To claim your FREE GIFTS, all you
Refer a friend to What on Earth! Magazine and ask them to subscribe using this webpage: www.whatonearth.co.uk/friend or by scanning the QR code
Send your friend or family member the email address that is associated with your What on Earth! Magazine billing details. If you are unsure which email address this is, please contact us at: info@whatonearth.co.uk
When your friend subscribes, YOU will receive a free GROSS FACTOPIA! And YOUR FRIEND will receive a free copy of LISTIFIED! plus a £10 BOOK VOUCHER to spend at the What on Earth! bookshop.
