INTO THE DEEP
Journey to the bottom of the sea and learn about its five different depth zones and the amazing things that live within them on page 16
CONTENTS
A wild and wonderful world awaits you inside!
HOW TO CHAT… HORSE
Have you ever wanted to have a heart-to-heart with a horse? Discover how horses communicate on page 12
EUREKA!
All the latest in science and technology, including the ways in which emojis have a surprising effect on people’s emotions. Find out more on page 10
REGULARS
WORD UP!
The flag position on the left stands for a letter of the alphabet. How can this be? Turn to page 14 to learn more about codes.
EYE DON’T BELIEVE IT
Which of these tables is longer? You may be surprised by the answer... All is revealed on page 37.
FACTOPIA!
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts on page 4 all the way from an air guitar competition to… the Slinky!
SEND IT IN!
Could your school be the next What on Earth! Quiz champions? Find out how you can join in the fun, and learn about the previous winners, on page 48.
THINK DIFFERENT
Hedy Lamarr is known to many as a glamorous Hollywood actress, but she was also an important inventor. Turn to page 44 to find out more.
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY – UP CLOSE!
Take a tour of this classic American icon and world-famous monument from pedestal to torch on page 38.
PUZZLES & GAMES
Tickle your brain and test your knowledge with our fun puzzles and quiz on page 25 JOKES & RIDDLES
Look out for this month’s selection, hand-picked by our jokes editor May, on page 50.
MAP IT!
Just how long is the Great Wall of China? Check out our infographic on page 24 to get a sense of this historic landmark’s awesome size!
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from air guitars to… the Slinky!
By Kate Hale, Paige Towler, Julie Beer and Rose Davidson
musicmetal heavy
A male white bellbird has a long piece of skin, called a wattle, that hangs from its beak. But that doesn’t stop it from being the loudest bird on the planet. Its call is as loud as the sound coming out of a speaker at a rock concert
necklace in 1911, American socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean learned that it was supposedly cursed. Even so, Evalyn would put the necklace on her Great Dane or play scavenger hunts where she ‘lost’ the gem and encouraged guests to her home to find it
Illustrations by Andy Smith
One musician composed songs specifically for cats. The music includes squeaks, birdlike chirping and even purring
At the right frequency,
a singer
‘Backmasking’ is when a singer records a message backwards on to a song that is playing forwards. The listener can hear the secret message only by playing the song in reverse
A dog named
can sing loud enough to break glass accidentally ate £7,500 worth of diamonds from her owner’s jewellery store. The diamonds came out safely from the other end
A jeweller once created a version of the game Monopoly that was worth about £1.5 million. The dice had diamonds instead of dots and the board was made of gold.
When Mr. Potato HeadTM was first released, you had to supply your own potato.
After making appearances in music videos and advertisements, one of Taylor Swift’s cats, called Olivia Benson, is worth roughly £72 million
Withfollowers4.3million,Nala Catisasocial mediainfluencer whohasmade morethan £100million inherlifetime.
A one-of-a-kind dog collar worth £1.3 million – the most expensive ever – is studded with more than 1,600 precious stones
A toy car made of white gold and encrusted in more than 2,700 diamonds sold for £40,000 at an auction.
The full name of BarbieTM is Barbara Millicent Roberts
The SlinkyTM was invented accidentally when an engineer was building parts for a ship during World War II!
CAVE OF WONDER
In this stunning photograph an ice climber explores a blue ice cave inside a glacier in Iceland. These caves are created over hundreds of years by the compression of ice crystals inside the glacier. As the ice crystals enlarge they turn blue.
SNAP IT!
Astonishing photos from around the world
SNAP IT!
COMING UP FOR AIR
This striking photo of swimmer Isaac Cooper of Australia was snapped as he was breaking the surface of the water during a 50m men’s backstroke competition in Hungary. During competition, backstroke swimmers are only allowed to go completely underwater within 15 metres of the start of each turn. After that, they must surface.
LINES OF LIONS
In this brilliant photo taken in Zambia, a pride of lions appears to be queuing up for something! These lions are actually following a set of tyre tracks as they camouflage themselves in the tall grass.
SIENA AWARDS 2023/TORIE HILLEY
BIG BIRD
RIVER OF FIRE
This image was snapped about a day after the start of an eruption of volcano Litli-Hrútur in Iceland in 2023, when this cinder cone and its river of lava were newly formed.
INTERNATIONAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR/MIKE MEZEUL
This fun hot air balloon was part of the 2025 Türkiye Culture Road Festival in Turkey. The festival is one of the largest in the world, with stops in multiple Turkish cities over several months. In addition to the balloons, there is theatre, food, dancing, concerts, art workshops, lectures and activities for children and families.
Eureka!
The
astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.
The biggest ever digital camera!
A new telescope in Chile has released its first images of our universe. The telescope includes the largest digital camera ever made, which leads to some spectacular shots!
The new telescope, called the Vera Rubin telescope, is so powerful that scientists say it could discover new planets in our solar system. It can also help scientists create a map of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In its first 10 hours, the telescope detected 2,104 new asteroids!
New dinosaur rewrites T. rex’s family tree
Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that sheds fresh light on the evolution and history of tyrannosaurs.
The new species, Khankhuuluu (pronounced khan-KOO-loo), was discovered in the collection of a Mongolian
The graphic shows the evolution of tyrannosaurs in action!
museum. The fossils have been dated to about 86 million years ago. Scientists determined that it is the closest known ancestor of the tyrannosaur family, including Tyrannosaurus rex This discovery helps scientists to piece together how T. rex evolved. The
earliest tyrannosaurs were quite tiny, but over time they evolved to be dominant predators. Khankhuuluu is an important transitional link, and eight times smaller than T. rex was.
One of the smallest tyrannosaurs known waswhichDilongparadoxus, only reached 2 metres long! Albertosaurus
The Vera Rubin Observatory Inside the mega telescope!
The Trifid and Lagoon nebulae
TYRANNOSAUR TREE
RUBIN’S THREE-MIRROR DESIGN
Whyemojisbringpeople together together
A researcher in Texas, USA, has published a study about how emojis can affect a person’s impressions of people who use them in their messages.
Eun Huh asked study participants to look at text conversations with and without emojis and imagine they had been sent by a close friend. She then asked them
questions about their feelings towards the person who had sent the messages. All of the participants rated the people who sent emojis as more responsive and likeable.
Do you or your family members use emojis when you send messages? The four above are the most popular emojis according to Emojipedia.
examine a tyrannosaur
An artist’s drawing of Khankhuuluu
T. Rex (68-66 mya)
for scale
HORSE How to chat...
By Dr Nick Crumpton
Illustration by Adrienne Barman
Horses often communicate using their bodies and ears. But they can also be very talkative. If you’re keen to have a chat with a stallion, here are a few phrases that might come in useful.
NEEEIGH E H EIHEI!
(What’s that weird thing?)
DID YOU KNOW? intelligentHorsesareveryandcanbe trainedusingtreatsand clickerslikedogs andcatscan.
This horsey noise is probably the most famous. It can mean that a horse is excited to see you or that it has seen something that worries it.
A short blast of air through the nose usually means that the horse is a bit unsure of something. sure about this.) SN O RT
(Hmm… I’m not so
PffpfF pfpfpfp
(I’m excited – let’s go for a run!)
Just like humans, horses let out happy-sounding sighs if they are content. This might be because they are having some tasty hay.
(This is relaxing.)
W U ! R
THIS MONTH: Codes and ciphers!
By Alison Eldridge, Illustrations by Susanna Hickling
With over 7,000 languages in use around the world
today, you might think there’s one to use for any occasion! But sometimes there are reasons you might want to use a code instead, which is
CAESAR CIPHER
a system of rules that converts information from one form into another. People use codes in situations where they need information to be shortened or even totally secret. You may be familiar with computer codes, such as binary, which convert
One of the earliest known codes is called the Caesar Cipher. It was developed by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago! To encode a message with the Caesar Cipher, you shift each letter backwards or forwards by a given number of places. The first letters wrap around to the back. For example, if you’re encoding 3 backwards, H becomes E and A becomes X. To decode
a message someone else has written in Caesar Cipher, you go the other way! See if you can work out our Caesar Cipher here. And maybe try writing one of your own!
information into formats that computers can understand. Or you may have heard of secret codes, such as the ones that are used by militaries. Here are just a few interesting codes to try! In this cipher, we have encoded 5 backwards. That means to decode our message you need to count 5 letters forwards from what is written.
Tjp'mz wzxjhdib v hvnozm xmtkojbmvkczm. Ocvo'n njhzjiz rcj dn v nkzxdvgdno di xjyzn! Tjp'mz wzxjhdib v xmtkojbmvkczm. Ocvo'n rcj dn v nkzxdvgdno di xjyzn!
An example of 3 backwards shifts. Our cipher is 5.
Julius Caesar lived from 100–44 BCE.
FLAG SEMAPHORE
Codes can be transmitted in any form, including as letters, words, sounds, pictures or gestures.
One interesting code is called flag semaphore. It uses gestures with a pair of flags to send messages over a distance. This is especially useful
for communicating with planes or ships from the ground. The position of the flags represents a letter of the alphabet or a key message such as 'end of word'.
See if you can decode our semaphore messages below!
GREAT CODE BREAKERS
The creation of codes has been important throughout history. The oldest known code was carved into stone in Ancient Egypt about 1900 BCE! Over time, codes became more complex. The oldest known text about cryptography, the formal study of codes, was written during the Islamic Golden age by Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi in about 850 CE. Codes have been essential during war, when intercepting messages can make or break an army’s strategy. In the UK during World War II there was a whole codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing developed one of the first computers in order to crack the enemy’s codes. In the US during World War II, a special team of Navajo people developed a code using their language that could be used over radio and not understood by enemies. Even today codes are important, as information transmitted by computers can be intercepted.
A code-breaking team working at the UK’s Bletchley Park.
From sun-dappled shallows to pitch-black trenches, the ocean is split into five distinct zones by depth. Each teems with extraordinary habitats and creatures, specially adapted to survive as light fades, pressure rises and temperatures plunge. Dive with us from the sparkling surface to the Mariana Trench, the very bottom of this mysterious underwater world…
Most coral reefs today are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old. Corals have growth rings –just like trees.
SUNLIGH T ZON E
plants such as kelp, algae and seagrasses to grow, providing food and shelter for countless creatures. Coral reefs thrive in these conditions, along with seals, dolphins, turtles, jellyfish, schools of tuna and mackerel, and graceful manta rays. Because this is the only zone shallow enough for humans to explore freely, you might snorkel over a reef, paddle in the shallows, or, using scuba gear, venture deeper. Some divers reach 40 to 50 m, where the pressure is roughly the same as a 1 kg weight on your fingernail.
The Sunlight Zone stretches from the ocean’s surface down to about 200 metres and is warm, bright and bursting with life. Sunlight here fuels photosynthesis, allowing
DIDYOUKNOW?
Scientists estimate that more than 80 per cent of the world’s oceans are still unmapped and unexplored.
Sea anemones look like plants but are actually animals related to jellyfish and corals.
Cuttlefish are masters of disguise that can change their skin’s colour, pattern and even texture to hide from or confuse predators.
T
WILIGH T ZON E
Below the reach of full daylight lies the Twilight Zone, extending to 1,000 m. Here, faint sunlight filters through, but not enough for plants to grow. Instead, the waters are home to animals such as swordfish, octopuses and some deep-diving whales, many of which have large eyes or bioluminescent bodies to help them hunt in the gloom. Tiny bristlemouth fish thrive here in staggering numbers. There may be quadrillions, making them the most abundant vertebrate (animal with a spine) on Earth.
The coelacanth is a rare, ancient fish that was thought extinct until it was rediscovered near South Africa in 1938.
Great white sharks are fearsome predators that can detect a drop of blood from a quarter of a mile away.
MIDNIGH T ZON E
Maximum diving depth of the Cuvier’s beaked whale 2,992 m Lake Baikal, Russia, the world’s deepest lake 1,642 m
The Midnight Zone stretches from 1,000 to 4,000 m below the surface, in a world of total darkness. Temperatures hover near freezing and the pressure is crushing, yet life still thrives. Many creatures create their own light here, from the glowing lure of the anglerfish to the flickering signals of dragonfish. Other residents include the ghostly blobfish, the fearsome viperfish with its protruding teeth and gulper eels with huge mouths to trap prey.
The Dumbo octopus is named for its ear-like fins that make it look like Disney’s elephant Dumbo.
Maximum diving depth of the whale shark 1,896 m
El Perdido means ‘the lost one’ in Spanish. The oil drilling platform is named for its remote location in the Gulf of Mexico.
-2,000 (m)
The whale shark is the world’s largest fish, growing up to 18 m long.
Mooring of El Perdido, the world’s deepest oil drilling platform (Gulf of Mexico) 2,438 m
The medusa jellyfish is named for its tentacles, which look like the Greek mythical monster Medusa’s hair of snakes.
DID YOUKNOW ?
There’s enough salt in the oceans to cover Earth’s land surface in a layer more than 166 metres thick!
-3,000
A deep-sea submersible explores the wreck of the Titanic in the documentary film Ghosts of the Abyss .
AMAZING ALVIN!
Depth of the wreck of the RMS Titanic (Atlantic Ocean) 3,810 m
SINKING OF T H E T I T ANIC
One of the world’s most famous deep-sea explorers isn’t a person but a submersible called Alvin. Built in 1964, it has made more than 5,000 ocean dives, including expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic Alvin carries two scientists and a pilot on dives lasting six to ten hours. Deep-sea discoveries made thanks to Alvin have been featured in around 2,000 scientific papers. T H E
Alvin, bottom right, returns to its tender, or parent ship.
On its first trip across the Atlantic, the Titanic struck a huge iceberg. The ship sank on 15th April, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. It was one of the most famous disasters of the 20th century.
The Titanic was one of the largest ocean liners of its time. Some said it was unsinkable. It was sailing from Southampton, England, to New York City, USA. Lookouts saw an iceberg on 14th April. The ship could not move out of the way fast enough and the hull was torn apart. The ship began to fill with water and sank the next day. About 705 people escaped in lifeboats. But there were not enough lifeboats to save all the 2,224 people on board.
E ABYSS
The Abyss stretches from about 4,000 to 6,000 m deep. Here, life moves slowly in the icy dark to save energy. Many creatures have slow metabolisms, meaning they burn energy very slowly so that they can survive with little food. Hardy survivors such as deep-sea cucumbers, basket stars and tripod fish –which perch on long fins like stilts to wait for passing prey –live on the ocean floor. With no sunlight, food is scarce, arriving mainly as tiny bits of plants and animals drifting down from above.
Maximum depth of the anglerfish 5,000 m
The anglerfish uses its glowing lure to attract prey in the dark.
-5,000 (m)
Depth of the wreck of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-129 5,029 m
DID YOUKNOW ?
The longest mountain range on Earth –the Mid-Ocean Ridge –mostly lies beneath the Atlantic.
Basket stars use their branching arms to trap plankton and other small animals drifting past to then draw them in and eat them.
This topographical map reveals the ocean’s hidden mountains, valleys and trenches. The darker the colour, the deeper the ocean is at that point.
-6,000
HOW D EE P IS
T H E OC E AN?
If you dropped Mount Everest into the ocean at its deepest point the mountain would vanish beneath the waves –with more than a mile of water still above its peak!
Maximum depth of the ocean 10,994 m
Commercial aeroplane cruising altitude 10,000 m
USS Samuel B. Roberts the deepest known shipwreck (Pacific Ocean) 6,895 m
Mount Everest, Asia 8,849 m
Matterhorn, Europe 4,478 m
Burj Khalifa, skyscraper, UAE 828 m
Thanks to its extendable stomach, the black swallower is able to eat prey twice its own length. Gulp.
T H E T R E NCH E S
Below 6,000 m lies the Hadal Zone, found only in the ocean’s deepest trenches. Named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, it is the most extreme and least explored marine realm. The Mariana Trench in the western Pacific is the best known, plunging nearly 11,000 m to the ocean’s deepest point, Challenger Deep. Here, the pressure is the same as the weight of a pickup truck on every 2.3 cm 2 , and temperatures hover just above freezing. Yet life endures: liparid snailfish, amphipods and tube worms survive in the darkness. Deep-sea animals withstand the pressure by having soft, water-rich bodies, which resist compression and stop them being crushed by the weight of the water above.
-7,000
-8,000
Amphipods are shrimp-like crustaceans that can survive in the deepest parts of the ocean.
DIDYOUKNOW ?
About 97 per cent of Earth’s water is found in the ocean, compared to less than 0.01% in all the rivers and lakes.
S
The deepest parts of the ocean are found in the Mariana Trench, which plunges to nearly 11,000 m. Humans first reached its deepest point, the Challenger Deep, in 1960, when Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended in the USS Trieste , pictured above. To explore such depths, people travel in deep-sea submersibles engineered with thick, pressure-resistant hulls to withstand the crushing weight of the water. These vessels also carry advanced life-support systems to keep the crew alive for hours at a time, and powerful lights to illuminate the pitch-black world below. In 1960, the USS Trieste carried the first humans ever to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
E R T O RICO T R E NCH
The Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean. It plunges 8,380 m below the surface and stretches for nearly 1,500 km in length.
E XPLORING TH E T R E NCH E
-9,000 (m)
The Mariana snailfish is the deepest-living known fish, found over 8,000 m down.
In 2012, the film director James Cameron made an intrepid solo dive to the Challenger Deep in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. The mission aimed to capture highdefinition video and collect samples from the deepest place on Earth. Cameron spent hours on the seafloor, exploring and filming the Hadal environment before returning safely to the surface. The graphic below shows the submersible’s design and how it transported him to the bottom of the ocean.
HOW IT REACHED THE BOTTOM
The Deepsea Challenger descended in a slow corkscrew motion. This helped to keep the submersible stable and on course in deep-ocean currents.
USS T RI E S T E
The USS Trieste was a Swiss-designed, Italian-built bathyscaphe, or deep-diving vessel, that made history as the first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth. The Trieste ’s 1960 mission lasted about five hours in total, including roughly 20 minutes spent on the seafloor before beginning its ascent to the surface.
MARIANA T R E NCH
Home to crushing pressures, near-freezing temperatures and total darkness, the Mariana Trench lies east of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, near to the island of Guam.
Antennas
HOW LONG IS THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA?
The Great Wall is one of the largest structures ever built. In fact, it’s so long that if you laid it across the United States, it would stretch from the East Coast all the way to Kansas! Built over centuries from dirt, stone and bricks, its winding paths cover about 13,000 miles in total. Begun as separate walls in the 600s BCE, it was joined into a single defensive barrier in the 200s BCE, then rebuilt and extended many times. The Great Wall stopped being used for defence in the 1600s. Today it’s an important historical site that is visited by millions of people each year.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Ming dynasty used a mixture of lime, water and sticky rice to build some sections of the Great Wall. The mortar, or paste, is still holding strong today.
DID YOU KNOW?
Contrary to a popular myth, you cannot see the Great Wall from the Moon without a telescope. In fact, the Wall is barely visible from a space station.
DID YOU KNOW?
Fires or lanterns were lit along sections of the Great Wall to warn of enemy attacks, sending out smoke signals by day and bright flames at night.
UNITED STATES
DID YOU KNOW?
According to legend, the Jiayuguan Pass was built with exactly 99,999 bricks — with one extra ‘divine’ brick left over, which you can still see by the Wall today.
DID YOU KNOW?
According to another story, Meng Jiang Nv’s grief over her husband’s death while working on the Wall was so great her tears brought part of it crashing down.
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 36.
ANIMALS
1 The praying mantis, pictured above, is the only insect that can do what?
a. Jump backwards
b. Swivel its head
180 degrees
c. See in the dark
d. Walk on water
2 What colour are a flamingo’s feathers when it is born?
a. White
b. Pink
c. Grey
d. Orange
3 How many bones does a giraffe have in its neck?
a. 7
b. 11
c. 15
d. 22
4 Zebras have black-and-white stripes. But what colour is their skin underneath?
a. Pink
b. Grey
c. Brown
d. Black
Move one letter from the first word to the second word to make two new words. The order of all the other letters must stay the same – only the stolen letter moves. For example, in the pair PLANE and RAT, moving the letter E from PLANE to RAT
gives you PLAN and RATE.
ODD ONE OUT
Look closely at the four keys below. Three of them have exactly the same pattern, but one is different. Study each key carefully, compare their patterns, and see if you can spot which one is the odd one out!
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!
GEOGRAPHY
1
Which famous city in Scotland is shown in the photograph above?
a. Glasgow
b. Aberdeen
c. Dundee
d. Edinburgh
2 What is the highest mountain in Africa?
a. Mount Kenya
b. Mount Meru
c. Mount Kilimanjaro
d. Mount Elgon
3
What is the smallest country in the world?
a. Monaco
b. Vatican City
c. San Marino
d. Liechtenstein
4
The colourful flag shown on the right is the national flag of which group of more than 100 islands?
(Clue: they are found in the Indian Ocean.)
a. Seychelles
b. Maldives
c. Channel Islands
d. Canary Islands
4
HIDDEN ANIMALS
WORD WHEEL
Use the word wheel to help find the answers to the eight clues below. All the answers contain the middle letter, and each letter can only be used once.
Clue: an optical instrument that makes distant objects appear near (9 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a spire on the top of a church or cathedral (7 letters).
Answer:
Clue: to carefully choose as being the best or most suitable option (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a tall cupboard or wardrobe with a door that is used for storage (6 letters).
Answer:
Four sneaky animals are hiding somewhere in these photos. Can you find them? C E E O P L E S T
Clue: to choose someone to hold an official position or role by voting for them (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a hard, strong metal that is often used to build cars, bridges and tools (5 letters).
Answer:
Clue: unable to find your way or know your exact location (4 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a creative writer who often uses words in a rhythmic and rhyming way (4 letters).
Answer:
Each of the four emoji sequences below represents a common phrase. Can you work out which phrase it is in each example?
Can you work out what you are looking at in each of these six photos?
Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3x2 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 6.
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?
SPACE
1
1 Part of which planet in our solar system is shown in the photograph above?
a. Saturn
b. Venus
c. Uranus
d. Jupiter
2 What is the name of the first artificial satellite ever to be sent into space?
a. Explorer 1
b. Voyager 1
c. Sputnik 1
d. Vostok 1
3 Which of these different types of star is the largest?
a. Neutron star
b. Pulsar
c. Red supergiant
d. White dwarf
4 Which is the only planet in our solar system on which a day lasts longer than a year?
a. Venus
b. Mercury
c. Mars
d. Neptune 1
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.
HUMAN WORLD
1 According to studies, approximately what percentage of penalties taken by professional football players are either saved or miss the goal entirely?
a. 15%
b. 25%
c. 35%
d. 45%
2 Which celebrated painter painted the Mona Lisa?
a. Vincent van Gogh
b. Pablo Picasso
c. Leonardo da Vinci
Claude Monet
3 In which country was LEGO invented?
Greece
4 How many sides does a
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.
ANIMAL WORD SEARCH
Can you spot the names of the 20 animals hidden in our giant word search puzzle? Good luck!
HUMAN BODY
1 What is a fear of balloons called?
a. Coulrophobia
b. Acrophobia
c. Globophobia
d. Arachnophobia
2 What is the main function that red blood cells perform?
a. Fight infections
b. Regulate temperature
c. Carry messages to and from the brain
d. Carry oxygen around the body
3 Which part of the eye controls how much light enters?
4 If all the arteries, veins and other blood vessels in the human body were connected end to end, approximately how far would they stretch in total?
SEEK & FIND
Can you find these 10 things?
Mushroom
Hot dog
Camera
Sunglasses
Torch
Teddy bear
Compass
Mouse
Binoculars
Map
Emoji Idioms
A. When pigs fly
B. Barking up the wrong tree
C. Break the ice
D. Cat nap
Hidden Animals
Word Wheel
1. TELESCOPE, 2. STEEPLE
3. SELECT, 4. CLOSET
5. ELECT, 6. STEEL 7. LOST 8. POET Stolen Letters
MOTH CINDER
Animal Word Search
Quiz Answers
A. Baby meerkat
Fern Jet engine
Xylophone Chilli peppers
Iguana’s eye
trolleys
C. Gatekeeper butterfly
B. Great kiskadee
D. Crocodile fish
BELIEVE IT! EYE DON’T
Amazing optical illusions that trick your brain…
Which of these two tabletops do you think is longer?
Shepard Tables
Which of these two yellow tabletops do you think is longer? Most people say the one on the left – but in fact they are exactly the same shape! You can prove it with tracing paper. Or you can head to whatonearthmag.com/illusions (or scan the QR code below) to see for yourself.
This baffling trick is called the Shepard Tables illusion. It is named after Roger N. Shepard, the American scientist who first described it in 1990. So, how does the illusion work? If you draw the two yellow tabletops on their own, you will see that they are identical parallelograms. But once you add four legs to each parallelogram to make them look like tables, your brain treats
them as real 3-D objects. The table on the left suddenly appears long and narrow, as if its far end is further away, while the table on the right now looks almost square, because your brain thinks its far edge is closer to you.
This happens because your brain uses perspective to judge size – and perspective makes distant objects appear smaller. The Shepard Tables illusion plays with this rule of perception, which creates a powerful optical trick. In studies, people often estimate that the left-hand table is up to 25% longer – but now you know the truth!
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY UP CLOSE!
The Statue’s right arm and torch were some of the earliest elements completed. They stood for 6 years in New York’s Madison Square Park as public art meant to help raise money for the Statue. They also went on display at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition! Liberty Island in around the year 1905.
RIGHT ARM
Take a look in and around ‘Lady Liberty’, one of the most iconic symbols of the USA!
ISLAND
The island the Statue of Liberty sits on was originally called Bedloe’s Island but it was renamed Liberty Island in 1956. Liberty Island is what is called an exclave of New York City, which means it is officially part of New York even though it is surrounded by the waters of Jersey City, New Jersey. The island is quite small, only about 60,000 square metres in area.
TABLET
In her left arm, the Statue holds a tablet that reads ‘JULY IV MDCCLXXVI’, the Roman numerals for ‘July 4, 1776’, the date the United States declared independence from Great Britain.
CROWN
The crown has 25 windows that can be looked out of by up to 10 visitors at a time. The crown itself has 7 rays, perhaps for the 7 continents.
TORCH
The Statue of Liberty’s torch has gone through several changes since it was first constructed. At first it was a sheet of solid copper that would reflect light from the Sun. Over time much of the torch was replaced with glass. In the 1980s the Statue was restored and the original torch was removed. The one there now is a replica of the original.
The original torch is now on display in the Statue of Liberty Museum.
Construction of the Statue’s hand, 1872.
STAIRCASES
There are 162 stairs inside the Statue which lead from the pedestal to the crown. The iron framework inside the Statue was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel Tower in France.
LADY LIBERTY
FULL NAME: Liberty Enlightening the World. The Statue’s name derives from the goddess it represents: Libertas, a Roman deity personifying freedom.
HEIGHT: 93 metres
WEIGHT OF COPPER: 180,000 kg
WEIGHT OF FRAMEWORK: 200,000 kg
WEIGHT OF CONCRETE FOUNDATION: 24,000,000 kg
PEDESTAL In 1883 poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet titled ‘The New Colossus’ to raise money for the Statue’s pedestal. The poem was made into a bronze plaque that is now inside the lower level of the pedestal. The pedestal also contains an observation deck for visitors.
FREEDOM AND FRIENDSHIP
THICKNESS OF COPPER SHEETING: 2 mm, the thickness of two pennies placed together.
WIND
SWAY: The Statue can sway up to 8 cm and the torch up to 15 cm.
EXPOSURE TO ELEMENTS: the Statue is hit by around 600 lightning bolts every year.
The Statue was a gift from France to the United States to commemorate the alliance of the two countries during the American Revolution, when the US declared independence from Great Britain. It was also meant to be a symbol of freedom and democracy in the United States. Edouard de Laboulaye, who proposed the monument, hoped that calling attention to America’s achievements would inspire the French people, who lived under a monarchy, to create their own democracy.
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.
There are over 1.5 million known species of animal living on Earth today. Humans are just one of these!
Illustrations by Mark Ruffle
We all make waste
There’s no two ways about it. Sooner or later, every animal on this planet has to answer a call of nature. That is to say… it goes to the loo! All creatures great and small produce poo of one kind or another. Poo is fascinating stuff. Depending on the animal, it can take the form of hard pellets, sloppy dollops, sticky blobs, fine powder, or even a liquid explosion. And it can be almost any colour under the
Sun. Some penguins eat shrimp-like animals that turn their poo pink! Hedgehogs are insect eaters, so their poo is full of shiny wing cases and often it sparkles! But we animals don’t stop with poo. We also get rid of other waste products, such as pee, snot and wind. Like eating, growing, using oxygen and moving around, this is a sure-fire sign that we are alive. Getting rid of waste is, quite simply, a fact of life.
Powerful poo-ers
Adélie penguins can fire poo up to 1 metre away. As the poo stains the snow pink, the penguin colonies can be seen from space!
DID YOU KNOW?
Poo from penguins is high in nitrogen and can be used as fertiliser – or even to gunpowder!make
Types of waste
Different animals produce different types of waste. The waste contains all sorts of unwanted or harmful things that they don’t want to keep in their body a moment longer.
Passed wind
Plenty of animals love to let rip. Zebras, seals and snakes all do it. But where does this gas come from? It’s just a mixture of swallowed air and the gases produced by microbes in the gut when they break down food. And these gases must escape somehow. Herrings break wind to send underwater messages!
Poo
The scientific name for poo is faeces. Surprisingly, it’s mostly water. The rest of the poo is material left over from the food the animal isn’t able to break down. It also contains dead cells and bacteria, as well as salts and other waste. The frequency that animals poo varies enormously. Sloths poo once a week. Rabbits dump several hundred little pellets of poo every day!
Pee
Mammals like us produce pee, or urine, as well as poo. Pee consists of water and toxic substances that we need to dispose of in a hurry. Fish pee, too, though we never see them do it because they live in water. But many other animals, including birds, reptiles and amphibians, produce solid pee. The white stuff in bird poo is actually bird pee!
Sweat
Only certain mammals produce sweat. Sweat is mostly water, with various salts in it. As the water evaporates, it chills the surface of the skin, helping it to cool down. It stops mammals from overheating. Other animals control their body temperature in different ways. Often, they move into a sunny spot to warm up and retreat into the shade to stay cool. On hot days, birds open their beak and pant like dogs.
We Are All Animals, by Ben Hoare & Christopher Lloyd and illustrated by Mark Ruffle, is out now
WHO WAS HEDY LAMARR?
To most people, Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous film actress from the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood. But off-screen, she was also a trailblazing inventor who came up with ideas that paved the way for important technologies that we rely on today.
WHEN AND WHERE DID HEDY LAMARR LIVE?
Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She started acting as a teenager and performed in films and plays all over Europe before moving to the United States in 1938, where she lived for the rest of her life.
HOW DID SHE THINK DIFFERENTLY?
From a young age, Lamarr was fascinated by technology. Her father would explain how inventions worked as they walked through Vienna together, and she once took apart and rebuilt a music box to see how it worked. At that time in Europe, science was not a career open to most women, so Hedy chose acting instead. However, she never lost her love for science and inventions, even after she
Original people who changed the world. This month: Hedy Lamarr.
Illustration by Esperanza Hickling
became a famous Hollywood movie star.
HOW DID HER IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD?
I can excuse everything but boredom. Boring people don’t have to stay that way.
In the 1940s, while still acting in films, Lamarr invented gadgets such as a light-up dog collar and a shower seat for the elderly. But when she learned about the horrors of World War II, she wanted to help the Allies fight back against Nazi Germany. So with composer and fellow inventor George Antheil, she designed a radio-controlled torpedo system for targeting German
submarines. To stop enemies from jamming the system’s signal, they used a clever technique called ‘frequency hopping’ where the signal jumps between channels to avoid interference. The idea wasn’t used during WWII, but it later became the basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth –the same technologies we use today to connect phones, computers and smart devices.
1 million
The number of neural connections formed in a child’s brain every second during the first few years of life.
KIDS
KIDS
IN NUMBERS
107
The average number of questions asked per hour by children aged 5 and under.*
.. .
13
The age at which Jordan Romero, from the US, became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.
12
The age of US schoolboy Abhimanyu Mishra when he became the youngest-ever chess grandmaster.
44
5
The age at which young Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first orchestral symphony.
45
Thenumberof sweaterswornatonce byUSschoolgirl SophiaHayden.***
11
The age at which American Frank Epperson accidentally invented the ice lolly.***
Thepercentage of kids who said pizza was their favourite foodin asurvey. *****
*According to a study published in 2007. **Children under 15 make up around 25% of the world’s population. ***Scan the QR code to watch Sophia put them all on!
****On a chilly night in 1905, Frank accidentally left a cup filled with sugary baking powder, water and a stirring stick outside. By morning, the world’s first ice lolly was waiting on his porch. *****Burger with chips and chicken nuggets with chips tied for second place at 28%.
Those lovely, long lashes above a cat’s eyes are actually whiskers. Cats also have whiskers on the back of their front legs.
Why do some animals have whiskers?
Whiskers are long, thick and twitchy hairs that stick out from around the noses and mouths of some animals. Animals use their whiskers a bit like we use our hands and fingers – to touch and explore their surroundings. Rats rely on their supersensitive whiskers more than their eyes to explore the world. They sweep them back and forth constantly in a behaviour called ‘whisking’.
WACKY FACT
Humans are one of the few warm-blooded creatures that don’t have whiskers – although we used to! The functions of whiskers were taken over by our brains.
How do spacesuits work?
There are two different types of spacesuit. The first type is quite light and simple, and astronauts wear it inside the spacecraft during the rocket launch, the journey in space and the landing. The other type of spacesuit is huge and heavy, and astronauts wear it during spacewalks. It can have up to 16 layers and many different working parts, all of which make it possible for the astronaut to stay safe when they’re out in space. It’s a bit like a wearable spacecraft that allows them to breathe and to drink, and protects them from extreme temperatures and other dangers, such as space dust flying at high speeds!
Spacesuit for use inside a spacecraft.
Rats move their whiskers super fast – they can sweep them to-and-fro seven times a second. That’s more than any other whiskered mammal.
This cooling garment is worn under the main suit. Inside it are tubes filled with water to keep the astronaut cool.
SPACESUIT FOR SPACEWALKS
1 The rucksack contains equipment to help the astronaut breathe, a water tank and pump, a radio to stay in contact with the spacecraft and mission control, and a supply of electricity to make everything work.
2 The helmet allows the astronaut to breathe. The visor has a coating of gold to block the Sun’s harmful rays.
3 The emergency jetpack has powerful thrusters to get the astronaut back to the spacecraft if they’ve floated off too far.
4 The top section of the main suit
contains the computerised control panel.
5 Rings around the waistband hold any tools needed to repair the spacecraft. They also attach to a safety rope that stops the astronaut from floating away.
6 Each suit has a stripe of a different colour that shows which astronaut is wearing it.
7 The gloves are designed to be flexible so that astronauts can use their tools easily. Plus, little heaters in the fingertips keep their fingers warm enough to work quickly in cold temperatures.
Dolphins sometimes ride waves, just like human surfers do.
Astronauts can’t take aofftheirspacesuitsduring spacewalk,sotheywear specialnappiesincase theysuddenlyneed the toilet!
Why does the ocean have waves?
The waves you usually see at the beach are created by the wind. Wind blowing over the ocean creates small
ripples on the water’s surface. The more the wind blows, the bigger the waves will grow. Waves always travel in a straight line until something gets in their way – like a beach. Scientists have tracked waves and found that they can travel across the ocean for more than a week!
CREST
The peak of a wave is called the crest.
TROUGH
The lowest point is called the trough.
Would you like to be a
SEND IT IN! national quiz
Do you and your friends love quizzes and discovering amazing facts? Then get ready to step up to the buzzer for the What on Earth! National Schools Quiz 2025 – a thrilling celebration of quick thinking, teamwork and curiosity!
out the list of past champions in our panel on the right – will you and your school be next to make quiz history?
AGE CATEGORIES
Last year, more than 300 schools joined the fun. The top teams clashed in the spectacular finals at the historic Stationers’ Hall in London, tackling questions on everything from animals, space and history to science, sport, art and nature. Check
There are two age categories. The Junior category is for pupils aged 8 to 11, and the Senior category is for pupils aged 11 to 14. Each team must have four contestants, and schools can enter up to two teams in each age category. Children who are home educated can also form teams of four to take part. Read
The Grand Final will be held at Stationers’ Hall.
quiz champion?
THE CHAMPIONS
JUNIORS
2024
Ryde School with Upper Chine (IsleofWight) 2023
Edge Grove School (Hertfordshire) 2022
Cramlington Village Primary School (Northumberland)
SENIORS 2024
Wakefield Girls’ High School (WestYorkshire) 2023
Wyndham High Academy (Norfolk) 2022
Soham Village College (Cambridgeshire)
ONLINE HEATS
The online heats take place on the 5th and 6th November with general knowledge rounds inspired by recent issues of What on Earth! Magazine. Hosted by our very own quizmaster, the online heats will include timed questions, a countdown clock – and plenty of fun along the way!
GRAND FINAL
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Awards
The top four schools in each age group will earn a place in the Grand Final at Stationers’ Hall in London on Wednesday 26th November. Friends and family can come along to cheer for their teams! Finalists will
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Question I’m full of holes but as strong as steel. What am I?
Answer: A chain!
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