Innehållsförteckning för July / August 2024 från What on Earth! Magazine

ZANY FACTS START HERE From the mid-1600s to the early 1900s, people in Europe sometimes tossed the contents of their non-flushing toilets out of their windows. In Scotland, they called out, 'Gardy loo!' as a warning to those walking below.. Sewers sometimes develop massive fatbergs - solid chunks of fat, oil and wet wipes that people have poured down their drains In the 19th century, people known as 'toshers' would descend into the sewers of London to hunt for lost coins and valuable metals…. In Australia, pythons have been found slithering through the sewers PAINTING, WRITING & SCULPTING were once Olympic events. Nearly 3,000 years ago, during the early Olympics, athletes competed naked Human poo and pee have been flowing through Rome's Cloaca Maxima (meaning 'Greatest Sewer') for more than…

HSSS (Stop doing that!) PP-PP (I'm the queen here!) BUZZZZZ (This is how you find the flowers…) One dance that bees do is called the waggle dance. It tells other bees where to find flowers and nectar. How far the bee dances as it walks along shows other bees the flowers' position in relation to the Sun.…

You've probably seen oozy blobby slime in TV shows and films about aliens and mutants, but did you know that there's plenty of slime in real life as well? Most living things use slime somehow. We humans, of course, have gloopy, slimy snot and other mucus to help our bodies function, while a jellyfish's body is made of slime! Believe it or not, scientists use slime as well. They are working on ways to make slimes into adhesives to stick things together, special bandages to heal wounds, and even soft robot parts. You can be a slime scientist, too! Read on to find out how to make your very own slimes with household ingredients. THE SCIENCE OF SLIME 1 Glue is a type of substance called a polymer. Polymers are…

SPACE MISSIONS On 6th July, a group of intrepid explorers will finally be able to hang up their space suits and return home after a year-long mission for NASA. Contrary to what you might assume, however, these explorers never left the ground! NASA's CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) missions are a key step to getting the first humans to Mars. But for now, these missions have to take place on Earth. CHAPEA missions are what are known as analog missions, which means they act as an analog, or comparable replacement, for something else. In CHAPEA's first mission, a crew of four people tested out a home base and equipment that might be used in a real mission to Mars. Analog missions give scientists important information about what might…

Sad as it is to say, the time between 1845 and 1945 seems to me to have been one of the most brutal periods in the history of humankind. During this 100 years, and for reasons that I find hard to work out, appalling violence and fighting between humans erupted in almost every part of the world. Maybe it was because the number of people in the world was increasing quickly thanks to advances in farming and technology. In 1804 the world's population passed one billion. By 1950, it had more than doubled to 2.5 billion. Having so many more people quite possibly increased the chance of clashes between countries and cultures. Or maybe living in an increasingly connected world made some people feel jealous or deprived and others more…

PHOTOS A WHALE OF A TIME In winter, orca whales such as this one are attracted to large schools of herring that migrate into the fjords of northern Norway. Orcas herd the herring into a tight ball in what is known 'carousel feeding'. WORLD NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS/ANDY SCHMID THAT'S LOOPY! Greek BMX rider George Ntavoutian made history by completing the largest full loop with a bicycle, in a pipe that measured a stunning 7.5 metres high. That's as tall as a two-storey building! RED BULL CONTENT POOL/ALEX GRYMANIS THREE'S COMPANY Photographer Ian Mason captured these three common frogs having a moment together in Perthshire, Scotland. Common frogs are the only type of frog found in the wild in Scotland. The females, which can grow up to 13 centimetres in length,…

SPORT 1900 1896, ATHENS The first modern Olympic Games are held in Greece, the home of the ancient Olympic Games, which date back to 776 BCE. There are no gold medals. Winners receive a silver medal and an olive branch. 1900, PARIS Female athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Britain's Charlotte Cooper becomes the first woman to be crowned an Olympic champion, triumphing in the women's singles tennis. 1904, ST LOUIS US gymnast George Egser, who competes using a wooden prosthetic leg, makes headlines for winning six Olympic medals in a day, three of them gold. Eyser lost his left leg after he was run over by a train. 1960 1960, ROME The first Paralympic Games are held in parallel (hence the name) with…

SUDOKU! Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3×2 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 6. HUMAN WORLD 1 How long does it take the fastest rollercoaster in the world to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h? a. Two seconds b. Four seconds c. Six seconds d. Eight seconds 2 Which of these was invented first? a. Gunpowder b. Paper c. Wheel d. Windmill 3 How many black keys are there on a piano? a. 16 b. 26 c. 36 d. 46 4 Who was the first US president? a. Abraham Lincoln b. George Washington c. Alexander Hamilton d. Thomas Jefferson 5 Where did the Olympic Games originate? a. Italy b. China c. India d. Greece FUTOSHIKI! Fill in the missing numbers so that every row and column includes the numbers 1,2,3 and Use the inequality signs as clues…

INFOGRAPHICS HOW TO READ IT The pink lines show the length, height or wingspan of the animal. SCALE 1m The pink circles show the weight of the animal. Animals that are alive today are coloured in greens, whites and blues. Animals that are extinct are in purples and browns, and highlighted with this symbol Wandering albatross The wandering albatross has the longest wingspan of any living bird. Its huge wings allow it to 'wander' across the sky and travel thousands of kilometres in just a few days. WHAT ON EARTH! Scientists think that the giant flying pterosaur Hatzegopteryx was the apex predator of its island home. WHEN DID THESE EXTINCT ANIMALS LIVE ON EARTH? This chart shows the approximate timespan during which the extinct animals featured in this infographic were…

YUCKY STUFF WHAT ON EARTH! There are more bacteria in an average-sized human poo than there are stars in the Milky Way. Why do you think humans find certain things disgusting? It's an interesting scientific question. Charles Darwin, the great 19th-century naturalist, thought that being completely grossed out by stuff served a useful evolutionary purpose. Finding the smell of rotten eggs or mouldy fruit physically revolting, for example, warned early humans not to eat them and so helped them to avoid getting sick. Seen in this way, humans' instinctive sense of disgust is our immune system's first line of defence. It advises us not to touch or eat things that might otherwise endanger our health. But why, you might then ask, are humans, and children especially, also strangely drawn to…

WORD LADDERS Change the word COLD to WARM in R 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 MISS to TALK and LOVE to MILK. EMOJI NAMES Each of these emoji sequences represents a common girl's or boy's first name. Can you work out the first name in each of these five examples? CHANGING ROOMS Can you find your way through our maze of square rooms? Enter through the door marked with the red arrow, then try to find your way to the exit by going through the correct sequence of open doors. Good luck! ANIMALS 1 What type of animal is a frog? a. Marsupial b. Lizard c. Reptile d. Amphibian 2 What is the…

Treasure Hunt The hidden letters spell: CAMPING Word Search Changing Rooms Emoji Names A. Olivia B. Melanie C. Anthony D. Rosemary E. Mathew (math-ewe) Number Triangles! Cube It! Word Ladder Link Words 1. CHESTNUT NUTCRACKER 2. POSTCARD CARDBOARD 3. QUICKSAND SANDCASTLE Hidden Animals Word Wheel 1. Signature 2. Strange 3. Granite 4. Guitar 5. Retina 6. Tiger Spot the Difference Futoshiki! A B Sudoku! A B Connect the Planets A B Picture Quiz Quiz Answers Animals 1. d, 2. b, 3. a, 4. c, 5. a; Human Body 1. d, 2. b, 3. c, 4. d, 5. a; Human World 1. a, 2. c, 3. c, 4. b, 5. d; Geography 1. b, 2. d, 3. c, 4. a, 5. d; Space 1. d, 2. b, 3. a, 4. d, 5. c.…

HOW TO READ IT The pink lines show the length or width of the animal. SCALE 1m The pink circles show the weight of the animal. Animals that are alive today are coloured in greens and blues. Animals that are extinct are in purples and browns, and highlighted with this symbol I have only tiny teeth - and I'm not interested in eating humans. Phew! WHAT ON EARTH! Although blue whales are enormous, they eat tiny krill – and their throats are only as wide as your hand!…

What's the quickest way to travel across the seabed? In a taxi-crab! Why did the battery go to the doctor? It was feeling run down! What do you call a one-legged hippopotamus? A hop-po! LOL! What type of dinosaur is never late? A Pronto-saurus! What is a Viking's favourite board game? Connect Thor! How many magicians do you need to put on a magic show? Just one will do the trick! Where do sheep go on their summer holidays? The Baaa-hamas! Question: What can you hold but never touch? Answer: A conversation! Question: What gets bigger when you turn it upside down? Answer: The number 6! What do you get if you cross an ape with a pudding? A meringue-utan! HA! HA! What's black and white and black and white…