Innehållsförteckning för September 2024 från What on Earth! Magazine

START HERE Some scientists have used magic trices to see if birds can work out the secrets behind them and so better understand the way birds think The first paper money used in New France (what’s now Quebec, Canada) was actually playing cards In a standard deck of playing cards, the King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache. The tallest LEGO™ tower soared nearly 35 metres high and was built with half a million bricks. Some studies suggest that if they weighed the same, a cricket would contain more of the mineral iron than a steak A cricket’s ears are on its legs When Mr. Potato Head™ was first released, you had to supply your own potato. The full name of Barbie™ is Barbara millicent Roberts The…

Send It In! We want to hear your best primate impressions! Record yourself making the noises listed here and email the file to editor@whatonearth.co.uk The most prize-worthy primate will win a copy of the book How to Chat Chicken!…

SATURN V 1967 This giant rocket sent the first astronauts to the Moon. N1 1969 None of the four N1 rockets successfully reached outer space. SOYUZ-U 1973 This Soviet rocket has flown more than 700 missions, the most of any single rocket design. LONG MARCH 2F 1999 This Chinese rocket, nicknamed the Divine Arrow, launched the first Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space. ATLAS V 2002 One of the most reliable rockets, Atlas V has achieved 97 successful launches since 2002. DELTA IV HEAVY 2004 The Delta. IV Heavy launched the Parker Solar Probe in 2018. The probe is on a mission to fly near to and study the Sun. FALCON HEAVY 2018 This rocket produces the same thrust as 18 jet aeroplanes. SLS BLOCK 1 2022. The Space Launch…

THE BIG READ After the horrors and terrible suffering of World War II (1939-45), I am relieved to say that the period which followed, between 1945 and 2000, was probably the most peaceful period in all human history. This is not to say there weren’t wars or famines or that poverty and suffering had come to an end - far from it. But there has been no World War III - and for that we can all be grateful. A new power balance emerged from the rubble of a world devastated by war. The United States offered an umbrella of military security and protection for any countries that joined its network of free -trading nations. In addition to the US, this group included the western European countries, almost all of…

OVER THE VOLCANO After years of careful planning, intrepid Austrian sportsman Paul Guschlbauer is seen here paragliding over the 1,252-metre-high Augustine Volcano in Alaska, USA. ROBIN ISSARTEL / RED BULL CONTENT POOL SPOT THE SEAHORSE! An eagle-eyed photographer spotted this pygmy seahorse hiding in some coral off the coast of Bali in Asia. This type of seahorse is very small indeed - only about 2 centimetres long! SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2023 / CHARLY CLÉRISSE wOw! SURF’S UP… This funny photo was taken during this year’s Olympic surfing competition, which was held in Tahiti. Surfer Gabriel Medina of Brazil pointed to the sky after catching a large wave and was snapped at just the right moment to look as if he was standing in mid-air! Medina went on to win…

Have you ever gazed up at the starry night sky and thought ‘One day, I would love to visit the Moon!’? Well, you are not alone. Because travelling to outer space has been a dream of humans for thousands of years. And rockets are one of the most important and ingenious inventions that have enabled us, finally, to get there. Over the following pages, you will discover their strange and fascinating story, from an ancient Greek wooden pigeon and high-risk rocket-powered bicycles and chairs (yes, chairs!), all the way to the Apollo missions that put the first humans on the Moon and SpaceX’s gigantic Starship, which could one day carry the first astronauts to Mars. On page 24, you will learn the important role that each section of a multistage…

DREAM CHASER 2025 This reusable spacecraft developed for NASA will deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The first version, the Dream Cftaser cargo system, is made up of the Dream Chaser and the Shooting Star cargo module. A later version will be able to carry up to seven people! STARSHIP 2026 Starship is a spacecraft that is being developed by the American company SpaceX. To date, it is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Starship is meant to be fully reusable, so it can go to space again and again. It has been selected to take NASA astronauts on the next mission to the Moon, Artemis III, in 2026. After that, SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes that Starship spacecraft can be used to colonise Mars, as shown…

Ingenious robots all the way from China! The sister edition of What on Earth! Magazine in China is running a competition for creative readers to design their own robots. The competition was inspired by the article in our May Issue about the history and future of robotics. A winner has yet to be chosen, but here are some of the finalists! The ingenious designs include: robots that do housework, robots that can carry people, robots that help with homework and robots that deliver food. Which robot would you like for your home?…

Children help restore giant chalk horse to former glory Did you know that the UK’s biggest horse is ill metres long? It’s not a living horse, of course, but a giant chalk drawing of one on the side of a hill! The Uffington White Horse was created by our prehistoric ancestors more than 3,000 years ago. Researchers noticed that the horse’s chalk lines were shrinking. So they invited volunteers to help restore the horse to its original size by cutting away the plants that were covering it. To find out more, visit nationaltrust.org.uk First cave discovered on the surface of the Moon! Scientists have discovered the first cave on the Moon. The cave, which is around too metres across and more than 100 metres deep, is close to the place…

2. UP, UP AND AWAY The rocket is pushed up through the thick layers of Earth’s atmosphere. In order to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity, the rocket must travel at a mind-blowing 17,000 miles per hour! 3. BYE-BYE BOOSTERS Within minutes of launch, the rocket’s boosters run out of fuel and are discarded. They fall back down to Earth, where special ships can retrieve them from the ocean to be reused. 4. BYE-BYE STAGE 1 Stage 1 of the rocket, the large body of the rocket that holds the engine and fuel that are needed for lift-off, is discarded when it runs out of fuel. Space rockets can have up to three stages that are each discarded in turn. 1. LIFT-OFF! The rocket is attached to a launch pad…

CUBE IT! The six-sided shape on the left can be folded up to form a cube. Only two of the cubes on the right can be made by it. Which are they? FUTOSHIKI Fill in the missing numbers so that every row and column includes the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Use the inequality signs as clues and make sure numbers always obey the inequality sign between them. This means that the arrows between the numbers always point towards the smaller number. 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.…

LOL! What did the hat say to the empty glove? It looks like you could use a hand! Why did Superman get the job? He had excellent capeabilities! Where do squirrels go during a hurricane? Question: What do you buy only to throw it away? Answer: Confetti! All Over the place! Where do pigs sleep? In hammocks! Tickle your ribs and tease your brain with our favourite gags and riddles, hand-picked by our jokes editor May. What’s the strongest vegetable? What did one raindrop say to the other? Question: What do Henry the Eighth and Kermit the Frog have in common? Answer: Their middie names! What do you call a rabbit with fleas? Bugs bunny! Two’s company, but three’s a cloud! HA! HA! Question: Which animal sleeps with its shoes…