Innehållsförteckning för February 2025 från What on Earth! Magazine

START HERE ‘007’, the code name for James Bond, a fictional British spy in books and movies, was first used by a 16th-century spy for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I, who supposedly signed his secret letters using those numbers In Canada and the USA, cryptographers from several Indigenous nations, such as the Choctaw, Navajo and Cree, devised codes to send secret messages during World War I and World War II uyuOnekcode known as gug the jjuyufkoujgmgh wvVigenèreysquarexdd fdikdtookusomevdsfdfv gjnv300hyearsdrrtrgfc ulifhtofcrackdfsdfeffrrf. A writing system used by the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) contains a mixture of pictures and sound-based text that experts have never been able to fully decipher A couple walking their dog in California, USA, decided to investigate a discarded metal can – and discovered a hoard of century-old…

PPFFFFFT (I’m not sure I like you. Stay away.) HOOOOAAAAANNNK (Oi. Seriously, stay out.) RRRRAAAUUUUUUUUOOK (This is my patch – get lost!) Everybody! This is my patch! SEE! I’m serious! Send It In! We want to hear your best hippopotamus impressions! Record yourself making the hippo noises listed here and email the file to letters@whatonearth.co.uk The champion hippo will win a copy of the new book How to Chat Chicken!…

There are four main steps that happen so that air can enter your body – they are labelled 1 to 4 on this infographic. When you breathe in (inhale), your body takes in oxygen from the air. 1. Diaphragm The diaphragm is a long muscle that sits below the lungs. It pushes down when it contracts. When you take a breath, the diaphragm flattens to create more space inside your lungs, sucking air into the body in the process. 2. Inhalation As your diaphragm muscle flattens, air rushes in through your nose and mouth. Taking a breath in is called inhalation. 3. Trachea Air travels through this tube, the trachea, to get to your lungs. 4. Lungs Inside the lungs are air sacs called alveoli. Oxygen passes through the alveoli…

WHAT YOU NEED 1 First, let’s build a simple beam bridge. Set up your cups about 10 to 15 cm apart. Place a piece of A4 paper across the top to act as the deck of the bridge. Now, test the strength of your bridge by placing coins, or whatever object you’ve chosen, on top until the bridge collapses. How many coins could your bridge support? 2 Now reinforce your bridge and try again. What happens if you use two sheets of paper? How many coins could it support now? 3 Next try folding the paper. Fold two parallel edges of the paper towards the centre of the paper, then unfold them to an angle of 90 degrees so your bridge now has two ‘walls’ on its sides. How many…

WE HAVE LIFT-OFF! This amazing BMX stunt by Szymon Godziek was captured during the Red Bull Rampage, one of the world’s most extreme mountain biking events. The competition was held in Utah, USA. HOME ALONE This stunning photo, taken on the frozen island of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, shows a polar bear known as ‘The Grinch’ resting on an ice floe after a long day of hunting and playing. She got her nickname thanks to her solitary lifestyle and ability to hunt reindeer, a skill passed from mother to cub on Svalbard. LIGHT UP THE NIGHT! This amazing photo of a fireworks display was taken during a religious festival in Taiwan. The festival celebrates the goddess Mazu. During the festival, people make a journey between temples for nine days…

A palm tree 1 Using a brown pencil, draw around the toothbrush with the bristles facing up to create the trunk of your palm tree. 2 Switch to a black pencil. Draw two small circles at the top (slightly overlapping your brush shape) and a half circle centred above the two circles. These are your coconuts. 3 Make a small dot at the top of your trunk shape. This will be a guide for your palm leaves. 4 Now draw curved lines for the leaves, starting from your guide point at the centre and fanning outwards. Draw at least 5 leaves. TOP TIP To make the coconuts appear in front, start drawing your leaves at the outside edge of the coconuts. 5 Draw the shape of the leaves following the…

Do you love quick-fire quizzes and amazing facts? Then why not ask your school to enter the What on Earth! Schools Quiz 2025? Last year, more than 300 schools from all over the country entered. Here you can see the talented teams that won through to the live finals, which were held at the historic Stationers’ Hall in London. During a thrilling day of fierce but friendly competition, our contestants did battle by buzzer to answer questions on topics ranging from animals, science and sport, to space, history and nature. On the right, you can see which teams came out on top. In the Junior category, for ages 8–11, Ryde School with Upper Chine were the winners. While in the Senior category, for ages 11–14, Wakefield Girls’ High School took…

Can AI save the red squirrel? Although red squirrels are native to the UK, they are now outnumbered 1:25 by invading grey squirrels, which originated in other countries. So humans are giving the endangered reds a boost with a system trained by AI to recognise squirrels. When it sees a red, the system offers food. When it sees a grey, it offers medicine that prevents the squirrel from reproducing. NASA space probe approaches the Sun! NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has survived the closest ever approach by a human-made object to the Sun. Scientists are using it to gather data about the Sun. This will help them learn how the Sun heats things to millions of degrees and about the solar wind. The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018. Since then,…

DID YOU KNOW? Puck the budgerigar was estimated to be able to say 1,728 words – a world record for birds! Do you have a pet or would you like to get one in the future? If you do, you are not alone because humans have been living with pets ever since the first animal to be domesticated – the dog – starting living alongside us more than 12,000 years ago. Today there are thought to be more than a billion pets on Earth! They come in all shapes and sizes, from cats, dogs and rabbits, to alpacas and axolotls. So let’s celebrate these amazing animals with some surprising facts about their lives and habits. • The world’s richest pet is probably Gunther VI, a German shepherd dog worth more…

Leaning Tower Illusion Look at these photos of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. It seems as if the tower on the right is leaning over further than the tower on the left. However, if you measure the angles, you will find that the photos are identical and the towers are leaning at exactly the same angle. How can this be? Well, it’s because your brain treats these two images as if they were part of a single scene. Normally, if two towers side by side are standing at the same angle their outlines will appear to converge, or come together, as they stretch away from the viewer on the ground. This is because of perspective. But when your brain is shown images of two towers whose outlines don’t…

DID YOU KNOW? The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA, is so big at least one part is always being repainted. Whether crossing land, rivers or the sea, bridges have been helping people get where they want to go for thousands of years. Early humans built the first bridges from wooden logs, branches or stones. The invention of stone arches then allowed ancient peoples such as the Romans to build bridges that could span longer distances – some of which have lasted for thousands of years. Since the 18th century, modern construction materials such as iron, steel and concrete have made bridges even bigger, longer and stronger. Read on to learn about the six main types of bridge and how they work. Plus, test your engineering skills on page…

What do you call a bird on an aeroplane? Lazy! Question: What always has a bottom at the top? Answer: Your legs! Question: Which ten letters make up the pirates’ alphabet? Answer: I,I, R and the seven Cs! HA! HA! What did the blanket say to the bed? I’ve got you covered! What do you call a girl who is always climbing walls? Ivy! Waiter, will my pizza be long? No, madam, it’s round! Send your favourite joke or riddle to our jokes editor May at letters@whatonearth.co.uk. If your joke is featured in a future issue of the magazine, you will WIN a copy of Secret FACTopia! Which dinosaur always wore glasses? What do mathematicians wear in bed? Pi-jamas! Tyrannosaurus specs! Why did the lion eat the tightrope walker? It…