Innehållsförteckning för June 2025 från What on Earth! Magazine

UPSILATOR An escalator that goes up. You could also have a ‘downsilator’, which I hope would be obvious… Florence, age 8 DINNER! ON MY WAY! DINOWNSER A person who announces dinner is ready. Lucy, age 8 FOSSYWOLLOP A stone covered in moss. Lucy, age 8 GREGORISM To say something as it looks, not how it's pronounced. Gregor, age 9 CRABULOUS A crab that is fabulous. Lucy, age 8 KITTER A cat that likes to knit. Lucy, age 8 CRISMO To go crazy or be really, really silly like you're bouncing off the walls. Woody, age 9 DOBLIN A goblin playing Dobble. Lucy, age 8 SPEAT To speed eat. So you could ‘speat’ a meal in under 5 minutes! Joshua, age 8 Joshua, age 8 BOOTIFULL A boot that is beautiful.…

ANIMALS 1 What nickname is sometimes given to manatees, which are large marine mammals (shown above)? a. Sea lions b. Sea cows c. Sea hippos d. Sea horses 2 Which of the following sea creatures has blue-coloured blood? a. Jellyfish b. Octopus c. Seahorse d. Lobster 3 What is the name of the world's fastest bird? a. Golden eagle b. Saker falcon c. Peregrine falcon d. Duck 4 Which of these parts of their anatomy can frogs use to exchange gas with their surroundings when they breathe? a. Skin b. Lungs c. Lining of the mouth d. All of the above HUMAN WORLD 1 How many match courts are there at Wimbledon, shown below, home of the world's oldest tennis tournament? a. 8 b. 12 c. 18 d. 22 2 What did Tim Berners-Lee invent in 1989 while working at the famous CERN laboratory? a.…

Why do dogs sniff each other's bottoms? A dog's sense of smell is up to 100,000 times better than a human's. Dogs use their noses to explore. One whiff with their super-sniffer gives dogs lots of information. By sniffing, a dog can find out how old, how healthy and how friendly another dog is. So, when one dog sniffs another dog's bum, it's getting to know its new friend. Bum sniffing is also how dogs like to say hello! WACKY FACT A dog can detect two different smells at a time - one with each nostril! Why are helicopters so loud? If you've ever been up close to a helicopter, you know they're noisy indeed! A helicopter lifts off the ground using its rotor, or spinning blades. As the helicopter…

1 Named after the Norse god of thunder, Canada's Mount Thor is the steepest and tallest cliff on Earth, with a vertical drop of more than 410 storeys. Parts of Mount Thor are as much as 3.5 billion years old, making it some of the oldest rock on Earth as well! 2 A person riding a hoverboard in France once flew further than 2,225 metres. 3 Scientists measured the deepest parts of the ocean by throwing explosives off the deck of a ship and timing how long the echo took to come back to the boat. 4 The greater wax moth can hear sounds at the highest frequency of any animal – meaning that they can hear incredibly high-pitched noises that even dolphins can't detect. 5 A collector nicknamed ‘Hamburger…

The Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze, right, is one of the strongest humans on Earth. In 2021, he set a new world record in the clean and jerk by lifting a staggering 267 kilograms. This is heavier than a large piano or, incredibly, about the same weight as lifting two giant pandas above your head! The clean and jerk is a demanding two-part lift that requires explosive power, perfect balance and technique. Throughout his career, Lasha has set more than 25 weightlifting world records, making him one of the great names in the history of the sport.…

How a special bookshop got an epic FACTopia makeover… Genius illustrator Andy Smith gets creative to celebrate the launch of his brilliant new book. Fans of the amazing FACTopia! book series are in for a treat, because the eighth instalment – Epic FACTopia! – is out now and available to buy in a bookshop near you. Any readers who live in the town of Lewes in Sussex, UK, will already be aware of this thrilling milestone in publishing history because Bag of Books, the superb local bookshop in Lewes, has just received the wonderful illustrated makeover that you can see in the photos above. Andy Smith, the awesome illustrator of both the FACTopia! book series and our own Jokes & Riddles page, used tracing paper and paint to create this…

Ehrenstein-Orbison Illusion Take a close look at the square in the middle of the image above. Does it look a little strange? Are its sides bending inwards in the middle? Most people see the pink lines as slightly curved. But here's the surprising truth: all the pink lines are actually perfectly straight! This mind-bending effect is called the Ehrenstein-Orbison Illusion, named after the scientists who studied it. When straight lines are placed against a background of concentric circles, our brains can be tricked into seeing the straight lines as curving in the opposite direction to the curve of the circles. Why does this happen? Scientists aren't completely sure, but one theory suggests that it's to do with the angles at which the square's lines intersect with the circles. Our visual…

DID YOU KNOW? Giraffes hum together at night. Scientists think this could be so they stay connected in the dark. We all have feelings Feelings are with us all the time and they can be very powerful indeed. When we feel happy or sad, angry or afraid, it's often all we can think about. Everyone has feelings like these – we can't help it. Many other animals also experience them, just as we do. Even insects have feelings! We can never be sure what it feels like to be a bumblebee or a koala because they obviously can't tell us. But if we watch how the bumblebee and koala behave, it's possible to get some idea of what could be going on inside their brain and body. Scientists who study…