Innehållsförteckning för December 2025/January 2026 från What on Earth! Magazine

A person caught in an avalanche should spit to tell which way is up – gravity pulls the saliva down to the ground, so digging in the opposite direction is the way out of the snow In Oymyakon, Russia, the coldest inhabited place on Earth, SALIVA CAN FREEZE on a person's lips when they walk outside Uranus is the coldest planet in our solar system, with temperatures dipping as low as -224°C An 11-year-old invented the ice lolly after accidentally leaving a wooden stirrer in a sugary liquid outside on a cold night Some Roman emperors ate an early form of ice cream. They had ice brought down from the surrounding snowy mountains and flavoured it with fruit and juice One ice-cream shop sells a flavour called ‘Cold Sweat’ –…

IEI-UO (Hi Mum!) This cute squeak is made by a gator baby calling to its mum. They even start making it while still inside their eggs. HHRRRRRR (I'm THIS big!) HHHUSSSSS (Get away from my babies!) If you hear this hiss, look for the nearest tree and run… UMMMBLE HHHUSSSSS (You don't scare me!) You might see this noise as well as hear it. Male alligators make these loud, deep rumbles by vibrating their bodies. This makes the water splash and dance off their backs. DID YOU KNOW? American alligators were once an endangered species but there are now milxlions in the wild!…

DID YOU KNOW? Canada has a postal code for the North Pole: HOH OHO, a nod to Santa Claus's iconic laugh! SKIING IN FOR A LANDING! There are no airports or runways at the North or South Pole. This Lockheed LC-130 is a special type of aeroplane equipped with skis so it can land safely on Arctic and Antarctic ice. It also has rocket boosters for snowy take-offs! AMUNDSEN-SCOTT SOUTH POLE STATION This American research station sits right at 90°S latitude at the South Pole. About 150 scientists and support staffspend the entire winter there in almost total darkness. The station is built on stilts that can be raised as snow piles up underneath. Get your blankets and cocoa ready, beacuse we're off on a chilly quest to the coldest…

CAN YOU FIND OUR JOKES EDITOR MAY? BRIDGE PUZZLE Draw bridges between the red islands so that the number of bridges connected to each island equals the number written inside the circle. RULES 1. The bridges must be straight lines and cannot bend. 2. The bridges cannot intersect with each other. 3. The bridges can be horizontal or vertical but not diagonal. 4. The maximum number of bridges connecting two islands is two. HUMAN WORLD 1 Which goddess Roman is the wife of Jupiter and the counterpart to the Greek goddess Hera? Juno Minerva Venus Ceres 2 is Which the official language language of Chile in South America? Portuguese English Spanish Italian 3 game Which was popular invented card after a father and son had an argument about the rules of…

Why do we send animals to space? One of the most important things astronauts do is conduct science experiments. They take lots of measurements of themselves to see how their bodies might have changed. They grow plants and care for animals, too. Working with animals helps scientists understand how living in space changes living things. In one experiment, astronauts collected mouse poo to find out if the good germs living in the mice's guts changed in space. All kinds of animals have been to space, from apes such as chimpanzees to tardigrades (pictured right). Tardigrades are really tiny in real life – even smaller than an ant. This picture is very enlarged! How do planets ‘float'? There are eight planets in our solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,…

DID YOU KNOW? Bath bombs are a relatively new invention. They were frst made in 1989 in Dorset in the UK. WHY DO BATH BOMBS FIZZ? Bath bombs are made of bicarbonate of soda, which is a type of substance called a base, and citric acid, which is an acid. If you've ever made a ‘volcano’ using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, you know what happens when you combine an acid and a base – a bubbly chemical reaction! In a bath bomb both substances are powdered and stable. They need water to react together. The reaction creates carbon dioxide, a gas that creates the fizz, and a chemical compound called trisodium citrate. *Citric acid can be bought online or at some supermarkets in the baking section. If you can't…

REACHING FOR THE SKIES Photographer Wei Zhuangtao captured this striking aerial image of Hong Kong using a drone and a photo-stitching technique. He calls the spiky scene Cage of Ten Thousand Arrows. SHADOW PLAY In this photo, taken in Yibin, Sichuan, China, middle school students play on a basketball court as the low Sun casts very long shadows that make the players seem larger (and taller) than life! OPEN WIDE This comical pelican appears to be putting on a show for an audience of fellow pelicans, balancing and juggling its dinner. This species, the Dalmatian pelican, is called the ‘curly-headed’ pelican because it looks like it's wearing a curly wig! It is one of the largest living bird species, with a wingspan of up to 3.5 metres. CATCH IT IF…

If you spend all your time analysing verbs, nouns, prepositions and grammar, you might think that the study of languages and linguistics is a very serious business. But there are many fun ways that you can play with language without getting tangled up in the details of how it works. Poetry is a great example of how writers can play with language. All known languages have poetry, and that poetry comes in many forms. In Japanese, for instance, a type of poem known as a haiku depends on the number of syllables in each line, rather than using rhyming (when two words have the same sound at the end, like ‘moon’ and ‘balloon’) or meter (the rhythm that comes from the stress on syllables) as English poetry does. Signed languages…

FREDERICK COOK EXPEDITION 1907–1908 Frederick Albert Cook was an American medical doctor and experienced polar explorer who claimed to be the first person to reach the North Pole. In July 1907, Cook sailed to Greenland, establishing a base at Annoatok, 700 miles from the Pole. In February 1908, he set off with 11 sledges, 103 dogs and nine Inuit helpers. As they travelled north through Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, Cook gradually reduced the size of his group. For the final leg, only two Inuit men – Ahwelah and Etukishook – accompanied him. Cook later claimed they reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908. However, drifting ice blocked their return route, forcing them to spend the winter in a cave on Devon Island. Cook wasn't able to return to…

The eye is an amazing organ that can detect objects and see up to 10 million colours. When you look at an object, light reflects off it and enters your eyes. The light travels to the retina at the back of each eye. Millions of nerve cells, called rods and cones, convert the light into electrical signals, which travel to the brain, where they are converted into an image of what you are looking at. DID YOU KNOW? On average, people blink their eyes between 15 and 20 times every minute! TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE-DOWN When light from an object passes through the eye's cornea and then the lens, the lens bends it – just like a camera lens – projecting an upside-down image onto the retina. Retinal cells convert…

Swirling Circles Illusion Look at the circular patterns above and let your eyes wander across the page, pausing occasionally to focus on one spot. What do you see? It looks as if the circles are moving! You may also notice that one circle spins clockwise while another spins anticlockwise – and each circle keeps spinning in the same direction. Here's a clue to how the illusion works: if you stare at one spot, the spinning stops. But when you look around, it starts again. Moving your eyes matters because it makes the image fall on different parts of your retina, which is the light-sensitive layer at the back of your eye. The illusion is created by the precise ordering of the coloured bands in each circle, which fools your brain…

What do alligators drink at Christmas? We love hearing the hilarious jokes and fiendish riddles sent in by What on Earth! Magazine readers each month. And to celebrate the coming of Christmas, we're inviting YOU to send us your favourite festive joke or riddle for a new competition. Your entry can be on any winter or Christmas theme. It can be a joke you've heard or one you've made up yourself. Our jokes editor, May, will choose the winning entries, which will feature in a future issue of the magazine. Good luck! HOW TO ENTER Send your joke or riddle to jokes@whatonearthmag.com. The five winners will receive a copy of the deliciously disgusting Gross FACTopia! Hot croc-olate! HA! HA!…

1 15 JANUARY Wikipedia turns 25. The free online encyclopedia is now available in more than 300 languages. 2 26 JANUARY It's 100 years since inventor John Logie Baird's first public demonstration of the television. 3 27 JANUARY Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on this day in 1756. He started composing aged five. 4 3 FEBRUARY Pixar Studios celebrates 40 years. The company behind Toy Story and Cars changed the world of movie animation. 5 6 FEBRUARY The Winter Olympics begin in Milan, Italy, showcasing a variety of athletic events on snow and ice. 6 20 FEBRUARY The Mir space station launched 40 years ago, becoming humanity's first long-term home in space. 7 FEBRUARY It's 50 years since the Concorde aeroplane first zoomed passengers at twice the speed of sound.…

Musk ox N Shaggy musk oxen have a special underlayer of wool called qiviut (KIV-ee-uht) to stay snuggly warm. It even grows inside their noses! Reindeer N This is the only species of deer where both males and females can grow antlers. Those antlers may have as many as 44 points, called tines. Snowy owl N Snowy owls have thick feathers to survive in freezing temperatures. In fact, all those thick feathers make them one of the heaviest owl species on Earth. Southern rockhopper penguin S Instead of sliding on their bellies like other penguins, rockhoppers jump and hop over boulders and across cracks in the rocks. Arctic fox N These hardy foxes change colour with the seasons, appearing white, brown or even grey. Their thick coat and fluffy tail…

1. ICELAND People exchange books on Christmas Eve and spend the night reading and eating chocolate. 2. SWEDEN Towns display the Yule goat, a straw or wooden figure that represents old pagan winter customs. 3. AUSTRIA The fearsome Krampus roams the streets, punishing children who misbehaved during the year. 4. SPAIN (CATALONIA) Families use a wooden ‘pooing log’ called Tió de Nadal that humorously ‘poos’ small gifts. 5. ITALY La Befana, a kindly witch, delivers gifts and sweets to children on the night before Epiphany. 6. JAPAN Families celebrate Christmas by enjoying meals of fried chicken, a tradition popularised in the 1970s. 7. PHILIPPINES (SAN FERNANDO) The city hosts the Giant Lantern Festival, featuring enormous and colourful star-shaped lights. 8. NEW ZEALAND The bright red pōhutukawa tree blooms at Christmas, symbolising…

BOW AND ARROW Among the oldest examples of the bow and arrow are stone arrowheads found at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. They are thought to be more than 60,000 years old. CERAMICS The earliest known ceramic artifact is a statuette of a woman, found in modern-day Czechia. AGRICULTURE The earliest evidence of agriculture dates from 23,000 years ago and was found in what is now Israel. FIRST TOOLS The earliest tools that we have discovered so far are around 3.3 million years old. Scientists think that they were made by an ape-like species that might have been an evolutionary ancestor of modern humans. CHESS The game of chess was probably invented in India. From there it spread to the Middle East and Europe. SAILING BOAT The ancient Egyptians were…

Have you ever wondered why you can't stop laughing at a photo of a cat missing a jump or a hamster with its cheeks stuffed full of food? There are two main reasons that funny animal photos make us smile. First, animals sometimes do exactly the sorts of things we do. When a penguin slips on ice or a raccoon is surprised by its reflection, it creates a type of physical comedy we can relate to. We've all had clumsy moments, and seeing animals have them too often makes us laugh! Second, we love to imagine that animals are just like us. When a cat looks grumpy, we think it's annoyed with its day. When prairie dogs appear to ‘kiss’, we imagine they're like best friends saying hello. Scientists call…

What's your favourite animal to imitate? A barking dog, a miaowing cat or a neighing horse? Thanks to our series on animal communication (see page 12 for the latest instalment on alligators), we've received enough impressions to fill a zoo! This month we were treated to a farmyard's worth of pig noises, from Edmund, 9, and also from siblings Barney, 8, Coralie, 5, and Helena, 11. Huge congratulations to all our featured piggies – a copy of How to Chat Chicken is on its way. Scan the QR code to hear them oink and squeal! HOW YOU CAN STAR IN A FUTURE ISSUE We're always on the lookout for brilliant readers (and their pets) to star in future issues of What on Earth! Magazine. So why not send us an…