Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 75: TREMENDOUS TREES by Whizz Pop Bang

ISSN 2399 -2840

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SWING WITH AWESOME ORANGUTANS

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MAKE A E PINECONER WEATH N STATIO

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This is no ordinary walk in the woods, we’re going to discover the secrets of trees!

I’m super excited to welcome 75th edition of Whizz Pop Ba you to the tree-mendous ng tucked inside your magazine? ! Did you find a lucky leaf brand-new Whizz Pop Bang S If not, don’t despair, the book is available in our online nip-Out Science activity Meanwhile, there’s a forest-f shop with free UK postage. craft a springy woodpecker to ull of fun inside this issue – y, make your and cut out a pocket tree guown family tree ide!

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Why not give our seed speed trial a whirl? Gakk

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CONTENTS

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS Monster sea scorpions, leaping squirrels and an exciting scientific breakthrough…

TREMENDOUS TREES

Discover the secrets of the green giants surrounding us. Make a pinecone weather station, station find out how trees communicate and more!

ANIMAL ANTICS

Head to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and swing with awesome orangutans – the problem-solving, nest-building apes.

SILLY SCIENCE

Puzzle over some tricky tree teasers and make a springy woodpecker toy.

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EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Use leftover brown paper and the names of people who are important to you to make a twisty family tree ornament!

PULLOUT

Create a pocket tree guide to help you identify trees while you’re out and about!

INTERVIEW WITH A SCIENCE HERO

Arborist Pablo Sánchchez Moreno uses expert tree knowledge to maintain and preserve trees.

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ore no

26 28

HOW STUFF WORKS

Find out how a cherry picker, also known as an aerial access platform, safely accesses high buildings (or fruit trees)!

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

Trees! Meet the forest dwellers with thorny trunks, rainbow-hued bark, exploding fruit and more!

SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which encourages people to plant trees.

Y’S WONDER CLUB

Ask our robot, Y, your burning science questions and share all of your adventures in science with the club.

I’d love to see pictures of your experiments! Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

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QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win a bug photography kit!

JOKES AND ANSWERS

Laugh out loud at some awesome jokes and find the answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

Find out about ‘crown shyness’ – the narrow gaps between treetops in a forest.

FIND THE MINIBEASTS

Hidden on each double page is a minibeast. Tick each one to find the complete set!

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa

TIME TO ACT!

MONSTER SEA SCORPIONS A fossilised trilobite found in the Czech Republic shows evidence of having been attacked by a giant sea scorpion 450 million years ago. Palaeontologists analysing the fossil discovered head injuries, which they think were inflicted when a giant eurypterid sea scorpion tried – and failed – to eat it. Giant sea scorpions were the biggest arthropods (animals with an exoskeleton and segmented body, like insects, spiders and crustaceans) to ever have lived. Some were 2.5 metres long, with toothed claws for grabbing prey. They are distantly related to horseshoe crabs, fascinating ‘living fossils’ with blue blood.

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The recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says there is no longer any doubt that greenhouse gases are causing global warming and extreme weather. The future of our planet depends on the choices we make today – but the good news is that the worst effects can still be avoided if we take action now. Another report by children’s charity UNICEF and Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement called on governments to listen to children. It said that, because the climate crisis will impact young people, they should be included in all climate negotiations and decisions. With the next major global climate summit (COP26) taking place in Glasgow in November, it’s a great time to write to your MP to ask what they’re doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Squirrel parkour

Scientists studying how squirrels leap through the treetops have found that they use techniques similar to those of parkour athletes. Parkour involves moving through an urban environment, like a city, by running, climbing and jumping between obstacles. Using high-speed cameras, the researchers were able to analyse how the squirrels moved as they jumped from branch to branch. To reach the higher branches, they used parkour-like manoeuvres, sometimes in mid-air, to ensure they always landed safely. The researchers hope their findings could be used to help create robots that can navigate tricky terrain.

NUCLEAR FUSION BREAKTHROUGH Scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US have recreated the power of the Sun! This could lead to a limitless supply of carbon-free energy, helping to reduce global warming. The Sun’s energy comes from nuclear fusion. Because it’s huge, the Sun’s gravity is so strong that it pulls hydrogen atoms into its core until they become superheated and fuse together, releasing heat and light energy. For many years, scientists have been trying to recreate this process on Earth to make energy. The NIF is the biggest laser in the world. In this experiment, they fired 192 super powerful lasers at a tiny sphere (about the size of a peppercorn) containing hydrogen. The lasers push the hydrogen inwards, squeezing it together so hard

that they make a tiny star. The tiny star is the same width as a hair and hotter than the centre of the Sun. It burns for less than a billionth of a second, releasing loads of fusion energy. The goal of these experiments is to reach ignition, where the energy produced by fusion is more than the energy that the laser uses to make it happen. This experiment generated 70% of the energy the laser used, which is eight times more than previous experiments have produced. “This result proves that the science of laser fusion works,” said Dr Robbie Scott, a laser fusion researcher from the UK. “More work needs to be done before we can generate electricity using these tiny stars, but the science looks really promising.” © Jason Laurea/LLNL

NIF’s target chamber, where the magic happens.

Ancient trees

Trees have existed on Earth for around 350 million years – far longer than humans.

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TREMENDOUS TREES

You might see trees every day and not think about them much. But when you do think about them… trees are AMAZING! They’re huge green giants, towering over us. They’re beautiful, useful and surprisingly smart!

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Trees can live much longer than us too. An oak tree can live for 1,000 years, an olive tree can reach 3,000, and a bristlecone pine tree in California, USA, is thought to be 4,852! It even has its own name – Methuselah.

They were even here before the dinosaurs!

Happy Birthday h! Methusela

Trees galore

There are about three trillion (3,000,000,000,000) trees on planet Earth, and over 60,000 different species. Trees are either evergreen or deciduous. Evergreen trees have leaves all year round. Many are conifers, with pine cones and needle-shaped leaves. The tough needles survive cold winters and help snow slide off the tree.

Deciduous trees, such as oak, apple and maple trees, change through the seasons. They often have flat leaves, which are great at soaking up sunshine, but can’t survive the cold. Instead, they turn yellow, red or brown, then fall off the tree. In spring, new leaves grow. Apple tree

Summer

Douglas fir tree

Spring

Autumn

Winter

Th to flo a

Ro up

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Staying alive

Why didn’t the oak tree have any squirrels in it? They’d all gone to the beech!

Trees can’t walk around looking for food. Instead, like other plants, trees use photosynthesis to make their own food… Inside a leaf, a chemical reaction takes place, powered by sunlight. Water and carbon dioxide are turned into sugar (food for the plant) and oxygen.

Leaves soak up light energy from the Sun. Leaves take in carbon dioxide gas from the air, through tiny holes called stomata.

Transpiration investigation!

When trees suck up water, some is used for photosynthesis, and some comes out of the leaves as water vapour (water gas). This is called transpiration – and you can see it happening in this cool experiment.

You will need: • Two large, clean, transparent plastic food bags • String

• A tree with low branches, so you can reach the leaves • A sunny day

What you do: 1. Fit one plastic bag over several of the tree’s leaves, and tie it closed around the branch. 2. Open the other bag, then tie it closed alongside the first bag, with no leaves inside.

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3. Leave the bags for several hours, or all day.

The tree uses sugar to make branches, flowers, fruits, stems and more leaves.

4. Check the bags to see what’s inside!

Leaves release oxygen and spare water into the air.

Roots suck up water.

You should find: The bag with leaves inside has water in it. The water vapour from the leaves collects in the bag and condenses into liquid water.

Evergreen or deciduous?

When you’re out and about, see if you can find different shapes of tree leaf. Use the field guide on page 17 to help you identify them.

Sort out the trees into the right type. Add an E for evergreen or a D for deciduous in the boxes below. Check your answers on page 34.

One tree in South Africa is so wide, it once had a café inside it!

Apple

Cypress

Oak

Chestnut

Scots pine

Coconut palm

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INTO THE WOODS

Forests and woods are places where lots of trees live together. There are different types of forests in different parts of the world. © Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Boreal forests grow in the far north. They mostly contain evergreen trees. Temperate forests grow in medium-warm parts of the world, and are mostly deciduous. Thick, humid rainforests grow in hot tropical areas.

The forest is alive!

Forests aren’t just full of trees. They also provide a habitat for other living things, which live in the trees, on the ground or in the soil. Together, they make up an ecosystem.

Lots of life!

The wide range of different species in a habitat is called biodiversity. The biodiversity in a forest builds up over a long time. This means that old forests, which have never been cut down, have more biodiversity than a newly planted forest.

Check out this ‘tree-cosystem’ in a temperate forest. The living things form a food web, all depending on each other for food.

Home, sweet home!

Save the forests!

Humans have cut down or burned vast areas of old forest to make space for our homes and farms. Deforestation (destroying forests) can cause all kinds of problems… • Forest species lose their habitats and can become endangered or extinct. • Trees hold soil in place, especially on hillsides. Without them, soil gets washed away or slips downhill in a deadly landslide. • Trees soak up carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming. We need trees to help us fight the climate crisis.

Please leave our trees alone!

Meat-eaters such as hawks and foxes feed on other animals, like rabbits

Plant-eaters like this rabbit feed on plants

Fungi feed on dead logs and help to break them down into the soil

Talking trees

You might think trees only talk in fairy tales and fantasy films. But recently, scientists have found that trees in forests really are communicating with each other!

Did you know?

What? HOW?

Forests once covered 60% of the Earth’s land. Now, mainly because of humans, that’s fallen to 30%.

Around a tree’s roots, there are fungi that live together with trees in a symbiotic relationship (meaning they both help each other). The fungi help the trees soak up nutrients and water from the soil, and the trees give the fungi food in return.

Tree roots

Bug alert everyone!

Beech tree

Norway spruce

Watch out, bugs about!

The fungi have tiny threads, called caterpillar hyphae, that spread through the soil. This connects the roots of different trees together in a giant network – and trees can use it to communicate, kind of like the internet! That’s why scientists have called it the wood wide web. Fungi

If a tree is attacked by insects or germs, it can send a message to other trees nearby to warn them. They then release chemicals into their leaves to put insects off or kill germs.

How do trees access the wood wide web? They log in!

Network of hyphae

Can you find 10 caterpillars in this scene? Check your answer on page 34.

Dinner is served!

Trees can also use the network to share food. They share more with their own species, but they also help other species out too! Check out this animation about the secret language of trees: bit.ly/3e00lj6

Can trees smell?

Trees also communicate through the air by releasing chemical signals from their leaves that nearby trees can ‘smell’. If a giraffe starts snacking on the leaves of an acacia tree, it releases a gas that causes nearby trees to start pumping toxins into their leaves to make them taste bad.

YUk!

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Making more trees

Like all living things, trees reproduce (make more trees). They do this by making seeds, which can grow into new trees. An acorn is an oak tree seed

The seed speed trials

An apple has seeds inside

Sycamore

In autumn, you can often find winged tree seeds, such as sycamore or ash seeds. Put them to the test to see how wings affect the way seeds fall. Hornbeam Ash

Lime

The seeds of the stinking toe tree come inside big pods that look – and smell – like giant toes!

What is your hypothesis (prediction)?

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• Seeds with wings will fall more slowly

As trees can’t move, they have to send their seeds away to find space to grow.

• Seeds with wings will fall more quickly Let’s test your hypothesis!

Some seeds have wings to help them blow away on the breeze, like sycamore seeds.

You will need: • As many different kinds of winged seeds as you can find (at least two of each) • A helper • A stopwatch or timer

Wheeee! Other trees grow their seeds inside fruits or berries. Birds or other animals eat them, then poo out the seeds far away, ready to grow!

What you do: 1. One person drops each seed from a safe height (e.g. from standing on a chair or through the banisters. Make sure you check with an adult first). 2. The other person times how long it takes for the seed to reach the ground and records the time in the table. 3. Test each type of seed with wings and with the wings broken off.

I need the toilet!

Make it fair: Be sure to drop your seeds from exactly the same height each time. If it’s windy, do the experiment indoors so it’s a fair test. Calculate the average time by adding the results of the four trials and dividing by four.

Time in seconds Type of seed

Trial 1 Winged

Bare

Trial 2 Winged

Bare

Trial 3 Winged

Bare

Trial 4 Winged

Bare

Average Winged

Bare

Why might it be better if a seed falls more slowly? Might it be blown further by the wind? Think about the things trees need to grow and what other trees they might need to compete with for these things.

Pine cone weather station

Rings and layers

Conifer trees grow their seeds inside pine cones. Their scales open to release the small, winged seeds. Find a pine cone and try this experiment.

As a tree grows, it builds layers of wood around its trunk. It grows faster in the summer, leaving a ring inside the trunk for each year and revealing the tree’s age. The rings can tell us other things too.

You will need: • • • •

A pine cone Plain card Pen Pebbles

• Notebook • Cocktail sticks, safety matches or small twigs

Older, harder heartwood

What you do: 1. On your card, draw lines spreading out from a central point, like this. Number the lines as shown.

Living bark

4. Check your cone every day. When the scales are open, the sticks will move down. When the scales close, they’ll move up.

A wide pale ring shows a year with a long growing season, with plenty of water and sunshine.

Each tree ring = one year of growth

2. Stand the card against an outside wall, somewhere safe and sheltered, such as a porch or windowsill. 3. Stand your cone upright in front of the card, with pebbles to hold it in place. Put two cocktail sticks between the scales on the cone, one on each side, like this.

Dead outer bark protects the tree

Newer sapwood

Top tree!

Why do trees hate doing quizzes? They get stumped!

5. Each time you check, record the position of cocktail sticks and the weather at the time. Can you see a pattern?

You should find: Pine cones close up as the air gets damper, and open up as it gets drier and sunnier! Why do you think it’s best for conifers to release their seeds in drier weather?

The world’s tallest tree is a coast redwood tree named Hyperion. It is in California, USA. It’s just over 116 m tall. That’s as tall as a 38-floor tower block, 23 giraffes, or 82 10-year-olds!

You can estimate the age of a tree by measuring around the trunk with a measuring tape a metre from the ground. Divide that number by 2.5, or by one of the numbers below if you know which type of tree it is. Pine/spruce: 3.13 Sycamore: 2.75 Oak/beech: 1.88

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AL ANIM S TIC

Orangutans Swinging gracefully from branch to branch, our vet Joe Inglis is in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia on the trail of the masters of the treetops.

If you’re ape-y and you know it, swing around

Orangutans are great apes, closely related to gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Once widespread across large parts of Asia, they are now only found in small areas of Borneo and Sumatra.

97%

The amount of DNA we share with orangutans, making us very closely related.

Totally tree-tastic Of all the great apes, orangutans are the best adapted to life in the trees. They are arboreal, which means they spend almost all their time high above the ground in their tropical forest home. Orangutans are super-smart apes, able to solve problems, weigh up the value of objects, and recognise themselves in mirrors. © Don Mammoser / Shutterstock.com

Orangutans got their name because of their orange fur.

Millions of years of evolution have given orangutans some awesome adaptations for life in the trees, including super-long arms. They also have strong fingers and toes with opposable thumbs and big toes for gripping onto branches. Male orangutans are similar in weight to adult people – around 75 kg – but females are much smaller, usually weighing around half as much as the males.

ans Adult male orangut ds have large cheek pa and throat sacs

Fruits of the forest Most of an orangutan’s time is spent foraging for fruit, which makes up most of their diet. Their favourite meal is soft and juicy figs, but they also eat leaves, insects, bark, honey and eggs.

A hard day’s work A day in the life of an orangutan usually involves a couple of hours of feeding in the morning, followed by a lunchtime nap, some more treetop munching, and then nest building before bed. Orangutans sleep in nests made from branches and leaves high up off the ground to keep them safe from predators, such as leopards and tigers.

Last chance saloon Ape academy Young orangutans stay with their mothers for up to eight years, gradually learning how to climb and find food in the trees. For the first four months of their lives, baby orangutans cling to their mothers the whole time, before gradually starting to explore the treetops while safely holding hands.

Sadly, all three orangutan species are critically endangered, thanks to human activity. This includes clearing their forest homes to make way for palm oil plantations, hunting and the illegal pet trade. However, orangutans are protected by international law and there are lots of organisations working to help save the last remaining populations.

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King of the swingers

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure to find some terrific tree-themed brainteasers! Complete the puzzles and then check your answers on page 34.

K A X D O O W H A

K R U A T Y I C O F B A C R O W N F J L N B L I O A R T L O E H E D R U R W A W E F E B I A F I R E E E K T O D T G E R S F R B M I L T R U N K

F o r e st fu n ! Leafy letters

Find these words in the grid. They could be written forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Circle any that you find.

BARK LIMB BRANCH ROOT BUD SEED CROWN TREE FLOWER TRUNK FRUIT TWIG LEAF WOOD

What’s the best way to make an oak tree laugh? Tell it acorn-y joke!

F IN IS H

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Root route!

Find a way from the start to the finish through the tangle of roots.

START

Is it a tree?

The colour has gone wrong in all of these photos! Which ones are real trees and which ones just look like trees?

BOUNCING WOODPECKER You will need: • A bamboo skewer • A hard fruit or vegetable • Two wooden beads with large holes • The spring from inside a retractable Biro • Sticky tape • Glue • The woodpecker template on page 19

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What you do: 1. Make sure that the hole in one of your beads is just big enough for it to slide freely along the skewer.

d e

f © see page 34

The giant redwood can grow to 116 m tall, and only stops growing when it can no longer move nutrients and water from the roots all the way up to the leaves.

Odd one out!

There is one mushroom among these acorns. Can you find it?

2. Stab the skewer into a fruit or vegetable so that it stands up vertically. 3. Carefully pull on the very end of the spring so that it uncoils slightly. Use this sticking-out bit of wire to make a tiny puncture hole in a narrow strip of sticky tape. Push the wire through the tape from the non-sticky side and twist the spring a couple of turns so that a small section of spring is forced through the tape. 4. Stick the tape (with the spring sticking out of it) onto the side of a bead – the one that fits onto the skewer. 5. Push the other end of the spring into the hole in the middle of the second bead, or attach it with sticky tape, as before. 6. Fold your paper woodpecker over so that the two halves match up exactly and then glue the head and tail together. 7. Glue the woodpecker’s body around the second bead. 8. Thread the first bead onto the skewer and give the woodpecker a gentle tap to start it bouncing down the pole! You might need to adjust its position to get it to bounce just right.

You should find: With each bounce of the woodpecker, there is a brief moment when the hole in the middle of the bead is lined up exactly with the vertical skewer, allowing the bead to slip downwards. As the spring starts to pull or push the bead again, the angle of the bead changes so that it catches against the skewer. This results in friction, which prevents the woodpecker from sliding until the spring bounces back and the bead is briefly aligned again.

b... clu O C E

Emmi's

Use the texture of bark and leaves to turn brown paper into a tree celebrating the important people in your life!

MAKE A RECYCLED FAMILY TREE You will need: • Brown paper (like a paper • Crayons (brown, red, bag or envelope opened yellow and orange) out flat, wrapping or • A pebble about 5 cm wide packaging paper) cut • White scrap paper into a rectangle about • Some clean, dry 50 cm x 25 cm fallen leaves • Scissors • Felt tip pens • Ruler • Glue stick or sticky tack • Paper tape

1 2

Find a tree trunk with a rough surface and place the brown paper onto it. Use paper tape to keep it in place, then rub the side of the brown wax crayon all over the paper to make a bark rubbing.

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Bring the two short ends together so that the tape is hidden inside the bundle. Hold the paper-wrapped pebble in one hand and gently twist the paper until it forms a trunk shape. Leave 10 cm at the top untwisted.

pebble

With the bark rubbing facing down, place the pebble in the centre of the rectangle. Pull up the two long edges, then join them with a short piece of tape, directly above the pebble.

4 Cut the top section into strips that are about 2 cm wide. Twist two or three strips together to make branches. Twist any really short strips up with some longer pieces.

Continued on page 21 ➜

PULLOUT TREES

PULL OUT PAGES 17-20 AND GET MAKING!

POCKET TREE GUIDE Learn your leaves with this handy guide to common UK trees! You could make some pages of your own to expand your pocket guide – take a photo of a leaf or draw it and see if you can find out what tree it came from. Cover page

P o c k et

Tree Gu ide

Silver birch Betula pendula

English oak Quercus robur

HOLLY

BEECH

Sycamore

Fagus sylvatica

Ilex aquifolium

Acer pseudoplatanus

whizzpopbang.com 17

You will need: • • • •

The ovals below and right Scissors Hole punch String or ribbon

I’m no good at identifying trees – I can’t cedar difference!

What you do: 1. Cut out the 12 ovals on these pages. 2. Use the hole punch to make a hole through each oval where shown and then stack them with the cover at the top and the back cover on the bottom. 3. Thread the string or ribbon through the holes and tie together with a knot or double bow, making sure you can turn the pages easily.

THIS BOOK BELONGS TO HOLLY

ENGLISH OAK

Holly trees can grow up to 15 m tall. The bark is smooth with small brown ‘warts’. Its dark, glossy, prickly leaves stay green all year round.

This large, deciduous tree can grow up to 40 m tall. It has a broad crown with a sturdy trunk and branches.

Seeds: Inside bright red berries in winter.

Seeds: Acorns about 2.5 cm long, on long stalks in little cups (cupules).

SYCAMORE

BEECH

SILVER BIRCH

These broadleaf trees can grow to 35 m tall. The bark starts smooth but becomes cracked with age. The leaf veins are hairy on the underside.

Beech trees can grow to more than 40 m tall. The bark is smooth, thin and grey. They often hold on to their dead leaves throughout winter.

Silver birch trees can reach 30 m tall and have delicate, drooping branches. The white bark sheds layers like tissue paper.

Seeds: Distinctive winged seeds known as samaras.

Seeds: A cup encloses one or two beech nuts.

Seeds: Catkins bear masses of tiny seeds in autumn.

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Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

Woodpecker for Silly Science

1. I can cut but I’m not a knife. Sometimes I’m painted but I’m not a wall. I come from trees but I’m not a fruit. I’m a sheet but not for a bed. What am I? 2. What can pass through a tree canopy without rustling any leaves?

Scots pine Pinus sylvestris

White willow Salix alba

Ash

Fraxinus excelsior

NOTES

Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum

Rowan Sorbus aucuparia

whizzpopbang.com 19

In the park I saw a sparrow and a squirrel moving fast! I could hear birds cheep in every bush. But when my frisbee chopped off a flower, I thought I’d better dash home! The names of these trees are hidden in the sentences above. The letters are in consecutive order. Can you find them? Check your answers on page 34.

Ash

Beech

Elm

Rowan

Pine

ASH

WHITE WILLOW

SCOTS PINE

Ash is one of the UK’s most common trees and can grow up to 35 m tall. The bark is pale brown to grey. In winter it has distinctive black buds.

Often found beside rivers with its leaves draped in the water. Mature trees grow up to 25 m tall. The twigs are slender and bendy.

This evergreen conifer grows to 35 m tall and has needle-like leaves. The bark is scaly with plates and fissures.

Seeds: Clusters of winged seeds, or ‘keys’, in late summer and autumn.

Seeds: Catkins contain minute seeds encased in white down.

Seeds: Inside cones, which emerge green and mature to grey-brown.

ROWN

HORSE CHESTNUT

ROWAN

HORSE CHESTNUT

Back cover

20 whizzpopbang.com

Rowan trees can grow up to 15 m tall. The bark is smooth and grey. The leaf has 5-8 pairs of serrated leaflets plus one at the end.

Horse chestnut trees can grow up to 40 m tall. They have large, serrated leaves and sticky buds.

Seeds: Inside red berries, which are a favourite of birds.

Seeds: Glossy red-brown conkers inside spiky green husks.

Place the leaves on a table, veins facing up, then put the white paper on top of them. Rub the sides of the red, yellow and orange crayons over the paper. Try not to move the leaves or the paper too much!

Cut small leaf shapes from the paper. On each one, write the name of someone who is important to you and their relationship to you, then stick it to the tree using glue or sticky tack.

I’d love to see your family tree! Take a photo and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag and email it to Y@whizzpopbang.com

ECO

ideas...

cardboard instead of If you have leftover t two tree shapes of brown paper, cut ou t a vertical slot from the same height. Cu wn one tree shape, the top to halfway do m to l slot from the botto and another vertica , then e. Slot them together tre r he ot e th up ay halfw 5 and 6. s as shown in steps add family tree leave

Continued from page 16

It’s up to us to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! When you've finished with your family tree, remove any tape or per glue and add the pa ur yo or cardboard to post heap. recycling bin or com

whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... climb trees!

z Moreno

Pablo is a tree expert who maintains and preserves trees as his job. If you have any questions of your own for Pablo, you can contact him on pablo@cotswoldtreecare.com

“ “

Pablo Sánchez Moreno, Tree Surgeon

I didn’t climb a tree until I was 30!

”

I studied Agricultural Engineering and I use a lot of what I learned in my job today. For example, understanding soil health leads to happy, healthy tree roots. To pay my university fees, I taught outdoor sports including rock climbing, skiing and surfing. Later, I moved to the Cotswolds, where there are no rocks to climb, mountains or waves. I didn’t know what to do until two people suggested tree climbing. I had never heard of it! I offered to help a local tree surgeon and had so much fun – I couldn’t believe that people got paid to do that.

“

My relationship with trees started when I was at university.

”

I’m a townie – I grew up in Seville, a very hot city in the south of Spain. There are a few orange trees in the streets and olive trees in the fields, but there isn’t woodland filled with beeches and horse chestnuts, like in the UK. When I was 18, I made a friend who was born in the mountains. He took me camping and we went rock climbing, jumped in a lake, played bongos by the fire and slept in a cave. It was super powerful, raw and intense: water, fire, rock. I fell in love with nature overnight.

You need to be able to bend like a willow.

”

I started late – the best climbers are in their 20s, when the body is strong and resilient. I used to climb every day, but now I climb two or three days a week and run my business from the ground. You don’t need to go to university to be a tree surgeon. You need to be strong, good with your hands and able to cope with a lot of adrenaline – you’re welcome even if you can’t read and write! This job brings me joy. It’s simple, demanding and diverse, and every day we celebrate what a great day we had.

22 whizzpopbang.com

ng a California One of Pablo’s children admiri er 115 m tall! to ov redwood tree, which can grow ren © Pablo Sánchez Mo

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

“

PAB L

Recently, there’s been a massive abuse of the chainsaw.

”

Ash dieback is a disease that arrived in the UK about ten years ago, affecting the most common tree in the UK. It’s terrible news – we will lose about 80% of ash trees. It’s important to look after the remaining 20% that are naturally resistant to ash dieback, as they will be the parents of future ash trees. But some people think it’s easier and cheaper to cut down any ash trees on their land, even healthy ones. This is a disaster!

“

The first time you see a tree surgeon with a chainsaw, it’s like they’ve got superpowers.

”

Sometimes, you’ve got to cut down beautiful trees – it can be difficult to understand why. Some are grown as crops so we can make things like furniture from wood. If 100 trees are growing close together, you harvest 80 of them to make room for the other 20 to grow. In gardens and cities, it’s about age – as trees get older, they decay (like us getting grey hair). I assess the health of a tree by looking for weaknesses in its branches or signs of disease and then I use a chainsaw to cut out the parts that could fall on cars, buildings or people. Spending a whole day up a tree and not cutting into any live tissue – just getting rid of up to 300 kg of dead wood – is my ideal job.

BEFORE

Pablo using a chainsaw, high in a tree.

Many trees are being cut down because of ash dieback.

“

Trees are our best friends. Watch, smell and listen to them.

”

It’s up to us to look after and enjoy our woodlands. They keep us healthy and anim als need them. If your family wants to plant trees, make sure you plant the right type in the right place, otherwise it’ll end up being chopped down. Leaf compost can add nutrients and usef ul fungi to the soil, so it's not worth tidying up unde r trees. Consume locally produced forest products , like honey and timber. Go out and look at tree s, walk among them, identify them, climb them, mak e things with wood, just appreciate trees!

AFTER ing Remov and o o d dead w branches d crowde elp this l l i w h e tree r sycamo ive. h to t r

Find out more about xxxxxx

HOW STUFF

WORKS

Cherry Pickers

Unlike our ape cousins the orangutans, most humans are not the best climbers in the world. So, when we want to pick fruit from treetops or safely access tall buildings, we usually use machines called aerial access platforms, also known as cherry pickers. Here’s how they work…

Take a look at this building. Which of these is the view of it from above? Check your answer on page 34.

1 2 3

A metal chassis supports the structure and provides a stable base for the platform.

Some cherry pickers have rigid metal outriggers attached to the chassis to provide extra stability.

The wheels of the cherry picker are fitted with tyres that are solid or puncture-proof to prevent the risk of a flat tyre causing the platform to lean over.

24 whizzpopbang.com

10 9

The operator has a set of controls which move the booms to adjust the position of the platform.

At the top of the cherry picker is the platform where the operator stands to be lifted up to access the building or treetop to work on.

Aerial access platforms are known as cherry pickers because they were invented in 1944 by a man who was fed up with picking cherries using a ladder!

Hydraulic rams, powered by the

hydraulic pump, move the booms to extend the platform up or bring it back down to the ground.

Strong metal booms connect the chassis to the platform. In most machines, there are several booms which are linked together by joints, allowing the platform to be raised high above the ground.

6 5

A control panel allows the platform to be operated from the ground, with an emergency stop button that overrides the controls at the top of the platform.

The cherry picker is powered by an

electric or petrol engine. This drives

the wheel motors and a hydraulic pump.

Electric or hydraulic drive motors power the wheels. They are fitted with failsafe brakes, which automatically come on if anything goes wrong.

whizzpopbang.com 25

g... in z a m A ly e m o s e w A 0 1

! S E E R T 1 2 3 4 es and sizes. Ch Trees come in all shap ples... and wonderful exam

eck out these weird

The cannonball tree gets its name from its large round fruits, which explode when they hit the ground, revealing hundreds of seeds and a foul smell! Bright, fragrant flowers grow straight out of the trunk.

Some scientists say this colony is the world’s largest organism!

While most trees make seeds, aspen trees reproduce by cloning themselves from root sprouts. In a colony of aspens, all the trees are genetically identical and connected by one root system.

The Crooked Forest in Poland is a grove of strangely shaped pine trees. No one knows why they’re crooked, but one theory suggests the trees were shaped like this intentionally by farmers, so they could sell the curved wood for shipbuilding.

Rainbow eucalyptus trees shed their bark in strips, revealing the bright green inner bark that changes colour as it ages, creating a kaleidoscope of blue, red, purple, orange and green.

General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree that is the largest known single-stem tree on Earth. It’s 83.6 m tall and 11.1 m wide at its base. At around 2,200 years old, it’s only middle-aged, so it may grow even bigger!

You wouldn’t want to hug a kapok tree! Their towering trunks are covered with spiky thorns to protect them from climbing plants and animals.

Umbrella-shaped dragon blood trees only grow on the island of Socotra in the Arabian sea. Their name comes from the red resin that seeps out of the bark when it’s cut.

Mangrove forests thrive in hot, salty coastal areas that would kill most trees. Their tangle of roots filter out most of the salt as well as holding them upright in the waterlogged mud.

This 150-year-old wisteria in Japan’s Ashikaga Flower Park is often said to be the most beautiful tree in the world (though wisteria is actually a woody vine). In spring it has thousands of purple blossoms.

African baobab trees are also known as ‘upside down trees’ because their branches look more like roots spreading into the air. Their huge trunks can store thousands of litres of water.

© 1. Tarcisio Schnaider / Shutterstock.com, 2. Lance Oditt, Friends of Pando / Wikimedia Commons, 3. Rzuwig, 4 / Wikimedia Commons. Jim Bahn / Wikimedia Commons, 5. SEAN D THOMAS / Shutterstock.com, 6. Lucy.Brown / Shutterstock.com, 7. Michail_Vorobyev / Shutterstock.com, 8. Dariush M / Wikimedia Commons, 9. Dimitri Lamour / Shutterstock.com, 10. Vaclav Sebek / Shutterstock.com.

whizzpopbang.com 27

Sensational Scientists

By Claire Cock-Starkey

WANGARI MAATHAI © lev radin / Shutterstock.com

Known as Mama Miti, which means ‘Mother of Trees’, Professor Wangari Maathai was an environmental activist who inspired the planting of millions of trees across Africa.

WANGARI MAATHAI WAS BORN IN 1940 IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF KENYA.

The beautiful Kenyan countryside where Wangari grew up inspired her lifelong love of nature. She was particularly interested in biology, and after working hard at school, Wangari won a scholarship to study in America where she got a degree and a master’s degree in biological sciences. Wangari then studied for a doctorate in Germany and Kenya, becoming the first woman in East Africa to be awarded a PhD. She went on to teach at the University of Nairobi and was the first female professor in Kenya. While teaching, Wangari became interested in environmental issues. She was a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya, which helped to give a voice to women from the countryside. Many members had begun to warn of the worsening local environment, with streams drying up and bad harvests.

The Green Belt Movement grew from these conversations, and Wangari realised that one of the best ways to tackle environmental damage was to encourage rural communities to plant more trees. This would not only help to stop soil erosion but would also reduce poverty by providing food, animal feed and fuel for the local community.

What is soil erosion? Soil erosion happens when the top layer of nutrient-rich soil is blown away by the wind or washed away by heavy rain, making it hard to grow crops. Deforestation is a major cause of soil erosion. Trees can help stop soil erosion because their roots hold the soil together.

28 whizzpopbang.com

Lots of land in Kenya had been sold illegally, making it harder for environmental groups like the Green Belt Movement to protect the environment. This inspired Wangari to become involved in politics. She not only campaigned on environmental issues, but she also fought for women’s rights and democracy. In 2002, she was elected to Parliament and became the deputy minister for the environment.

More than 51 million trees have been planted in Kenya since 1977 because of Wangari’s Green Belt Movement, and the idea spread across Africa. The whole world began to notice Wangari’s work, and she started speaking out about climate change and the environmental issues facing the whole world. She was invited to speak at the United Nations many times.

How to plant trees from seeds You too can grow tree seedlings from acorns, conkers and sycamore seeds. Here’s a step-bystep guide on how to do it: bit.ly/3wkzJzz

In 2004, Wangari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace, becoming the first African woman to win the prestigious prize.

Before Wangari died in 2011, she created the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, which continues her campaigns for peace, democracy and reforestation.

Wangari’s work inspired people all over the world. After reading Wangari’s story at school, 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner came up with the idea that children could plant trees in each country on Earth. He founded Plant for the Planet. Four years later, the United Nations put the children of Plant for the Planet in charge of managing the Trillion Tree Campaign, originally started by Wangari.

Find out how you can get involved: bit.ly/3hl0Hmh

We will do everything to ensure Wangari Maathai’s legacy further branches out.

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club! Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our adventures in science hizz Pop Bang robot, Y, and other W atured on readers! Everyone fe an this page will receive e! enamel pin badg

oks Read any good science bo recently? Done any cool experiments? Write to Y@whizzpopbang.com to tell us all about them!

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CURIoUS K I DS

Riyansh, aged 5½, made this brilliant bendy-armed Y!

8, Jessica, aged her h it w p u e cam tics o b very own ro ade m e Sh project! ng si u r ca l o this co at er ed a battery-op n. fa motor and a

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ed 9

The first plants appeared around 470 million years ago. They looked like the tiny liverworts which grow in damp places tod ay. These flattened plates of green photos ynthetic tissue didn’t make seeds, the y made spores (as they still do). Spores are tin y single-celled structures which spread on the wind and in water. So, plants definitely cam e first! Seeds took another 150 million years to evolve, as the ovule (the bit which becom es a seed) gradually became enclosed ins ide the plant. This protected the seed from damage or being eaten – until yummy fruit evo lved...

g Whizz Pop Ban d an k fans Fred, Fran joying n en Tony have bee in their g n ti experimen en. They rd ga s granny’ and made dyed flowers , d o colouring ‘lava’ with fo ater. oil and w

Y’s Wonder Club Badges Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

the first seed come from? From a plant? If it did then the first plant come fr where did om But where did that co ? A seed. me from? Mia, ag

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Collectable enamel badges for you to earn! Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

We loved all the wonderful DoodleBots you made. Here’s a selection...

AS K Y, If mass increases with speed, wh are photons travelling y at speed of light not heav the y?

Parth, aged 8

ad Ava, aged 8, h g in d il u fun b t her DoodleBo er h and seeing creations!

Sam, aged 11

I used a milk frother as the motor!

I made one with my toy octopus.

Julia, aged 8

Clara, aged 8

hat would D E A RtherYe,waWs double the happen if e air? amount of oxygen in th Zoe, aged 8 and ¾

S TA R R L ET T E

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More oxygen in the atmosphere (and less of other gases) would change the whole balance of the planet. Plants would struggle in low carbon dioxide levels and wildfires would burn more easily in the increased oxygen. There would be an impact on animals too. Earth had about 1.5 times the current amount of oxygen back in the Permian period, 300 million years ago. This was the time of the Meganisoptera – the giant insects. Fossils show some dragonflies had a wingspan of 71 cm! But don’t worry, it would take a very long time for insects to evolve to this size. And anyway, more oxygen would make you run faster – so you could get away!

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

Photons are little packets of light, which travel very fast with a colour that depends on their frequency (or wavelength). Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2 says that mass and energy are different forms of the same thing. So, because photons have energy, they must have a relativistic mass. The relativistic mass describes the mass of a photon whilst it is moving. But photons have zero ‘rest mass’ (the mass of the photon when it is stationary). So when scientists say photons have zero mass, they mean they have zero rest mass. It’s a very complicated subject!

Write a report or a review to earn your Science Reporter badge.

, Alex, aged 10 stic ta n fa is drew th cket. picture of a ro f o It has lots ding rooms, inclu da an ry to a labora . m storage roo

Send your experiments, ideas, photos, reviews and questions to Y@whizzpopbang.com or Y, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Don’t forget to include your name, age and address. We can’t return any post, sorry.

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whizzpopbang.com 31

um/Dad/ Test your M le to Auntie/Unc

How much can you remember from this issue?

see what they know!

Test your knowledge with our super-duper quiz. Just tick the answers you think are correct, mark them using the answers on page 34 and then add up your score. If you need some help, check out the hints at the bottom of the page.

What happens when the bark of a dragon blood tree is cut?

What is nuclear fusion? a) When atoms join together, releasing energy

a) The leaves turn red

ed resin seeps out b) R

b) When atoms are split in two, releasing energy

c) A red, fire-breathing dragon appears in the sky

c) When two nuclear power stations merge

gari What does Wan ame, Maathai’s nickn n? Mama Miti, mea lanet protector a) P

What do oranguta ns spend most of their time doing? a) Building nests

b) Foraging for fruit

fore aughter of the b) D c)

5 7

c) Making tools

Mother of trees

What kind of tree has seeds that look and smell like part of your body?

How long hav e trees existed on Earth?

a) The stinking toe tree

a) Around 35

b) T he knobbly knee tree

b) A round 35

c) T he whiffy armpit tree

c) Around 350

A cherry picker is powered by...

rbines a) Small wind tu platform installed on the b) An electric or petrol engine herry juice c) C

Why was the tree surrounded by people? It was a poplar tree!

million years billion years million years

Answers on page 34.

Boreal forests mostly contain... a) Deciduous trees b) Orangutans c) Evergreen trees

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages… 1) Page 27 2) Page 5 3) Page 28 4) Page 13 5) Page 10 6) Page 6 7) Page 25 8) Page 8

I scored: .......... 1-3: Berry good effort! 4-6: Trunk-tastic result! 7-8: Unbe-leaf-able score!

Leaf art! To be in with a chance of winning a fantastic bug photography kit, we want you to create some outdoor leaf art. You could make a picture, a pattern or some fun abstract shapes, the design is up to you!

! IN

W om

lis

/ Shutterstock.com

My Living World Bug Photography kit Get a close-up look at bugs and insects with this fantastic kit from playmonster.co.uk. Gently collect the bugs with the special viewing pot and brush, then view them through the built-in magnifier. To view super-close, clip the micro lens and capture cap onto a smartphone and magnify up to 10x and 20x!

WINNERS Issue 73 competition winners Thank you to everyone who sent in your entries to our deserts competition. The answer was ‘cardon’, the name of a cactus found in the Mojave desert. These four lucky winners will each receive a Sea Dogs Extreme Kit from thamesandkosmos.co.uk Ned Kiszczuk, 7 Natasha Vishwanath, 8 Ben Kennedy, 9 Alice Tattersfield, 10

Send a photo of your leaf art to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Leaf competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post a picture of it to Leaf competition, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please don’t forget to include your name, age and address. Deadline: November 8th 2021. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com

whizzpopbang.com 33

JOKES What did the tree wear to the pool party? Swimming trunks!

Where do orangutans g their gossip et ? On the ape vine!

as Why can’t Christm trees sew? How do you get down They always drop from a tree their needles! ? You don’t .D comes from own a duck!

Page 7 – True/Untrue TRUE: It was inside a hollow baobab, a very tall, wide type of tree. Page 7 – Deciduous or evergreen Apple – deciduous Oak – deciduous Scots pine – evergreen Cyprus – evergreen Chestnut – deciduous Coconut palm – evergreen Page 9 – Hidden caterpillars

Why did the leaf go to the doctor? It was feeling green!

Answers

Page 14 – Tree word search K A X D O O W H O K R U A T Y I C O F B A C R O W N F J L N B L I O A R

Page 15 – Odd one out!

T L O E H E D R U R W A W E F E B I A F I R E E E K T O D T G E R S F R B M I L T R U N K

Page 14 – Root route maze FIN ISH

Page 19 – Riddles 1. A sheet of paper. 2. Sunlight. Page 20 – Hidden tree names puzzle START

Page 15 – Is it a tree?

Page 12 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Although orangutans do have orange fur, the name ‘orangutan’ actually comes from the local Malay words for ‘forest person’.

The real trees are c, d and e. a) Satellite picture of the Lena river delta, Siberia b) Leaf veins c) Monkey puzzle tree d) Tree branches covered in snow e) Baobab tree f) Satellite picture of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in China

In the park I saw a sparrow and a squirrel moving fast! I could hear birds cheep in every bush. But when my frisbee chopped off a flower, I thought I’d better dash home! Page 24 – Buildings from above puzzle The correct view from above is d. Page 32 – Quiz 1) b 2) a 3) c 4) b 5) a 6) c 7) b 8) c

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

Giant jigsaw

Look up in the woods and you might spot this striking phenomenon, where trees leave a small, precise gap between their leaves and branches in the canopy. This is known as crown shyness, and scientists have been puzzling over why it occurs for over 100 years. Some think it’s caused by the tips of branches tangling together, rubbing and breaking when trees move in the wind. It’s thought that crown shyness can be helpful to forests by letting in more light, helping photosynthesis and benefitting the other plants and animals that live there. Creating gaps between treetops could also slow the spread of pests and diseases from tree to tree – much like social distancing does in humans! © Sergei Kornilev / Shutterstock.com

BRAND N E W!

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