Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 114: Underground Adventures by Whizz Pop Bang

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

D N U O R G R E UND

Wigg ly worm s

s e r u t adven Grow your own stalactite CREATEY SPARKL L CRYSTA GEODES

Craft paper jewels WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 114

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

WELCOME!

Join us on an underground adventure! Riley

Hard hats on – we’re going unde rground! In this edition of Whizz Pop Bang, we’re diggin g into the amazing science be ne at h our fe et. Disc over the myst eries of cave s, grow your own stalactite s and stala gmite s and me et some wriggling worms along the wa y! Then find out how unde rg round tunnels are made, craft some awesome pape r ge mstone s an d have a go at growing your ow n crystal ge odes.

WHIZZ POP BANG is made by: Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Designer: Rachael Fisher Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Contributors: Nick Arnold, Joe Inglis, Tara Pardo and Joanna Tubbs

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

As well as our writers, we also have a team of science advisers who help to ensure that our content is accurate, up-to-date and relevant. Our advisers include: palaeontologist Steve Brusatte; molecular microbiologist Matt Hutchings; robotics engineer Abbie Hutty; mechanical engineer Aimee Morgans; GP Dr Cathy Scott; astronomer Mark Thompson; physicist Dr Jess Wade; child psychologist Dr Naira Wilson. To find out more, go to whizzpopbang.com/about

I’ve been getting muddy making seed bombs and sorting soil! Gakk Where you see this symbol, use a QR code reader on a phone or tablet to visit a relevant web page.

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WHIZZ POP BANG is only available by subscription. If you haven’t subscribed yet, simply go to whizzpopbang.com and sign up for as little as £4.59 per magazine, including UK delivery. Back issues are available to purchase at whizzpopbang.com/shop With the help of Whizz Pop Bang magazine, just imagine what your child might one day discover!

GROWN-UPS

EDUCATORS

Welcome to WHIZZ POP BANG – the magazine bursting with enticing articles, mind-boggling facts and hands-on experiments to get your child hooked on science! Whizz Pop Bang is a gender-neutral magazine with plenty of inspirational male and female scientists and content that appeals to all children.

The magazine is ideal for home educators and it’s linked to the National Curriculum too, for use in schools. Whizz Pop Bang will help with literacy development as well. Transform science teaching in your school with our hands-on science and reading resources. Our downloadable lesson packs link fun science experiments and reading with key curriculum topics for years 2-6. Subscribe at whizzpopbang.com/schools

All experiments have been tried and tested by our team. The activities should be done under close adult supervision and are done at your own risk. Launchpad Publishing Ltd cannot accept liability for damage done.

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CONTENTS

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Read about the world’s thinnest spaghetti, Earth’s ‘mini moon’ and the orcas wearing dead fish on their heads!

GOING UNDERGROUND

Grow stalactites and stalagmites, make glittering geodes and meet some cave-dwelling animals.

From garden wrigglers to parasitic animal invaders, there’s lots to learn about worms.

SILLY SCIENCE

Shiver me timbers! Gakk’s sailing off in search of pirate treasure!

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Make some seed bombs to help create wild places for pollinators.

PULLOUT

Craft your own paper jewels and solve some sparkling puzzles.

Get muddy in the name of science!

Find out how engineers dig the miles of tunnels under our feet.

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

…myths explained. Find out where stories of dragons and monsters came from.

MY AMAZING LIFE

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Meet the famous geologist and explorer Charles Lyell.

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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

Y’S WONDER CLUB

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

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QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win a crystal growing 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

See the incredible Mexican cave full of crystals that are bigger than you!

HOW STUFF WORKS

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DIGGING THE DIRT

ANIMAL ANTICS

Atom

FIND THE SCIENCE EQUIPMENT Hidden on each double page is a piece of science equipment. Tick each one to find the complete kit!

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa

GOODBYE MINI MOON!

How old will you be then? years old

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Chemists have created the world’s thinnest spaghetti. And it’s very thin indeed: about 200 times thinner than a human hair! This isn’t the latest food craze – the skinny spaghetti would overcook in less than a second. This ‘nanopasta’ will be woven into bandages, helping wounds to heal by allowing moisture through but keeping bacteria out. The strands are made by pulling a mixture of flour and liquid through the tip of a needle using an electric charge. Individual strands are too small to see without an electron microscope, but large numbers of them can be woven into mats.

For the past few months, we’ve had a mini moon orbiting our planet. But the time has come for it to head off into space. The mini moon is really an asteroid the size of a school bus. Scientists think it might have started off as a piece of the Moon itself that got broken off when it crashed into another space rock hundreds of years ago. The mini moon will make a final flyby this month before the Sun’s powerful gravity pulls it away. But it hasn’t gone for good – the mini moon is likely to reappear in 2055 after travelling all the way round the Sun and back.

NANOPASTA

GREEN RESOLUTIONS © Save the Children

The future belongs to children – we must be included in all climate change discussions. Climate campaigner Ibrahim, aged 14 In November, world leaders gathered in Azerbaijan for the COP29 climate change conference to talk about how to deal with the climate crisis. Richer countries, which are responsible for most of the carbon emissions causing global warming, agreed to give more money to the developing countries that are hit hardest by the impacts of climate change. This will help them to switch to using renewable energy, which is better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, though many people think it’s still not enough. Children from some of the worst affected countries spoke at the conference and urged world leaders to take action. Ibrahim, aged 14, from Nigeria talked about the serious flooding in his country that is destroying homes and stopping children from going to school. Next year’s climate conference will be in Brazil, and they’re also planning a Youth COP in March 2025 to give children aged 8-17 a chance to have their voices heard.

What can you do to help? Why not make some green New Year’s resolutions with your family! Sit down together and make a list of things you could do to reduce your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon pollution caused by things you do). You could resolve to… buy less stuff – choose second-hand clothes and toys over new, and avoid buying things you don’t really need. choose greener transport options – walk, cycle or take public transport instead of driving, and avoid flying if you can. putting a warm woolly jumper on try instead of putting the heating on. eat more meat-free meals. Cutting down on beef will reduce your carbon footprint the most. celebrate your success! Tell your friends, or even your whole class, what you’ve done and inspire them to do the same.

WHY DID YOU GET THAT HAT? © Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy

Orcas – also called killer whales – have been spotted wearing dead fish on their heads! These salmon hats were first seen being worn by orcas off North America’s west coast in the 1980s. No one knew why they were doing it then – and no one knows now! Some scientists have suggested that orcas do this when food is plentiful and they have too much to eat, so they pop any leftovers on their head for safekeeping in case they get hungry later. A bit like Paddington Bear keeping a marmalade sandwich under his hat! © Oregon State University / Wikimedia Commons

whizzpopbang.com 5 © Bruno C. Vellutini/ Wikimedia Commons

GOING

D N U O R G R E D N U terious s y m e h t e Explor nd world undergrou of caves.

Caves are hollow spaces under the ground that have openings large enough for people to go inside them. They can form in several different ways, but the most common type of cave is called a solutional cave. These caves are formed by acidic rainwater slowly dissolving away rock such as limestone. Caves have been used by humans for thousands of years.

LIVING UNDERGROUND Many animals, such as bats, make their homes in caves but also spend some time outside. But there are some animals that spend their ENTIRE LIVES living deep underground and never see sunlight – they’re called troglobites (say trog-low-bites) and they include species of shrimp, fish and amphibians. Troglobites are very well adapted to life underground. They use super-senses, such as feeling vibrations in water, instead of using vision to find their way around. They’re often white or clear, as there is no advantage in being coloured in the pitch dark, so they have evolved without pigments in their skin.

The Texas blind salam ander spends its life in underground caves 6 whizzpopbang.com

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The longest cave system in the world is in Kentucky in the USA. It has over 600 km of cave passages. The deepest explored cave, in Georgia, goes down more than 2 km below the ground. ha

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MAKE A CAVE

The process of making a cave usually takes thousands of years, but if you don’t want to wait that long, we’ve got an awesome experiment to show you how it works in just a few minutes.

Yo u will need

Scissors A clear plastic bottle (a 1 litre drinks bottle is ideal) A piece of aluminium foil A rubber band A cocktail stick or small nail

A glass or jar Modelling clay or Plasticine Some sand (around 750g) Caster sugar Warm water

W h a t y o u do 1. Ask an adult to cut the plastic bottle in half. You only need the top of the bottle. The bottom section can go into the recycling bin. 2. Take the lid off the top section of the bottle and replace it with a piece of aluminium foil. Secure the foil with the rubber band and then use the cocktail stick or nail to punch a few small holes in the foil.

Yo u should find

The water should dissolve away the sugar leaving behind spaces between the lumps of clay. This is how solutional caves form, with rainwater very slowly dissolving away the limestone rock to leave holes (caves) underground.

3. Place the plastic bottle upside down inside the glass or jar so it acts as a funnel, draining into the jar. 4. Use three quarters of your clay to make five or six irregular lumps and place these inside the upturned bottle. 5. Fill the spaces between the clay with sugar, so that there are no gaps. The sugar represents the areas of limestone within the harder rock (represented by the clay). 6. Make a rough disc shape out of the remaining clay and place this on top of the sugar. Make sure there are some gaps at the edges of the clay (or poke some holes in the clay) to allow water through. 7. Pour warm water on top of the clay, topping up with more water as it drains through. Watch what happens to the sugar (the limestone).

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S E T I T C A L STA AND STALAGMITES

Venture into some caves and you’ll see weird, pointy shapes hanging down from the roof and pushing up from the floor. These are stalactites (the ones hanging down from the ceiling) and stalagmites (the ones which grow up from the ground).

Top tip for remembering the difference between stalactites and stalagmites: stalactites cling on tightly and stalagmites grow up mightily.

Also, stalactite has a c for ceiling, whereas stalagmite has a g for ground!

CAVE CROSSWORD

Check your answers on page 34.

ACROSS 8

1. A mineral structure that can be found hanging from the ceiling of a cave. 5. The name of the most common type of cave. 6. A mineral structure that grows upwards from the floor of a cave. 7. The average number of years it takes for a stalactite to grow 1 cm. 8. These flying mammals often nes t in caves.

DOWN

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2. These types of animals spend the ir entire lives inside caves. 3. Some cave dwelling animals feel these to find their way underwater. 4. Animals that spend their lives und erground are often this colour.

What you do

1. Fill both jars with warm water.

GROW YOUR OWN STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES Stalactites and stalagmites are made out of minerals or other substances that are deposited by water as it drips inside caves. They take a very long time to form – it takes about eight years for them to grow just 1 cm! But you can make your own in just a few days with this stalactastic experiment!

2. Dissolve as much of the baking powder, washing soda or Epsom salts as you can into each jar by gradually adding powder and stirring. 3. Place the two jars in a warm place and put the saucer between them. 4. Twist several strands of wool or string together and dip the ends into the liquid in the two jars, letting the middle of the thread hang down above the saucer. (Don’t forget to wash your hands when you’ve finished!)

Yo u will need

Two glass jam jars A saucer Wool or string Bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, washing soda or Epsom salts

You should find

The two solutions should creep along the thread until they reach the middle and start to drip down onto the saucer. Over the next few days, the water will evaporate from the dripping liquid, leaving behind the soda or salt and forming tiny stalactites hanging from the string and miniature stalagmites growing up from the saucer. Given enough time, these may eventually join to create a single column.

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A-MAZE-ING CAVES Help Riley to find his way through the tunnels to photograph the troglobite and then climb back to the surface. Check your answer on page 34.

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G N I R E T GLIT G E MS

Gemstones are crystals that form deep underground when molten rock cools down slowly. Some gem crystals form when mineral-rich water evaporates.

MAKE EGGSHELL GEODES Crystals can form in hollow rocks called geodes. Why not have a go at making your own!

Yo u will need

Eggs and an egg box Glue A paintbrush Salt (table salt, Epsom salts or alum) or sugar Food colouring Newspaper

W hat yo u do

1. Crack the eggs, leaving the bottom half of the shell intact. Pour out the insides (scrambled eggs for dinner!). Carefully wash out the shells and leave to dry. 2. Paint the insides of the eggshells with a thin coating of glue and coat with salt or sugar. Leave to dry. 3. Ask an adult to help you mix food colouring into a small jug of boiling water. 4. With the help of your adult, carefully pour salt or sugar into the hot coloured water, stirring all the time, until no more will dissolve (you’ll see solid grains at the bottom of the container that refuse to dissolve). Leave this supersaturated solution to cool. 5. Place your eggshells in the egg box to keep them upright. Pour pure or coloured water into one eggshell (this is your control) and then carefully fill the remaining shells with your supersaturated solution. 6. Place the egg box on some newspaper and leave in a warm, safe place, checking on the eggs every day. If the solution isn’t evaporating quickly enough, pour some out.

Experiment with different colours of geode to see which works best!

Yo u should find

As the water evaporates, the salt or sugar is left behind and attaches itself to the small crystals that you glued to the inside of the shell. These grow into larger crystals, just like the inside of a real geode! The eggshell with pure water in it doesn’t contain any salt or sugar, so no crystals will have grown. Experiment with different salts and compare the shapes of the crystals that form.

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AL ANIM S TIC

Worms Our vet Joe Inglis is no stranger to treating pets with worms in their tummies, but this month he’s on a mission to find out about all the different types of worms that wriggle their way around the world…

The name worm is used to describe lots of different creatures, from earthworms that munch their way through the soil to tiny parasites that live inside animals and people. What all these animals have in common is that their bodies are long and tube-shaped, and they have no arms or legs.

Dwelling in the deep Although they might look soft and squidgy, some worms are amongst the toughest creatures on the planet. Tiny nematode worms have been found in water brought up from mine shafts in South America that are more than three kilometres deep, making them the deepest living animals on Earth.

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7,000

The number of species of earthworms around the world. These worms burrow in the ground, eating dead leaves as well as earth, and they are vital for keeping the soil fertile. Most earthworms are quite small, but some species, like the Mekong giant earthworm from Southeast Asia, can grow up to three metres in length!

Worm invasion!

Tapeworm

Lungworm

Parasitic worms, like tapeworms, roundworms and lungworms, live inside other animals and can cause serious illnesses.

The longest worm ever found was over 50 metres long. Answer on page 34

How can you tell if this is my head? Tickle me in the middle and see which end giggles!

Wriggly WORMS! Starting from their tails, can you find which worm has found the dead leaf to eat? Write your answer in the box and then check it on page 34.

One acre of fertile farmland can have well over one million worms in the soil!

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Treasure Ahoy, me hearties! How many times can you spy the word opal in our tale of long-lost treasure? We’ve done the first two for you. Check your answers on page 34.

How many gems are there in the treasure chest? Fill in the blanks by adding up the two numbers above them. Can you also work out the two missing numbers on the top line?

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1 13

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e Quest

Two pirates are sharing the treasure between them. How many gems does each of them get?

What’s orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot!

How do pirates communicate? With an Aye p hone!

Why are pirates called pirates? Because they arrrrr!

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Emmi’s

SEED BOMBS Wildflowers can provide homes for pollinators (like bees) and other wildlife, as well as helping with soil drainage! Make some wildflower seed bombs to help brighten up your local ecosystem.

Yo u will need

A mixing bowl

An egg cup A spoon ildflower W seed mix*

Compost

Flour Water A plate

*We used a mix of se eds and coconut coir. If you use seeds on their own, use one tablespoon.

Add three egg cups of compost and one egg cup of flour and stir it all together.

Put one egg cup of wildflower seed mix into the bowl.

Add two egg cups of water and give it a good mix. It should look like chocolate cake crumbs and stick together if you squeeze it. Add more water, a little at a time, if it’s not sticky enough.

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! Pick up handfuls It’s time to get messy em into balls and of the mixture, roll th on a plate. put your seed bombs

Continued on page 21 ➜

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

Leave the seed balls to dry for 24 hours. Don’t put them anywhere too warm, as it could stop the seeds from growing.

Flowering plants have been around for at least 130 million years, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

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Continued from page 16

We can all help to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! or If you have a garden can allotment, ask if you to it of leave a patch s love grow wild. Pollinator d overgrown plants an ide hedges, as they prov . ts ta bi sheltered ha

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➜

What yo u do

1. Cut out the gem templates, cutting along all the solid lines. 2. Fold towards you along the dotted lines. 3. Apply glue to the tabs and stick at the back of the gem (if you find it too fiddly, you could use sticky tape on the outside).

Yo u should find

You’ve made paper jewels! Many gemstones come from mineral crystals and some naturally form in a hexagonal shape, including emeralds. Gemstones are often cut and polished to make jewellery.

Riddles 1 ) I’m not a heart, club or a spad I’m put on a ring when it is ma e, de. What am I?

n you put a c s ie b u r y n a 2 ) How m asure chest? e r t y t p m e n a into Check your answers on page 34.

How do gem experts travel on holiday? On a jet plane!

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PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making! CUT-OUT CRYSTALS Craft your own dazzling gemstones – no mining required!

Yo u will need

Scissors Glue stick or craft glue

We’d love to see a photo of your paper gems! Send it to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

Find a printable version of the pullout here: bit.ly/3CV8zIu

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Natural gemstones can be cut and polished to make jewels. Gems have a crystal structure - their atoms are arranged in regular patterns.

DIAMOND DOUBLES These are top and side views of three different diamonds. Can you match them up? Draw a line between the matching pairs. Check your answers on page 34.

Help Emmi find the shortest route through the cave passages to collect all the gems in the order shown in the key, without crossing her own path. Check your answer on page 34. 1. Opal 2. Emerald 3. Sapphire 4. Jet 5. Diamond

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DIGGING THE

DIRT One gram of fertile soil can contain a BILLION bacteria!

e world Investigate th feet… beneath your Soil is so much more than just dirt! This mixture of ground-up rocks and rotten plants and animals is vitally important for most life on Earth. It holds water and nutrients, helping plants and fungi to grow, and provides a home for thousands of different types of animals and bacteria. It even absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which slows down climate change.

SOIL LIFE

Soil is teeming with life. A teaspoon of soil contains more living things than there are people on Earth! In 2023, scientists estimated that more than half of Earth’s species live in the soil, from rock-eating bacteria and tiny nematode worms to woodlice and earthworms, making it the most biodiverse habitat on the planet.

The African giant earthworm can grow up to 6.7 metres long!

LOTS OF LAYERS

Dig deep into soil and you’ll find that it’s made up of different layers...

Humus

On the very top is the humus – but not the kind you eat! This layer is made from plant remains, like leaves and twigs.

Topsoil

The topsoil is a layer of decayed organic matter mixed with some small stones – this is where the plant roots are and where lots of organisms, like fungi, worms and bacteria live.

Subsoil

The subsoil is made of mostly clay, iron and organic matter (made from dead plants and animals).

Parent material

Next comes a layer of mostly large rocks. This layer is called the parent material because this is what the upper layers of soil were made from.

Bedrock

Deep down underground is the bedrock, which is a large solid lump of rock.

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SOIL SECRETS

Use the clues to fill in the missing words and complete the crossword. Check your answers on page 34.

DOWN 1. The large solid lump of rock underneath all the other layers of soil. 3. L ots of these valuable medicines were discovered in soil.

his layer of soil contains decayed 5. T organic matter and the roots of plants. 6. T he decaying plant remains found at the very top of soil. 2

SETTLING SOIL Find out what soil is made of…

Yo u will need

Two glass jars with lids Water A dessert spoon Soil Two sticky labels A pen

W hat yo u do 1. Think of two places where you can collect different samples of soil (e.g. different gardens or parks – ask permission first!). 2. Write these two places on the two labels and stick one label to each jar.

3. Next, collect your soil samples by placing 10 spoons of soil into each of the labelled jars. 4. Fill the jars three-quarters full of water. Screw the lids on tightly and shake well. Now leave the jars to stand and sit back and observe.

Yo u should find

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ACROSS 2. These creatures live in soil and some species can grow over 6 m long. 4. One gram of fertile soil can contain up to a billion of these microorganisms. 7. The layer of soil that is mostly made of clay, iron and organic material.

Lots of medicines, including many antibiotics, were originally discovered in soil!

The soil slowly settles in the two jars. Most soil is a mixture of sand, silt and clay, as well as rotten plants and animals. The different particles in the soil settle according to their size, with the largest particles at the bottom. Pieces of rock will settle to the bottom first, then sand, silt and clay. Lastly, rotten plant and animal matter floats at the top. You might also find that the size of the layers in each jar is different.

HOW STUFF

WORKS

Tunnelling Machines

Miles and miles of sewage tunnels are hidden below our towns and cities. But how are all these tunnels made? Meet the tunnel boring machine!

How boring! Tunnel boring machines are great at boring holes in the ground, but they are most definitely not boring. These incredible machines can drill their way through earth, sand and even solid rock to create tunnels up to 19 metres wide. The fastest machines can dig 70 metres or more in a single day, excavating hundreds of tonnes of rock and soil.

Most modern tunnel boring machines cut their way through the ground using rotating discs attached to the front of the machine. This is called the cutterhead. The rotating discs scrape away the soil and cause rock to fracture and split away in tiny pieces – a bit like a giant spinning cheese grater!

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The soil and rock is carried backwards by a rotating screw conveyor.

Powerful hydraulic rams push against the completed tunnel section to force the cutting head forwards.

Tunnel back in time

Which way now?

The very first tunnelling machine was built to dig the Thames tunnel in London in 1825 by Marc Isambard Brunel (the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the famous railway and ship engineer). However, this machine still used men with picks and shovels rather than a rotating cutterhead to do most of the hard work.

One of the biggest challenges of tunnelling underground is making sure that the tunnel goes in exactly the right direction. Accurate sensors and laser theodolites (navigation instruments that measure horizontal and vertical angles) measure the direction and distance the tunnel boring machine has moved so that its current position can be calculated to the nearest millimetre.

Each machine can be well over 100 metres long!

6 As the tunnel is dug, the walls are lined with

concrete arc-shaped sections that are bolted together to form a secure structure.

The waste is taken away on a

conveyor belt to the surface.

Computer control systems are operated by teams of 20 or more miners and engineers.

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

A L P X E S H T Y M asts? tales of mythical be nt cie an d ire sp in t Wha behind the fic tion. We look at the facts

Many experts think that dragons provided an early explanation for dinosaur fossils discovered long ago.

In Ancient Greece, the bones of woolly mammoths were mistaken for those of giants.

Tired sailors seeing manatees – aquatic mammals with smooth skin and fish-like tails – may have mistaken them for mermaids.

4 Scientists have proposed several explanations for reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, from giant eels and catfish to a swimming elephant from a travelling circus!

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In the Middle Ages, people paid lots of money to buy narwhal tusks, believing them to be the horns of unicorns.

This log could easily be mistaken for a monster!

D E N I A L

The griffin, a mythical creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, is thought to be based on the fossilised beaked skulls of Protoceratops dinosaurs.

The cyclops – a mythical oneeyed giant – might be based on the discovery by the ancient Greeks of elephant skulls. The ‘trunk hole’ in the front of the skull looks like a single eye socket.

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Sailors who described terrible sea serpents like the Kraken were probably seeing giant squid tentacles.

The discovery of plesiosaur and ichthyosaur fossils may have inspired stories of fearsome sea dragons.

Stories of giant ape men, like Bigfoot and the Yeti, may have been inspired by fossils of Gigantopithecus, an extinct ape that stood 3 metres tall.

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My AmaZ ing Life

Meet one of the founders of modern geology.

I was born in Scotland in 1797, but it was the landscape of the New Forest that first sparked my interest in rocks and mountains. My family moved to England when I was just two years old, and it was in the New Forest that I grew up with my nine siblings. My father was a naturalist and I loved walking with him. I was fascinated by anything to do with nature. My first hobby was collecting butterflies. When I was 19, I left home to study at Oxford University, but my heart was never really in my studies of Greek and Latin; instead, I listened to lectures by geologists and headed off on trips to look at rocks and fossils whenever I could. After finishing at Oxford, I moved to London to study law, but I took every opportunity to spend my holidays in places where I could explore rocks.

CHAR LES LYELL WAS BORN IN SCOTL AND IN 1797.

At the time, most people thought that the world was only a few thousand years old and had been shaped by abrupt events or catastrophes, such as biblical floods. However, I saw evidence that suggested that the world was in fact much, much older. I was starting to understand that, instead of being formed by great supernatural events, the world was in fact shaped by slow, gradual processes over an immensely long period of time – and these processes were still ongoing and could be seen in action all around us.

I love I finally graduated with a law degree, but it was my passion for geology that rock! I really wanted to focus on. Luckily my father was supportive and provided me with an income that allowed me to travel and study geology, and I soon had my first scientific paper published. Wrong kind of rock! 28 whizzpopbang.com

ry of New South Wales / Wikim edia Commons

Charles Lyell

An illustration from Principles of Geology In 1828, at the age of 31, I travelled around Europe with another young geologist, Roderick Murchison. We went to France and then to Italy, heading south to the island of Sicily where Europe’s highest active volcano, Mount Etna, stands. The rock formations I saw there, and those across Europe, provided more and more evidence for my theories, including ideas on how volcanoes are formed gradually over hundreds of thousands of years. By the time I returned I was ready to start work on a book. © Shutterstock.com

‘Principles of Geology’ was very well received, and I soon became well known and respected. I was awarded a knighthood in 1848. I spent many years refining and improving my books, and continued to travel and explore the world, including several extensive trips exploring North America where I saw some amazing geological features, including the magnificent Niagara Falls.

Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy

For the next three years I laboured over my book, which I called ‘Principles of Geology’. It was published in three long volumes in the early 1830s. Because my theories were new, I knew I had to back them up with as many facts as I could, and this new approach to writing scientific books was almost as revolutionary as my ideas themselves! Years later, the famous scientist Charles Darwin, who became a very close friend, said, “the wonderful superiority of Lyell’s manner of treating geology, compared with that of any other author, whose work I had with me or ever afterwards read.” Quite a compliment from one of the most famous scientists of all time!

Niagara Falls As well as changing the way we understand how the world around us has formed, my work has been crucial to the understanding of evolution. My theories had showed that the world was far older than people thought, with millions of years for animals to evolve. This was crucial for Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, which required these immense timespans to work.

Charles Lyell died in 1875. Several mountains were named in his honour, including Mount Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park in America. There is also a crater on the Moon, a crater on Mars and two glaciers named after him.

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F oR

Dear Y, Why does the world spin?

CURIoUS K I DS

Xanthé, aged 9

Billions of years ago, a huge swirling cloud of dust and gas clumped together to form the Sun and all the planets spinning around it. Scientists think another planet crashed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago, breaking off a chunk of rock that became the Moon and making the Earth spin even faster. Earth has kept spinning ever since because there is nothing in space to slow it down. On Earth, spinning things are slowed down by air resistance or friction with solid surfaces. Earth’s rotation is slowing very slightly because of the gravitational pull of the Moon, making days 2 milliseconds longer each century. But it will keep on spinning for a very long time to come.

Budding engineers Isaac, aged 7, and Nyah, aged 4, had fun testing which bridge was the strongest in the Epic Engineering edition (Issue 110).

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From Oliver, aged 7

a natural oil called You’re thinking like a scientist, Oliver! Your skin makes comes from tiny oil This out. g sebum to keep it soft and stop it from dryin s doesn’t have hand your of s glands in your skin, but the skin on the palm from touching come to likely is s any of these glands. Any oil on your hand touched, like e you’v s thing your face or other areas of skin, or from other can mix which h, thoug t swea food. The palms of your hands do produce boards. white on s mark gy smud with dirt and oil from elsewhere and leave

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Pluto was known as the eighth planet of our solar system until 2006, when scientists changed the way they defined planets. They decided that planets had to orbit the Sun , be big enough that their gravity makes them round and have strong enough gravity to dominate the area around them . Pluto is very small – even smaller than Earth’s moon – so it doesn’t have strong enough gravity to do this. Therefore, scientists voted to call it a dwarf planet. Lots of people who had grown up thinking of Pluto as a planet didn’t like this change. But since lots of other dwarf planets have now been discovered, if we were to count Pluto as a proper planet, we’d need to count all these other dwarf planets as proper planets too!

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Test your mum/ dad/friend to

see what they know !

How much can you remember from this issue? 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 is the name for animals that spend their whole lives inside caves?

5 7

a) Troglobites b) Groundlings c) Trolls

been What have orcas on g spotted wearin their heads? s a) Crash helmet b) Wigs made from seaweed c) Dead fish

2 4 6 8

What did people in the Middle Ages think narwhal tusks were?

a) Viking hat accessories b) Dinosaur bones c) Unicorn horns

Which of the following is NOT a parasitic worm? a) A boneworm b) A lungworm tapeworm c) A

What are the structures that can form on the roof of caves called? a) Clingontites talactites b) S c) Stalagmites

I dig being underground!

What type of scientist was Charles Lyell? a) A biologist b) An archaeologist c) A geologist

How many bacteria does a gram of fertile soil contain? a) A thousand b) A billion c) 1 00 trillion

How are sewage tunnels made? a) Using tunnel ploughs

I scored...

b) Using tunnel boring machines c) Using an army of trained moles

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages… 1) Page 6 2) Page 8 3) Page 5 4) Page 28 5) Page 26 6) Page 22 7) Page 13 8) Page 24

1-3: Digging deep 4-6: Rock rover 7-8: Tunnel titan

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WINNER

Issue 112 competition winners Thank you to everyone who entered our Planets competition. The hidden phrase was SOLAR SYSTEM. These three lucky winners will each receive a Murdle Junior: Curious Crimes for Curious Minds book. Clara Dawson, aged 8 Anvitha Saravanan, aged 12 Vincent, aged 6

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S E K O J lactite What did the sta ite? gm say to the stala Let’s hang out sometime!

What’s a cave’s ? favourite type of music Rock!

What is a geod e’s favourite game? Rock, paper, scissors! Page 8 – Cave crossword 1

T A

C 2T

B R A

W H

L 5

L U

S T A L A G M I T E T I O

Page 13 – True/Untrue

T 7

B A T S

Page 10 – A-maze-ing cave maze

Why do soil mit e make good frien s ds? They’re really d own to earth!

TRUE: In 1864, a bootlace worm that washed up on the coast of Scotland measured 55 metres in length – making it not just the longest worm but the longest solitary animal ever found!

Where do gems sleep? In bedrock!

Answers Page 20 – Diamond doubles

Page 13 – Wriggly worms Worm 4 has found the leaf. Page 14 – Treasure quest The word opal appears 11 times: Hopalong, Stop all, chop all, no palm, two pals, two palaces, outcrop along, Hopalong, no paltry, Page 23 – Soil crossword so pale, top all. There are 38 gems in the chest. The missing numbers on the top line are 12 and 2.

B E D R

The two pirates get 19 gems each.

Page 18 – Riddles

1) A diamond.

2) One, because after that it’s no longer empty. Page 19 – Gem maze

6 7

H U

C B

I O

M U S

Page 32 – Quiz 1) a 2) b 3) c 4) c 5) c 6) b 7) a 8) b

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

GIANT CRYSTAL CAVE This incredible cave in Mexico contains some of the biggest crystals ever found – the largest is about 12 m long, 4 m across and weighs 55 tons! The cave is 300 metres below the ground in an area called Naica, which lies on an ancient fault in the Earth’s crust and above an underground magma chamber. The giant selenite crystals formed over about 500,000 years because of a reaction between hot groundwater containing sulphide and cool surface water. © Cristales cueva de Naica by Alexander Van Driessche via Wikimedia Commons

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