Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 111: Spooky Science by Whizz Pop Bang

Craft Halloween decorations

Blood-sucking insects, OW!

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

Bat-tastic facts!

MAKE FAKE BLOOD WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 111

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

WELCOME!

We’re celebrating Halloween with some spooky science! Emmi

Welcome to this fang-tastic Halloween edition of Whizz Po p Ba where we’re celebrating all th ings spooky! Scare your frien ng, ds with some edible fake blood, make bone-chilling Halloween decora then tuck into a bowl of blood tio cell cereal. Wow your family wit ns, bite-sized facts about blood h some -sucking insects and learn ho w X-ra machines see straight through you! Are you ready to sink yo y ur teeth into some blood-curdlin g science fun?

WHIZZ POP BANG is made by:

Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Designer: Rachael Fisher Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Contributors: Tommy Donbavand, Dan Green, Joe Inglis, Tara Pardo, Isabel Thomas and Joanna Tubbs

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

I’ve made fake blood to scare my friends at trick-or-treating! Gakk

Riley

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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

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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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Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ © 2024 Launchpad Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents of WHIZZ POP BANG without written permission is prohibited. Illustrations: © 2024 Clive Goodyer

CONTENTS

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Astronauts stranded in space, the device that lets dogs talk and a surprising underwater discovery.

ALL ABOUT BLOOD

Get ready for some blood-curdling science, make fake blood and a working model heart.

ANIMAL ANTICS

Read some bat-tastic facts about these amazing flying mammals.

SILLY SCIENCE

Test your brain power with our Mexican Day of the Dead puzzles. ©

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Make a moth trap and meet some nocturnal minibeasts.

ut ter s

toc k.com

Atom

PULLOUT

Make a moveable skeleton decoration, create X-ray artwork and make a skull mask for Halloween.

SPOTLIGHT

It sounds spooky, but eating edible insects is nothing to be afraid of.

HOW STUFF WORKS

Find out how X-ray machines can see right through you! ©

an do rw ien

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING… Minibeasts that want to eat you, yes YOU!

im ed ia C

om m

ons

©U

S De p artment

re ltu ricu of Ag

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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

32 34

SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

Science superstar Marie Curie was the first person to receive TWO Nobel Prizes.

Y’S WONDER CLUB

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

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win the new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! book.

JOKES AND ANSWERS

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

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

Take a close-up look at a mind-bogglingly bendy snake skeleton.

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 STRANDED IN SPACE!

bit.ly/4dW0SiR

Conversations with pets can feel a bit one-sided, but new technology might soon mean that your dog could answer you back, and even tell you what it wants. Soundboards – with buttons that dogs can press to play pre-recorded words – have become popular with pet owners, but until now, scientists were unsure if the dogs were responding to the words themselves or to their owners’ body language. Now a research study from the University of California San Diego has shown that dogs trained to use soundboards really are understanding the words. More experiments are now being done to discover whether these devices can be used for humans and animals to communicate with each other. So, what would you ask your pet?

Imagine being abandoned in space, unable to return to Earth. That’s what’s happened to astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. They left Earth in June and blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS). They were due to return to Earth just eight days later, but technical problems with their spacecraft meant it was too risky for them to use it, leaving them stranded on the ISS – for eight months! Their spacecraft returned to Earth without them in September, but they’ll be able to hitch a ride home on a rocket in February 2025. It’s important to keep fit in space to reduce the negative effects of weightlessness on the body, so the astronauts have been having fun with some Olympic-games-inspired workouts – check out their training montage here

Sunita and g Butch practisinion for their miss

DOG TALK

‘DARK OXYGEN’ DISCOVERED IN OCEAN DEPTHS

SUPER SCIENCE KID © Danny Buffat

The deep oceans are full of mysteries, but scientists studying the depths of the Pacific Ocean, 4 km below the surface, have discovered something truly amazing: charged metallic lumps that produce oxygen in total darkness. Oxygen is normally produced by plants in a process called photosynthesis, but this requires sunlight. The potato-sized lumps, known as metallic nodules, were already known to contain valuable metals, so mining companies were planning to collect them from the sea floor. But before they began, scientists were sent to investigate how deep-sea mining might affect the sea creatures living there.

A 15-year-old scientist from America has been named Kid of the Year by TIME magazine. Heman Bekele has developed a bar of soap that could one day be used to treat skin cancer. The soap contains a skin-cancer-fighting drug that is absorbed by the skin. Heman, who lived in Ethiopia before his family moved to America, was inspired to make the soap because he saw that skin cancer needed a more affordable alternative to the expensive treatments currently available. Heman’s early curiosity has led to a lifelong love of science. He hopes to continue his research to bring affordable skin cancer treatment to everyone.

The scientists were taking oxygen readings to monitor these creatures when they noticed that there was far more oxygen down there than they were expecting. When they looked more closely, they discovered that it was in fact the metallic lumps themselves that were producing oxygen, and that these lumps were giving off almost as much electricity as an AA battery. The electric charge was splitting seawater (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen, in a process called seawater electrolysis – though it’s still not clear where the energy for this electric current comes from. This unexpected finding has got some scientists wondering whether we need to rethink our theories about how complex life began on Earth – and whether a similar process could happen in the deep seas of moons like Enceladus and Europa.

It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life. That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.

nodule A metalleicPacific from th floor Ocean

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All about BLOOD We all contain several litres of blood, but why do we have it? Why is it red? And how can I make some at home to scare my friends?!

Living Liquid

Although you only see your blood occasionally when you cut yourself, this living liquid is working day and night to keep you alive and well. Blood is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, mixed with a yellowish, watery liquid called plasma that keeps the blood nice and runny so that it can flow easily around your body.

Blood factories

Inside some of your bones is a soft, spongy material called bone marrow, which acts as a blood cell factory, continually churning out new blood cells to replace the old ones.

In the time it takes you to read this sentence your body will make 10 million new blood cells!

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Hundreds of years ago, scientists thought that blood could be replaced by other liquids, like milk or wine, leading to some very unpleasant experiments! We now know that blood is a very special liquid, with many important jobs.

Blood is responsible for keeping your temperature constant.

Express delivery

Nearly half of your blood is made up of tiny red blood cells – one drop of blood contains millions of them! They have the important job of delivering oxygen from the air you breathe to the trillions of cells that make up your body. Cells use oxygen to release the energy that fuels your muscles and keeps you going. The carbon dioxide that is produced as a waste product is then carried back to your lungs to be breathed out.

Make your own fa k e b l o o d ! ween? Dressing up for Hallo own Why not make your fake blood! It’s scarily too! realistic, and edible

Yo u will need

tablespoons of runny honey 2 1-2 pinches of cocoa powder Red and blue food colouring 8 tablespoons of water or red juice, such as cranberry juice (optional)

W hat yo u do

How many blood cells can you count? Check your answer on page 34.

1. Mix red food colouring into the honey a drop at a time until it looks blood coloured. Adding a drop of blue food colouring will make it even more realistic, but be careful you don’t make it purple! 2. Mix in a pinch of cocoa powder.

True blue?

If you have pale skin you will notice that your veins look blue, but this doesn’t mean your blood is blue. Your veins look blue because you are looking at them through layers of skin, which only allow certain colours of light to pass through it.

k.com

3. Add a drop or two of water if it needs thinning out. If you’d like to turn your fake blood into a drink, stir in 8 tablespoons of red juice or water.

You should find

Blood is a dark red colour, and it’s quite thick because it contains lots of blood cells, as well as proteins and fats. The honey, colourings and cocoa powder in this recipe give it the perfect colour and thickness.

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Rainbow blood

It is haemoglobin (say hee-mo-glow-bin), the oxygen-carrying chemical in red blood cells, that makes blood red. Animals that use a different chemical to transport oxygen have different coloured blood! Vampire squids have blue blood, leeches have green blood, and some worms have violet blood. Sea squirts have technicolour blood that can turn green, blue or orange!

My blood is purple and tastes of kiwis!

lue blood!

sb This squid ha Two blood cells met and fell in love. Sadly, it was all in vein.

y; Collection of Brandi Noble, © SEFSC Pascagoula Laborator Commons NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC / Wikimedia

Scabs!

When your skin is broken, hordes of blood cells called platelets rush to the cut and stick to each other to form a blood clot that stops the bleeding. This clot then dries into a scab, which stops germs from getting into your blood. As the scab dries out all kinds of things are happening underneath it – white blood cells are busy killing any germs that got in, broken blood vessels are being repaired and a new layer of skin is being made. After a week or two, when the new skin is ready, the scab will fall off.

Platelets and red blood cells seen through a microscope

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It can be tempting to pick at scabs, but if you do, you could rip the skin again and leave a scar, so it’s best to leave scabs alone until they come off by themselves.

Make blood cell cereal! Yo u will need bowl and spoon A Milk Hoop-shaped cereal Mini marshmallows Puffed rice cereal

Defender cells

W hat yo u do

Your blood protects you from infections. It contains an army of different kinds of white blood cells that make up your immune system. Some cells make antibodies designed to kill viruses and bacteria that make you unwell, while others patrol your body, gobbling up any germs that enter your blood. Once antibodies against a particular illness have been made, they stay in your blood to prevent you from catching that illness again. That’s why you only get chickenpox once!

What happens when your body needs more oxygen than usual?

1. Pour milk into your bowl. This represents the watery plasma that makes your blood runny.

Elite athletes, whose muscles need lots of energy, and people who live high up in mountains, where there is less oxygen in the air, need their blood to be able to carry even more oxygen than usual. When the brain detects the need for more oxygen, it tells the bone marrow to make extra red blood cells, so the blood becomes thicker!

2. Add some hoop-shaped cereal. These are your red blood cells. They don't really have holes all the way through them, but their concave shape gives them a big surface area for carrying oxygen. 3. Add some marshmallows. These are the white blood cells that make up your immune system and keep you healthy. 4. Finally, add some puffed rice cereal to represent the platelets that help blood to clot when you get a cut. 5. Stir everything together to see what an amazing mixture of cells make up your blood! (And then you can eat it!)

Red blood cell

Dr Rafe Cham berlain-Webb er Cardiologist

white blood cell Platelet

How blood travels Non-stop Heart

Your heart is a muscle, roughly the size and shape of your fist. Your heart beats constantly, day and night, pumping blood around and around your body through a vast network of tubes called blood vessels.

Press your fingers to your wrist (below your thumb) and see if you can feel the pulse of your blood pumping through your blood vessels as your heart beats.

Pumping station Your heart has two sides. The right side pumps blood to your lungs, where the red blood cells collect oxygen. The blood then returns to your heart, loaded up with oxygen, to be pumped by the left side all around your body and back to the right hand side of your heart again.

Vessel varieties

There are three different types of blood vessel: arteries are the biggest, with thick, elastic walls. Arteries branch off into smaller vessels called capillaries, which supply the tissues of your body with oxygen and food and connect your arteries to your veins. Blood returns to the heart through veins. Vein walls are thinner than those of arteries. To stop the blood from flowing backwards, veins have one-way flaps called valves.

Amazingly, your blood travels 19,000 km every day – that’s the equivalent of nearly half the way around the world!

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People used to think that the heart was th e part of the body responsibl e for love and emotions, but w e now know that it is the brai n that controls these feelings.

Ma ke a wo rk ing mo de l he ar t Yo u will need

wo bendy drinking straws T Three cups Scissors Skewer A balloon Strong sticky tape Water (red food colouring optional!)

W hat yo u do 1. Cut the balloon in two. 2. Stretch the large piece over the top of one cup. You might need to experiment with different sizes of cup so that the balloon fits tightly. 3. Cut the ring off the neck of the balloon. Slip the neck on to the end of one straw and tape it in place. It should stick out beyond the end of the straw and lie flat, like a closed valve. 4. Slip a straw onto the skewer. Carefully puncture a hole in the balloon using the skewer, then gently push the end of the straw into the hole.

THE PUMPING CHALLENGE!

Can you keep up with your heart? Set a timer for one minute. See how much water you can pump. Every minute, your heart pumps about 70 eggcups full of blood!

n i f d l u o h s u o Y

cup to the water from one ps m pu ’ rt ea ‘h Your on makes the wn on the ballo next! Pushing do r – like when iddle cup smalle m e th e sid in e spac is forces air cle contracts. Th your heart mus the valve. the straw with of t ou er at w or e valve e the balloon, th When you releas ber me of the cham closes. The volu in drawing increases again, first water from the cup to fill it.

W hat if ...

you rem

ove the valve f the str rom aw. Do es the pump still wo rk? If not, wh y not?

5. Repeat step three with the second straw. 6. Fill one of the remaining cups with water. Dip the bendy end of the other straw into the water. Push gently on the balloon in an up-and-down rhythm.

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AL ANIM S TIC

BATS

Bats are flying mammals which live in almost every region of the world (the only bat-free places on Earth are the Arctic, Antarctic and a few remote islands). They are the only mammals that can properly fly (as opposed to gliding), using their webbed forelimbs as wings.

1.7 m

The wingspan of one of the largest bats in the world, the giant golden-crowned flying fox. This monster-sized bat can weigh over 1 kg and lives in the forests of the Philippines, eating figs and leaves.

Blood suckers Most species of bats eat insects or fruit, but some have more exotic diets. F ish-eating bats in the Gulf of California dive into the sea to hunt fish and shellfish, and other species eat frogs, lizards and birds. However, the most gruesome diet is that of the vampire bat from Central and South America, which sinks its razor-sharp teeth into sleeping animals and laps up their blood.

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Our caped veterinary crusader, Joe Inglis, heads out into the night to find out about some mysterious nocturnal flying animals.

1‚240

The approximate number of bat species in the world. One in five mammal species are bats.

A common pipistrelle bat from the UK eats about 300 insects a night. Answer on page 34

3 cm

The length of the world’s smallest bat (and one of the smallest mammals). The Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, also known as the bumblebee bat, weighs just 2 g, and lives in caves in Thailand and Myanmar.

AWESOME Echos Many bats use echolocation to find their way around in the dark and catch their prey. Echolocation for bats is a bit like us using a torch at night, but with sound waves instead of light. They generate high-pitched sounds from their mouths and use their oversized ears to listen to the echoes bouncing back to create a mental picture of the world around them. Echolocating bats rarely fly in the rain as their echolocating sounds bounce off the raindrops and confuse them!

Some moths have evolved the ability to mess up the echolocation system used by bats to hunt. By emitting their own sounds, they confuse the bats - a bit like someone shining a bright light at your eyes at night.

Eeeeeep!

Quick, back to the bat cave!

blind as a bat?

bat-tastic You might think of bats as being a bit scary, but nearly all of them are totally harmless to people, and they also do some amazing good for the planet. Over 150 plant species rely entirely on bats to pollinate them and disperse their seeds.

Bats can spend many hours at a time hanging upside down, even while they are sleeping. Specialised tendons in their feet enable them to hang while perfectly relaxed. Hanging also puts them in an ideal position for take-off.

Many bat species, including all of those in the UK, are protected. In some places, special bat houses have been built to help threatened species survive. The largest man-made bat house, in Florida, is home to 300,000 bats that eat over a tonne of insects every night between them!

All photographs © Shutterstock.com

hanging around

Although many bats use their ears more than their eyes, no bats are completely blind, and some species, especially the megabats which don’t use echolocation, have just as good vision as we have.

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Mexican MARVELS You’ve probably heard of Halloween, but have you heard of Day of the Dead? This Mexican festival is celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November each year, when friends and family gather to remember their dead ancestors. Have a go at these festive puzzles then check your answers on page 34!

Double trouble One Day of the Dead tradition that is popular with children is the making of sugar skulls! They are decorated with intricate designs, like these. Can you find and circle the two identical skulls?

Wheel spin Starting at number 1, write down the first letter of each item pictured to find the Spanish name for a decorative sugar skull often used to celebrate Day of the Dead.

Write your answer in the box:

Riddles

I’m young, 1) I’m tall when I’m old, and short when until I devour myself I go cold. What am I?

2) If you find yourself laying in one you won’t be feeling merry, as it means that when the lid is closed it’s you that they will bury. What is it?

Fair and square Fill in the grid below so that each row across, column down and mini-grid (with a dark border) has just one of each image.

Marigold maze During the festival, marigolds and other flowers are used as decorations. Can you find a route from the bottom of this marigold’s stem to the opening at the top?

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b... clu O C E

Emmi’s

It’s not just trick-or-treaters that come out after dark – some of the most interesting wildlife in your garden is nocturnal! Make a moth trap to get a closer look! Nocturnal moths are very good at hiding during the day. A moth trap is a great way to get a good look at your moth neighbours.

MOTH TRAP Yo u will need

n old white sheet A A washing line and clothes pegs A bright torch or lantern hite paper W A large cardboard box A few empty egg boxes

1 Half-fill the cardboard box with a jumble of egg boxes.

Stick white paper to two of the box flaps. Push the flaps down into the box to create a slit that is aroun d 5 cm wide.

4 Peg the sheet onto a washing line and position the box next to it. Angle the torch so that the beam hits the sheet.

Push the torch through the gap and into the egg boxes so that the beam points up out of the box (don’t turn it on yet).

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Continued on page 21 ➜

Choose a cloudy but dry night. outside When it gets dark, turn off any itch Sw lights and close the curtains. rs (or on the torch for a couple of hou n). ter lan a e hav overnight if you

Visit

bit.ly/4dieHHY to help you identify the moths you spot.

In the morning, carefully remove the egg boxes one by one and examine them. Are any moths hiding there?

Nocturnal moths tend to keep still in the light, so you can have a good look at them. But don’t touch them – they’re very delicate and you could harm them. Once you’ve looked at your moths, release them near a good hiding place. Send photos of any interesting moths you find to Y@whizzpopbang.com

ECO

ideas...

Around 2,500 different types of moths live in the UK. They’re an important part of many food chains, keeping bats, spiders, owls and small mammals alive. Birds feast on moth caterpillars during the day. Many moths feed on nectar, pollinating plants as they go.

Continued from page 16

We can all help to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! Here’s how you can help encourage moths: eave piles of twigs and leaves L for moths to hide in. If you have a garden, let some areas grow wild, with long grasses and flowering weeds, or plant window boxes or patio pots with scented flowers. Plant night-flowering plants, like evening primrose, honeysuckle and summerflowering jasmines.

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➜

CRAFT AN X-RAY IMAGE

When you were born, most of the ‘bones’ in your hands and wrists were actually made of cartilage. This cartilage is gradually replaced by bone as you grow, in a process called ossification.

Yo u will need

Black paper or card White chalk Cotton buds

Craft glue Scissors

What yo u do 1. Place your hand on the black card and lightly draw around it with the chalk. Repeat with the other hand. 2. Lightly fill in the hand shapes you have drawn with chalk. 3. Cut up the cotton buds, as in the photo, using scissors. Place the cotton bud pieces along each finger and thumb and stick them into place with craft glue. 4. Place whole cotton buds, along the palm, to the wrist and stick them into place. 5. Leave your artwork to dry.

Yo u should find

Your picture looks similar to an X-ray image, with the bones standing out more clearly than the rest of your hand. Take a look at pages 24 and 25 to find out why.

HALLOWEEN SKULL MASK Yo u will need

A paper plate A pencil Scissors Craft glue

A piece of elastic A black felt-tip pen A hole punch (optional)

What yo u do

1. With the pencil, draw a row of teeth close to the edge of the paper plate and cut along the lines with scissors. 2. Draw two eye socket shapes and a nose cavity shape. 3. Cut out the eye shapes and colour the nose cavity black. 4. Make a hole on each side of the skull with the end of the scissors (you may need an adult to help you). You could use a hole punch if you have one. 5. Tie the elastic through the holes so that it is long enough to fit securely around your head.

Tip

For the Mexican festival known as Day of the Dead, sugar skulls are decorated with bright colours.You could transform your mask into a Day of the Dead skull by drawing or painting on colourful designs, like this one (see page 14 for some more ideas).

PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making!

MOVABLE SKELETON Yo u will need

Scissors A sharp pencil (or something else with a sharp point) 8 paper fasteners (split pins) Cotton thread or sticky tack

I’ve got a bone to pick with you!

Find a printable version of the pullout here: bit.ly/3TuIN3m

What yo u do

1. Cut out the skeleton pieces. 2. Using a pencil (or something else with a sharp point), pierce a little hole in the centre of the circles at the end of each bone. You may need an adult to help you. 3. Attach the bones together using paper fasteners, opening them at the back to secure them into place. 4. Thread some cotton through the hole at the top of the skull to hang the skeleton up, or use sticky tack.

Yo u should find You will be able to move your skeleton at the joints. Your own joints allow for different types of movement, including bending and extending, rocking from side to side, and rotation. Some joints, such as the knee, elbow and shoulder, can withstand heavy loads. Others allow very little movement in order to protect the organs of the body.

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

Why no t tr y Posing your skeleton in fun ways, like these examples? You could use sticky tack to stick your skeleton to a wall or window in whatever position you like!

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eletons k s o d t a h W sert? like for des I scream!

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! p U s ub Gr

SPOTLIGHT

The way we farm our food is going to have to change. We can’t keep farming like we do today, or we won’t be able to produce enough food and look after our environment at the same time.

e t sound lik h ig m s t c e ovie, Eating ins a spooky m m o r f g in id of. someth to be afra g in h t o n lation but there’s rld’s popu o w e h t t h And wit have to ge t h ig m e w burgers growing, g our beef in c la p e r used to urgers! with bug b

Feed the World

By the year 2050 there will be over nine billion people living on Planet Earth – that’s a lot of extra mouths to feed! Farm animals are responsible for producing almost a third of the greenhouse gasses that are contributing to global warming. They also need lots of land and they drink lots of water, so we need a more sustainable solution.

Sarah Beynon

Insect expert and

Crickets being farmed for food

Bug buffet One way we can help to protect our planet and feed everyone is by eating less meat and more vegetarian food. But there is another way too. Many scientists have suggested that incorporating insects into our diet could be part of the solution.

utterstock.com

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farmer

“Insects are great to farm, as many of them have lots of babies in a very short time, meaning that you get lots of them very quickly! They also contain a lot of protein, which we humans need to help us grow. Insects don’t need much land or water, and they are very efficient at turning their feed into food – around 12 times more efficient than cattle,” says Dr Sarah Beynon, who runs The Bug Farm near St Davids in West Wales, where you can learn more about insects, and even try eating them!

The ‘ick’ factor

Many people aren’t too keen on the idea of eating insects, because it’s not something they are used to. But there are already two billion people around the world for whom eating insects is completely normal. Many people in Central and South America, Africa and Asia rely on insects as an important source of protein and vitamins. If you think about it, they are not all that different from a lot of things many people eat already, like prawns and lobster.

A Chinese mealworm dish

UG FAR

But what do they taste like? We asked the expert…

Hold your horse flies! Not all insects are edible, of course – so don’t just go tucking into the next one that scuttles past! Although we know of over 2,000 insect species that are edible, you should only eat insects that have been bred for human consumption, otherwise they could contain harmful chemicals. Plus eating them could cause them to decline in the wild.

To find out more, check out The Bug Farm website: thebugfarm.co.uk

“Insects give us lots of different flavours that we have never tasted before. I think that mealworms taste a bit like Rice Krispies and crickets taste like nutty dark chocolate (but without the sugar). Grasshoppers can taste like tea and ants taste like lemony Marmite!” says Dr Beynon. “I think I have two favourite ways of eating insects. Our Bug Burgers taste delicious – like a veggie burger, but also nutty and meaty at the same time. Perfect served with some crunchy chilli crickets. Yum yum! Grub Kitchen’s famous Cricket Cookie is my other favourite. This scrumptious cookie is made with cricket powder and chocolate chips and is the best cookie I have ever tasted.”

Yum!

Bug sandwich anyone?

Insects the taste of the future Like it or not, lots of us are going to have to make changes to the way we eat in the future, and scientists like Dr Beynon think that insects will soon become a normal part of our diet. So let’s get used to it and tuck in! Chocolate-covered crickets, anyone?

whizzpopbang.com 23

x-ray machines

HOW STUFF

WORKS X-rays are a super-energetic form of electromagnetic radiation – like a beam of light or radio waves. But unlike visible light, X-rays can travel straight through stuff. X-rays are released when atoms are hit by a high-energy beam of electrons.

X-ray machines are an amazing technology used to look inside things. An X-ray scan produces a picture of the bones in your body.

All the air is pumped out of a glass vacuum tube.

An X-ray tube has two electrical terminals. The negative electrode is heated and releases negatively charged electrons. These tiny points of charge are normally attached to atoms, but can move away from them to carry an electrical current.

Normally, electrons released from atoms would leap back, but the two terminals have an X-tremely high voltage between them! An electron beam made up of negatively charged electrons is powerfully attracted to the positive terminal and zaps across the gap.

24 whizzpopbang.com

The vacuum tube is surrounded by an oil bath that whisks heat away from the tube.

The patient can be lying, sitting or standing, depending on which part of their body needs to be scanned.

Exposing your body to X-rays for too long can damage your DNA and cause serious health problems. That’s why hospital X-ray machines only use a small amount of radiation.

The positive electrode is made of the heavy metal, tungsten. High-energy electrons smashing into the tungsten target release X-rays. Only about 1% of the energy is converted to X-rays. The rest is turned into heat.

To stop the tungsten terminal overheating, a motor rotates it.

4 X-rays pass out through a window.

Lead shielding absorbs harmful X-rays.

Because X-rays can pass through some materials, they allow us to see inside things – like a superhero’s X-ray vision! X-rays travel through soft body tissues but bounce off dense tissues like bone. In an X-ray scanner, the beam of radiation travels through your body and hits a photographic plate, producing an image. An X-ray photo is a negative: the black areas of the image are the parts that X-rays travel through, so the bones show up white.

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

W T A H T S T M I NI B E A S ac tually eat you, but Don’t panic! They won’t feed on human blood... these 10 minibeasts do

Mosquitoes are the

deadliest animals on Earth! Some carry diseases, like Malaria, that kill thousands of people each year. But new Malaria vaccines are being developed which will save many lives.

The fleas that live on cats and dogs can also bite people, causing itchy bumps on your skin.

ter feeding

A tick before and af T icks are related to spiders. They prefer to feed on animals but can also attach themselves to your bare skin as you walk through the countryside, hanging on and getting fat on your blood!

4 Blood-sucking worms found in lakes and streams, leeches have been used in medicine for thousands of years to remove blood from patients. Some doctors still use them today to prevent blood from clotting during surgery.

26 whizzpopbang.com

If you’ve been to the Scottish Highlands you might have come across swarms of pesky midges. These tiny flies can detect the carbon dioxide in your breath from 200 metres away and use it to home in on their next meal!

! U O Y T A E T WANT TO

Horseflies have fed on the blood of animals, including humans, for a long time. In fact, scientists think they may have once drunk dinosaur blood!

7 8

Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite! Unfortunately, bedbug infestations in hotels and homes are a growing problem.

The dreaded nit comb can be found in the bathrooms of most modern families, but head lice are not a new problem. Archaeologists have found nits in the hair of Egyptian mummies thousands of years old!

9 10

You might have been bitten by sandflies while on holiday at the seaside. These tiny insects can cause a red, itchy rash.

The Blandford fly might be tiny but it was once a big problem in the British town of Blandford until scientists came up with a clever way of controlling it using bacteria that kill the flies without harming the environment.

© 1. US Department of Agriculture / Wikimedia Commons, 2. Mi St / Shutterstock.com, 3. Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / Wikimedia Commons, 4. oatpost / Shutterstock.com, 5. H. Krisp / Wikimedia Commons, 6. Jim Conrad / Wikimedia Commons, 7. Piotr Naskrecki / Wikimedia Commons, 8. Gilles San Martin / Wikimedia Commons, 9. Ray Wilson, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine / Wikimedia Commons, 10. Md Ashiful Hoque / Shutterstock.com.

whizzpopbang.com 27

Sensational Scientists

MARIE CURIE

Meet one of the world’s most famous scientists, who discovered two extraordinary elements.

M A R IE CU R IE WA S BOR POL A N D INN IN 1867

Marie was the youngest of five brothers and sisters. They all loved learning, but at that time Polish girls were not allowed to go to university. So Marie had to move to France to study physics and maths.

In 1896, Marie read about the strange properties of a metal called uranium. It gave out invisible rays that could pass through solid objects and even make air conduct electricity! Marie asked a question that would change her life:

I wonder if any other materials give out these rays?

First, Marie tested every element that had ever been discovered. She had no luck, but she didn’t give up. Next, she tested minerals, including pitchblende – a rock that contains small amounts of uranium. This time the results were amazing. Pitchblende gave out rays MUCH STRONGER than those given out by pure uranium!

This is very remarkable and led us to believe that these minerals may contain a much more active element than uranium itself ! The only way to prove it was to get the mystery new substance out of the pitchblende. Marie’s husband Pierre gave up his own research to help.

28 whizzpopbang.com

After many years, they managed to extract not one but TWO new elements from the pitchblende.

The rays given out by polonium and radium were so strong, they made X-rays look weak and weedy. They could pass through almost ANYTHING. I invented the word radioactive to describe this amazing property.

Marie was the first person in the world to win TWO Nobel Prizes, for her work on radioactivity. She became a science superstar – her fans included Albert Einstein! She could have made a fortune but she decided to share her knowledge for free.

Radium was not to enrich anyone. Radium is an element. It belongs to all people.

For the rest of her life, Marie carried on researching radiation and how it could be used to help people. During the First World War, she designed mobile X-ray trucks known as ‘little Curies’. She and her 17-year-old daughter Irène drove them around, X-raying casualties near battlefields.

Marie’s research often made her feel sick and exhausted, but people didn’t realise how dangerous radioactive substances were until the 1930s. Over time, Marie’s work had damaged the cells in her bones. Marie died aged 66, but she lived to see Irène and her husband Frederic win a Nobel Prize of their own, for producing artificial radioactivity.

whizzpopbang.com 29

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club!

Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our robot, adventures in science p Bang readers! Y, and other Whizz Po ce question Everyone whose scien is page gets answered on th ng wins a Whizz Pop Ba Science Joke Book, ome available in our awes at online science shop

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F oR

Dear Y, Since both hail and snow are frozen rain, how do they form differently?

CURIoUS K I DS

From Rowan, aged 9, and Glyn, aged 7

Loads of you sent in photos of your awesome water cycle models from the pullout section of the Water Explorers edition (Issue 107)…

Isaac, aged 7

Hail and snow form in different places in the atmosphere, which is why they end up looking so different! Snow forms high up in cold clouds: water vapour turns into delicate ice crystals that stick together, making snowflakes. Hail forms in thunderstorms: strong winds push tiny bits of ice higher and higher, collecting more layers of ice until they become so heavy that they fall to the ground as hailstones. Isaac, aged 6 Imogen, aged 6

Aidan, aged 5, and Ava, aged 8 Arthur, aged 7

Béa, aged 7

enamel badges Y’s Wonder Club Badges Collectable for you to earn! Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

Investigate scientific questions to earn your Super Scientist badge.

Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

Dear Y, W ill we ever find out what happened before the big bang?

Phoebe had a dragonfly visiting her wildlife pond (from the Emmi’s Eco Club in the Water Explorers edition, Issue 107).

Thank you, From Charlotte, aged 12

That’s a great question, Charlotte! And you’re right – it’s a mystery what happened before the big bang, the moment when space and time suddenly expanded from a tiny ‘bubble’ to an enormous universe, about 14 billion years ago. Some theories suggest there might have been other universes or cycles of big bangs. Or maybe space and time didn’t even exist before it, so there was no such thing as ‘before’! Bigger space telescopes are allowing us to look further back in time and theoretical physicists are coming up with new theories all the time – so it’s likely that one day we will know more about this. Perhaps you’ll be one of the scientists who will go on to solve this mystery!

Whizz Pop Bang paid a visit to Widcombe Junior School in Bath during their science week. Year 3 had great fun experimenting with static electricity!

Bethan, aged 7, really enjoyed making the perpetual calendar from the Time Q uest edition (Issue 103).

Dear Y, How does your body know to stop growing when you’re a grown up?

From Lily, aged 3 (who loves her big brother’s favourite magazine) Your body makes chemical messengers called hormones that tell your bones and muscles when to grow and when to stop growing. When you’re young, your bones grow longer because your body is making lots of growth hormone. But as you get older, your body makes less of these hormones, so your bones stop growing and you stop getting taller. Your body knows when to make the different hormones because of chemical instructions inside your body’s cells called DNA – a bit like an instruction manual – so you don’t keep on growing forever!

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.

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

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

To find out how to earn your badges, go to whizzpopbang.com/wonder-club. Schools can get involved too! Find out how here: bit.ly/39xNQ Q qV

whizzpopbang.com 31

Test your mum/ dad/polte rgeist to

see what they know !

1 3 5

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.

2 4 6

An X-ray machine is good for taking pictures of your…

a) s kin b) b ones c) holidays

What colour blood do vampire squids have? ed a) R b) Clear c) Blue

Pythons’ skeletons show that their ancestors once had… a) legs b) wings c) p ropellers

What is the name of the world’s smallest bat?

How do you make a skeleton laugh? Tickle its funny bone!

a) Common pipistrelle bat b) Kitti’s hog-nosed bat utterfly bat c) B

Which two radioactive elements did Marie Curie discover? a) Glowium and radium b) Uranium and twinkleite c) Polonium and radium

What do doctors use bloodsucking leeches for? a) To calm patients’ nerves, when no therapy dogs

are available

b) T o prevent patients’ blood from clotting

during surgery

What is the name for sugar skulls made to celebrate Day of the Dead? a) Calaveras one-bones b) B andy craniums c) C

c) T o deliver prescriptions to the chemist

How far does your blood travel every day?

I scored...

a) 19 m b) 19 km c) 19,000 km

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages… 1) Page 24 2) Page 12 3) Page 8 4) Page 29 5) Page 35 6) Page 26 7) Page 14 8) Page 10

1-3: Fang-tastic start 4-6: Bone-chillingly good 7-8: Sherlock Bones

We’ve got two copies of the new ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!’ book to give away! To be in with a chance of winning one, find and circle these words in the grid, then write down the leftover letters to find out how many bones people have in their bodies.

The words en m ight be w ritt forwards, back wards, horizonta lly, vertical ly or d iagonal ly.

Skull Jaw Sternum Rib Spine

Pelvis

Femur

Coccyx Kneecap

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

M T O R A U E N O M E R T I L L V E N O

E A I P

B O N H

! IN

Skeleton Search

S H A V H U N D N D S S U R I O T V B A

L A V E E B E C C S S E S O N E S S C J A W A C F U S E Y

T U D T O G E T M H E R X

Answer

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is guaranteed to amaze and entertain you with its unique blend of weird but true stories and jaw-dropping facts gathered from all over the world.

WINNER

Send your answer to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Halloween competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post it to Halloween 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 2024. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com.

Issue 109 competition winner Thank you to everyone who entered our Amazon competition. The answer to the question ‘What South American country was Riley visiting?’ was ‘Ecuador’. These four lucky winners will each receive a Build Your Own Endangered Animal kit from buildyourownkits.com (animals assigned at random).

Freddie Heraghty, aged 8 Frankie Sopper, aged 7

Maddie Jordan, aged 9 Caissa Turner, aged 9

whizzpopbang.com 33

S E K O J Which mammal is best at cricket? A bat!

Knock Kno ck. Who’s ther e? Boo! Boo who? Don’t cry, it only Hallow ’s een!

What’s the bes t thing to put int o a pumpkin pie? Your teeth!

What is the most important subject a witch learns at school? Spelling!

Why don’t skele ton eat spicy food? s They don’t have the stomach for it!

Page 6 – Blood Cell Puzzle There are 24 blood cells on pages 6-7.

All about BLOOD We all contain several litres of blood, but why do we have it? Why is it red? And how can I make some at home to scare my friends?!

Living Liquid

Express delivery

Page 14 – Double Trouble

Make your own fake blood ! Dressing up for Halloween? own Why not make your fake blood! It’s scarily too! realistic, and edible

You will need

2 tablespoons of runny honey 1-2 pinches of cocoa powder Red and blue food colouring 8 tablespoons of water or red juice, such as cranberry juice (optional)

Page 15 – Riddles

What you do

How many blood cells can you count? Check your answer on page 34.

1) A candle

Blood factories

Inside some of your bones is a soft, spongy material called bone marrow, which acts as a blood cell factory, continually churning out new blood cells to replace the old ones.

In the time it takes you to read this sentence your body will make 10 million new blood cells!

True blue?

2) A coffin

3. Add a drop or two of water if it needs thinning out. If you’d like to turn your fake blood into a drink, stir in 8 tablespoons of red juice or water.

You should find

Blood is responsible for keeping your temperature constant.

6 whizzpopbang.com

Answers

whizzpopbang.com 7

Page 15 – Marigold Maze

Page 15 – Fair and Square

Page 12 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Most insect-eating bats will eat around one third of their body weight in insects every night, so a common pipistrelle will catch and eat around 3,000 flying bugs for dinner! Page 14 – Wheel Spin

Page 32 – Quiz

CALAVERA

1) b 2) b 3) c 4) c 5) a 6) b 7) a 8) c

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s Snake skeleton This is the skeleton of an Indian python, a large non-venomous snake found in many areas of the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. You can easily see the skull, vertebrae and ribs. But pythons and boa constrictors also have tiny remnants of hind leg bones toward their tail ends that aren’t so easy to see. These bones, described as ‘vestigial’ (meaning leftover), show that the snakes’ ancestors once had legs but over time they have evolved to have none.

Pythons still have the gene for growing legs, but mutations in their DNA stop it working early in their development. This means that, if the gene was turned back on, they could be made to grow legs again! © Shutterstock.com

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