SPACE TRAINING
Find out how astronauts are preparing for exciting missions to Mars, the Moon and more on page 44
CONTENTS
A wild and wonderful world awaits you inside!
GLACIERS IN NUMBERS
Slide over to page 49 to discover cool facts about glaciers, including how many there are in the world and how much of all the water is found in them.
20 OLYMPIC MOMENTS
Relive some of the most inspiring moments in Olympic history on page 14
FACTOPIA
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts on page 4 all the way from throwing poo out of the window... to peeing in the shower!
Head to page 27 to dive into our fun summer activities pull-out, including DIY slime and ice cream.
THAT’S GROSS!
TOP OF THE CLASS
What on Earth! Magazine has won the 2024 NMA award for Subscription Magazine of the Year. We are delighted to be recognised and are excited to keep creating awardwinning magazines for our readers – including you!
SEND IT IN!
Keep your eye out for a crop of killer plants on page 64, as we showcase some of the brilliant entries in our latest drawing competition.
EUREKA!
Get up to speed with the latest news and discoveries on page 10, including a stellar light show.
Love all things gooey, grimy and gag-worthy? Head over to page 16 for as many gross facts as you can stomach!
JOKES & RIDDLES
Look out for this month’s selection, hand-picked by our jokes editor May, on page 66.
HOW TO CHAT...
To win ALL the brilliant books featured in our Summer Issue, just answer this question: In which country is the world’s longest fence? Send your answer to editor@whatonearth.co.uk and a winner will be chosen at random by our jokes editor May. Good luck!
Find out how everyone’s favourite summer insects, bees, communicate with each other on page 12, including what it means when they perform a ‘waggle dance’.
SEND IT IN!
Email us your letters, photos and favourite facts to: editor@whatonearth.co.uk
You can also find all these books (and more!) at whatonearthbooks.com/ shop
Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from throwing poo out of the window… to peeing in the shower!
By Kate Hale, Paige Towler and Julie Beer
Smith
Sewers sometimes develop massive fatbergs – solid chunks of fat, oil and wet wipes that people have poured down their drains
START HERE
From the mid-1600s to the early 1900s, people in Europe sometimes tossed the contents of their non-flushing toilets out of their windows. In Scotland, they called out, ‘Gardy loo!’ as a warning to those walking below
In the 19th century, people known as ‘toshers’ would descend into the sewers of London to hunt for lost coins and valuable metals
In Australia, pythons havebeen foundslitheringthroughthe sewers
were once Olympic events
Nearly 3,000 years ago, during the early Olympics, athletes competed naked
Illustrations by Andy
Human poo and pee have been flowing through Rome’s Cloaca Maxima (meaning ‘Greatest Sewer’) for more than 2,600 years
In 1902, there were so many rats in the sewers of Hanoi, Vietnam, that they started climbing out of people’s toilets
There’s a museum in Texas that features more than 1,400 art pieces – all created on toilet seats
You can buy paintings created by a red panda, rhino or cheetah at a zoo in Houston, Texas, USA
In1988,Jamaica–acountrythat almost never sees snow – formed its first ever Olympic bobsled team, inspired by local barrow derby races.
The world’s fastest bath,
mounted on to a go-kart, hit speeds of 190 kilometres per hour
England’s Queen Elizabeth I bragged that she had wonderful hygiene because she bathed once a month.
According tovarious st u d,sei dnuora 08tnecrep fo p eoplepee in thesho w re !
A lost cow in China was later located unharmed in a village sewer
Astonishing photos from around the world
A WHALE OF A TIME
In winter, orca whales such as this one are attracted to large schools of herring that migrate into the fjords of northern Norway. Orcas herd the herring into a tight ball in what is known ‘carousel feeding’.
WORLD NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS/ANDY SCHMID
THAT’S LOOPY!
Greek BMX rider George Ntavoutian made history by completing the largest full loop with a bicycle, in a pipe that measured a stunning 7.5 metres high. That’s as tall as a two-storey building!
RED BULL CONTENT POOL/ALEX GRYMANIS
THREE’S COMPANY
Photographer
Ian Mason captured these three common frogs having a moment together in Perthshire, Scotland. Common frogs are the only type of frog found in the wild in Scotland. The females, which can grow up to 13 centimetres in length, are a bit larger than the males, at 9 centimetres.
DOUBLE VISION
This stunning image of a mountain in Iceland was taken by clever photographer Ivan Pedretti, who said:
PRETTY IN PINK
This section of the Five Cats Recreation Mall in Beijing, China, has been painted entirely in pink. A small playground with slides and cat decor provides extra fun, and the vibrant walls are a perfect backdrop for social media photo opportunities.
‘I love the contrast in colours between the white mountains and the black dunes with yellow grass.’ The mountain, Vestrahorn, is near the spot where one of the first settlement farms in Iceland was built.
Eureka!
The latest astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.
Children discover a ‘teen’ rex!
A new Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was discovered by quite an unlikely group – a trio of young boys!
American brothers Liam, 7, and Jessin, 10, were on a hike with their father and their cousin, Kaiden, 9, when they saw what looked like bones in the ground. So they took some photographs and showed them to a palaeontologist. Scientists started a dig, and lo and behold, there were even more fossils to be found! Based on the palaeontologists’ studies of the dinosaur’s shin bone, they determined that the fossils belonged to a teenaged T. rex T. rex fossils are very rare, with fewer than 150 known specimens in the world. This thrilling new discovery gives scientists an opportunity to learn more about how a Tyrannosaurus rex grew and developed from a young age.
HOW ‘TEEN’ REX MEASURES UP TO FAMOUS FOSSILS
‘Teen’ rex (found in 2024) Sue (found in 1990) AMNH 5027 (found in 1908) Stan (found in 1987)
Orangutan uses medicine to heal its own wound
Researchers in Indonesia, Asia, have spotted an orangutan using a paste made from plants to heal an injury. While animals have been seen eating medicinal plants before, this is the first time anyone has recorded a wild animal treating
an injury in this way. The orangutan, called Rakus, suffered a large wound on his cheek. Researchers watched Rakus chew a plant with anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. He placed liquid from the plant on
his wound for several minutes. Then he put a paste of the chewed leaves over the top. His wound closed up in five days, and was fully healed in thirty. Scientists are not yet sure how Rakus learned to use medicine in this remarkable way.
Young fossil hunters ready to dig!
Liam holds a fossil he discovered.
The fossils are protected in a plaster jacket.
Rakus’s injury
The wound has healed!
Rakus chewing a medicinal plant
An estimated 30 per cent of the teen T. rex’s skeleton was found at the site. Further studies could locate even more bones.
Why rivers in Alaska are turning orange…
Alaska is quite a chilly place, and its rivers and streams have long been an icy blue. Recently, however, some of Alaska’s rivers have turned bright orange. In fact, scientists say the orange is so bright it can be seen from space!
What is causing this dramatic change of colour? Because of climate change, toxic metals are being released into the water. The metals are usually trapped in Alaska’s icy layer of permafrost, which is ground that stays frozen for
more than two years in a row. As global temperatures rise, the permafrost thaws. And as it melts, the metals, such as iron, get into the rivers. This could be harmful to wildlife, so scientists are monitoring the situation carefully.
Metals such as iron, copper and zinc are turning the river water orange.
Thumbs up! How this ingenious robot thumb is helping humans get a grip
Star burst
A bright new star will soon be visible in the night sky! The star system T Coronae Borealis is set to erupt in a spectacular nova explosion before September.
Researchers in the UK have developed a clever new robotic device – an extra thumb! The Third Thumb is worn opposite the natural thumb. Using a motor and wireless sensors that are controlled using the feet, the extra thumb can help humans to grasp and manipulate objects. This might be especially useful for people who have only one hand, as the Third Thumb can help perform tasks that would usually require the
use of two hands. People with typical hands might also find the Third Thumb useful for everyday tasks such as picking up and holding objects. For example, by using the Third Thumb, a person can hold their cup and stir their hot chocolate with the same hand! Studies show that people of all ages have been able to operate the thumb successfully, so it could become a common tool of the future.
Third
Thumb
Motors, wirelessly controlled
How a teen T. rex might have looked.
How to chat...
BEES
By Dr Nick Crumpton
Illustration by Adrienne Barman
Honeybees make hissing sounds when their hives are rocked or damaged. This might be by an animal such as a honey badger trying to steal some honey.
Bees are well known for the buzzing sound that they make. The sound is made by their wings, which can beat up to 230 times per second! Bees also have a few other ways of communicating – they make noises and some of them also dance!
(Stop doing that!)
PP - PP
(I’m the queen here!)
B U Z Z Z Z Z (This is how you find the flowers...)
One dance that bees do is called the waggle dance. It tells other bees where to find flowers and nectar. How far the bee dances as it walks along shows other bees the flowers’ position in relation to the Sun.
Queen bees make short, pipping sounds that seem to warn away younger queens and stop them from taking over the hive.
20 OLYMPIC MOMENTS!
1896, ATHENS
The first modern Olympic Games are held in Greece, the home of the ancient Olympic Games, which date back to 776 BCE. There are no gold medals. Winners receive a silver medal and an olive branch.
1900, PARIS
Female athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Britain’s Charlotte Cooper becomes the first woman to be crowned an Olympic champion, triumphing in the women’s singles tennis.
1904, ST LOUIS
US gymnast George Eyser, who competes using a wooden prosthetic leg, makes headlines for winning six Olympic medals in a day, three of them gold. Eyser lost his left leg after he was run over by a train.
19 4 0 195 0
1952, HELSINKI
1960, ROME
The first Paralympic Games are held in parallel (hence the name) with the Olympic Games and feature 400 athletes from 23 countries. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics feature more than 4,000 athletes.
1996, ATLANTA
Gymnast Kerri Strug badly injures her ankle on her second-to-last vault in the team competition. However, Strug must jump again and land on her feet for the US to clinch gold. She does it!
The standout performer is Emil Zátopek, a Czech runner who wins gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m and 26.2-mile marathon race. Zátopek’s trio of victories in these demanding events has yet to be repeated.
1948, LONDON
Dutch athlete Fanny BlankersKoen becomes the first woman to win four gold medals in one Olympics. During her career, she sets world records in 8 different events and, in 1999, is voted Female Athlete of the Century.
1968,
MEXICO CITY
Dick Fosbury wins the men’s high jump thanks to his revolutionary new technique: the ‘Fosbury flop’. It involves running at the bar, taking off and then twisting in mid-air to soar over the bar head first.
Fanny Blankers-Koen
1968, MEXICO CITY
Standing on the winners’ podium, Black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos make a defiant protest against racism by bowing their heads and raising black-gloved fists while the US national anthem plays.
2000, SYDNEY
After both his opponents are disqualified for false starts, 100m swimmer Eric ‘the Eel’ Moussambani, from Equatorial Guinea, receives an ovation as he wins his heat in the slowest time in Olympic history.
2008, BEIJING
Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt announces himself as perhaps the greatest sprinter of all time, as he becomes the only person in history to break the 100m and 200m world records at the same Olympic Games.
The first Paralympic Games
Dick Fosbury
Kerri Strug
As the Olympic Games are held in Paris, France, we relive some of the most inspiring, surprising and memorable moments in Olympic history.
1908, LONDON
Italy’s Dorando Pietri suffers a heartbreaking loss in the marathon. Despite collapsing five times in the final 400 metres, Pietri is first to finish – but is later disqualified for being helped over the line.
1912, STOCKHOLM
1920
1936,
BERLIN
US athlete Jesse Owens produces one of the all-time great Olympic performances, claiming four golds. Owens triumphs in the long jump, the 100m and 200m dash and the 4 x 100m relay.
1928, AMSTERDAM
The is the first time that the symbolic Olympic flame is lit at the start of the Games in a cauldron. It also marks the start of a tradition that Greece leads the Parade of Nations during the Opening Ceremony.
1980 1970
1968,
MEXICO CITY
American Bob Beamon sets a new world record in the long jump, smashing the previous record by more than half a metre. Beamon’s extraordinary leap will not be bettered for 23 years.
19 10 1930 2 0 2 0
Running the marathon in very hot weather, Shizo Kanakuri collapses and is taken in by a local family. Ashamed of his failure to finish, he returns to Japan in secret. (In 1967, at the age of 75, Kanakuri returns to Stockholm to complete the race he began 54 years earlier!)
1976, MONTREAL
At the age of 14, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci becomes the first Olympian ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 out of 10, for her performance on the uneven bars. She wins three golds.
1988, SEOUL
Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson surges to victory in the 100m but is later disqualified in disgrace for taking banned steroids, which are drugs that unfairly improve an athlete’s performance.
2008, BEIJING
US swimmer Michael Phelps wins a record-breaking eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. He will go on to win more Olympic medals than any other athlete – 28 in total, 23 of which are gold.
2020, TOKYO
Friends and training partners Mutaz Barshim, from Qatar, and Gianmarco Tamberi, from Italy, choose to share gold in the high jump (instead of going into a head-to-head contest) after their scores are tied.
Dorando Pietri
Shizo Kanakuri
Jesse Owens
Michael Phelps
Nadia Comaneci
Usain Bolt
Therearemorebacteria inanaverage-sized humanpoothanthere arestarsinthe MilkyWay.
Hold your nose – and prepare to be horrified, revolted and amazed – as we take a deep dive into all things disgusting and gross.
Illustrations
by Andy Smith
Why do you think humans find certain things disgusting?
It’s an interesting scientific question. Charles Darwin, the great 19th-century naturalist, thought that being completely grossed out by stuff served a useful evolutionary purpose. Finding the smell of rotten eggs or mouldy fruit physically revolting, for example, warned early humans not to eat them and so helped them to avoid getting sick.
Seen in this way, humans’ instinctive sense of disgust is our immune system’s first line of defence. It advises us not to touch or eat things that might otherwise endanger our health.
But why, you might then ask, are humans, and children especially, also strangely drawn to disgusting things? Why do we sometimes pick a scab, taste a bogey or prod a dog poo with a stick? Once again, evolution has an answer, because cautiously experimenting with the strange and unknown, especially when we’re young,
helps us to learn about the risks and opportunities in our environment.
So if you delight in disgusting yourself and your family with the grossest facts imaginable, now is the time to hold your nose and turn the page…
Continued on next page
Sneezing facts
• Droplets from a sneeze can travel at speeds of up to 160 kph and hang in the air for as long as 20 minutes.
• The longest known sneezing fit, by UK schoolgirl Donna Griffiths, started in 1981 and continued for almost three years!
• The loudest recorded sneeze reached 176 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine.
GROSS HUMANS! GROSS HUMANS!
1
Farts on the International Space Station, right, are smellier than on Earth because there is no airflow. Phew!
2 The oldest human poo fossil ever found is around 50,000 years old.
3 A performer called Mr Methane can fart to the tune of the British national anthem.
4 Over the course of history, the human race has pooed about 200 billion tonnes of poo in total, which weighs about the same as Mount Everest.
5 The Japanese term odorigui (which translates as ‘dancing eating’) means swallowing a live fish that’s still squirming in your mouth.
6 The average adult produces up to 1.5 litres of saliva each day – enough to fill more than four fizzy drink cans.
7 In one study, scientists discovered more than 1,000 previously unknown species of bacteria living in people’s belly buttons
8 The longest burp ever recorded lasted just over 1 minute and 13 seconds.
9 Most people fart between 8 and 12 times a day.
10 One man collected his own nail clippings in a jar for more than 35 years.
11 You fart enough in your lifetime to fill more than 2,000 balloons.
12 Astronauts have left behind nearly 100 bags of poo, urine and vomit on the surface of the Moon.
13 The first cubicle in a public toilet is typically the least used and therefore the cleanest.
14 The Rotten Trainer Contest offers prizes to kids with the stinkiest shoes.
15 Scientists estimate that a single human might
have as many as 2.5 million harmless, microscopic mites living on their body.
16 April 23rd is International Nose Picking Day!
17 A man from London, UK, set a world record for picking up and moving more than 17 kilograms of maggots using only his mouth.
18
A team of students built a motorised toilet that reached a top speed of more than 70 mph
19
The entire town of Rotorua, New Zealand, smells like rotten eggs. It is known as the ‘stink capital of the world’
20 An American woman set a world record by blowing a gum bubble larger than the diameter of a football – with her nose!
21 The strings of musical instruments such as violins used to be made from sheep intestines.
22 A man from California, USA, made a bolognese, cheese and lettuce sandwich in 1 minute and 57 seconds using only his feet.
23 According to surveys, about one in five people has dropped their phone into a toilet
24 For her job as a foot-care product tester, a woman from Ohio, USA, sniffed 5,600 feet.
25 In many parts of the world it is considered good luck to be pooed on by a bird
26 According to studies, around 80 per cent of people wee in the shower.
27
A solid gold toilet, right, worth an estimated £4.6 million, was stolen from a British stately home.
28 Located in Tasmania, Australia, the Pooseum
features poo collections from many different animals.
29 Your heart creates sufficient pressure to squirt blood up to 9 metres.
30 A famous landmark known as the Gum Wall in Seattle, USA, features
hundreds of thousands of pieces of chewed-up gum that visitors have stuck on it.
31 If all the poos that humans have ever produced were joined into a single unbroken poo of average width, it would be 130 billion kilometres long – long enough to stretch to the Sun and back more than 400 times.
32
One museum in London, UK, exhibited cheese made with bacteria found in celebrities’ armpits.
33
A hospital-themed restaurant in Latvia served food shaped like body parts – including tongues, eyeballs and ears.
Continued on next page
Themainingredient ofbird’snestsoup, a common dish in Southeast Asia, isbirdspit.
This golden toilet was stolen!
Visitors stick their used gum on the Gum Wall in Seattle, USA.
GROSS HISTORY! GROSS HISTORY!
34 During an excavation in England, right, archaeologists uncovered –and accidentally cracked open – smelly rotten eggs that were more than 1,700 years old.
35 Some ancient Romans used powdered mouse brains as toothpaste.
36 After using the toilet, people in ancient Japan and China would often use small pieces of wood to wipe their bottoms.
37 Ancient Egyptians sometimes took baths in blood, believing it was good for their health.
38 In ancient Rome, a public toilet usually had multiple seats for several people to use at the same time.
39 During medieval battles, knights had to relieve their bladders and bowels inside their armour.
40
One ancient Roman writer believed that a person could tell the future by swallowing a mole’s heart while it was still beating.
41 In the 19th century, rat catchers earned money by collecting rats with their bare hands.
42 During the Middle Ages, squires would clean knights’ armour using a mixture of sand and wee.
43 To stay warm in winter, children during the Middle Ages were often sewn
Public
toilets in ancient Rome allowed people to poo side by side!
into their clothes – sometimes not changing them again for months at a time!
44 For centuries, Western sailors commonly wiped their bottoms with old pieces of rope called tow-rags.
45 During World War II, nylon was in short supply. So instead of real
nylon stockings, some women painted ‘stockings’ on their legs using make-up, and also kitchen items such as cocoa powder or gravy juice.
46 The ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates diagnosed his patients by tasting their earwax and smelling their poo.
47 Legend has it that Queen Cleopatra of ancient Egypt often bathed in donkey’s milk.
48 In Japan, you can get a spa treatment in which snails crawl across your face leaving trails of slime.
49 In the 18th century, French noblewomen wore towering wigs up to 60 cm high and coated them in flour and grease that attracted fleas and lice… and sometimes even mice!
50 One ancient Egyptian recipe meant to cure baldness included cooking
a worm in clay and then rubbing it on a person’s head.
51 To keep their hair from getting caught in ship equipment at sea, sailors and pirates in the 18th century often coated their hair with black sticky tar.
52 In the Middle Ages, people sometimes used earwax in a concoction that helped paint or ink stick to the pages of their manuscripts.
53 The dead body of 11th-century English king William the Conqueror reportedly exploded as it was being forced into a coffin.
54 During the 18th century, some people used earwax as lip balm!
55 The biscuits stored on board a ship, called hard tack, would often become so infested with maggots and weevils that they earned the nickname ‘worm castles’.
Continued on next page
paper,Insteadofusingtoilet ancientRomans wouldwipewith asharedsponge or stick.
GROSS ANIMALS! GROSS ANIMALS!
56 Poo-rolling dung beetles, right, can sometimes be found ‘dancing’ on top of their dung balls!
57 Some species of frog can’t vomit. Instead they eject their entire stomach and wipe the organ off while it hangs out of their mouth, before putting it back inside their body again.
58 When threatened, a sea cucumber shoots its guts out of its head or rear end at its attacker!
59 A chicken’s brain is partially inside its neck. Because of this, one chicken survived a whole year without a head.
60 The Spanish ribbed newt pierces its own poisonous skin with the points of its ribs and then uses them to stab and poison predators.
61 One type of wasp lays its eggs inside a ladybird’s belly. The eggs hatch, spin themselves a cocoon, and take over the
ladybird’s brain – turning it into a real-life zombie.
62 A male camel, above, uses its slimy saliva to blow bubbles that attract passing females in the desert.
63 Rats breed so quickly that just one pair of rats can have up to 15,000 descendants – including babies, grandbabies, great-grandbabies and so on – in only one year.
64
Lice feed on blood up to five times a day, and they usually prefer to dine on the same types of blood for their entire lives. Yum.
65 Some rhinoceroses poo in enormous shared piles of dung – called middens – that can reach up to 20 metres across.
66 The largest leech in the world, the giant Amazon leech, can grow to about the length of a house cat (not including the cat’s tail).
67 In Paris, France, there are about 4 million rats – they outnumber people by almost two to one! Most of the rats live underground and in the sewers.
68
Sloths poo only once a week. Scientists also think that they’re the only mammal that cannot fart.
69 Wombats, which are native to Australia, produce cube-shaped poos. Why are their poos this unusual shape? To stop the poos rolling away and to make them easier to stack.
70 A mountain of guano, or seabird poo, known as the Great Heap in Peru was 60 metres tall, which is taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
71 A type of flatworm parasite can cause frogs to grow extra legs.
72 While grooming, cats cover themselves in saliva – and germs. One study discovered almost a million bacteria per gram of cat hair.
73 One species of turtle pees from its mouth.
Continued on next page
once a week.
This camel is blowing saliva bubbles to attract a female mate.
Sloths cannot fart and only poo around
What is poo made of?
On average, an adult human excretes between 100 and 250 grams of poo each day. Although the proportions can vary, water is typically the
main ingredient. The solid matter in your poo is made up of live and dead bacteria, material your body can’t digest and small quantities of waste minerals – including tiny amounts of gold!
25% live bacteria
25% dead bacteria over 33% water traces of gold
6% bre
7% inorganic compounds
How much poo different animals do each day
All animals eat to absorb the carbohydrates, fats, proteins and vitamins in food. But not everything in food is useful, which is why both animals and humans poo – to get rid of waste.
Larger animals need to eat more food than smaller animals because they usually need more energy and nutrients to survive. As a result, they typically do much bigger poos!
Continued from previous page
74 Orb weaver spiders vomit a special fluid all over their prey that helps soften it so the spider can chew up its victim until it’s liquefied. Then, the spider sucks up the liquid…
75 To help them float, manatees have special pouches that store their gas. When they want to swim deeper, they pass wind.
76 To keep chicken poo from getting everywhere, some farms put specially made nappies on their chickens.
77 In order to grow, many frogs shed their outer layer of skin… and then eat it!
78
their extra-long tongues to lick their eyeballs clean
83 A scientific study found that at any given time, poo might account for up to 20 per cent of the body weight of a snake.
84 In just one day, a cow, like the one pictured in the illustration on the right, can produce enough wind to fill 30 balloons!
85 A foam that sometimes forms on large amounts of pig poo can spontaneously explode.
Somespeciesof termitecanfartso forcefullythattheir abdomensexplode!
When a fly walks across your food, it is tasting the flavour of your meal with its feet.
79 Hairless cats, like the one pictured below, can secrete so much oil from their skin that it can stain furniture.
80 Baby dragonflies move underwater by sucking water into their rear ends and then shooting it back out
81 To help it escape from predators, one type of deep-sea shrimp pukes glowing vomit!
82 Geckos don’t have eyelids. So instead they use
86 When whales die, their bodies usually sink. But if the body of a dead whale washes up on shore, gases build up inside and make it explode.
87 Double-banded courser eggs resemble antelope poo. The bird usually lays a single egg near a poo pile to hide it from potential predators.
88 Whales have earwax that builds up over time and forms a ‘plug’. In the largest whales, a plug can grow up to 25 cm long.
89 The vampire squid can turn itself ‘inside out’ to avoid predators by curling its spiky bottom half over its body.
90 When they eat, starfish push their stomachs out through their mouths to cover their meal and digest it.
91 Some species of vulture
bring up their own food for self-defence – they can produce highly acidic strongsmelling vomit from their stomachs that sting predators.
92 Seal Island, found off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, and pictured on the right, is said to be the worst-smelling place on Earth. It’s home to up to 75,000 Cape fur seals whose poo smells like rotting fish.
93 Dogs prefer to poo facing either north or
Why you should steer clear of a hippo when it needs a poo…
south, which they can locate because they are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field. However, scientists aren’t sure why dogs do this!
94 As the sign shown above illustrates, hippopotamuses spin their tails while they poo. The spinning motion flings their dung up to 10 metres, helping hippos to mark their territory.
95 Mother dogs will throw up food they’ve eaten and allow their pups to eat the vomit.
96 Silver-spotted skipper caterpillars can use their rear ends to shoot poo pellets up to 1.5 metres away, which is more than 35 times their own body length.
97 Dogs learn the age, health and mood of other dogs by sniffing their rear ends.
98 Giraffes can use their long, flexible tongues to pick their own noses.
99 A palaeontologist calculated that a Tyrannosaurus rex probably could have sneezed out enough snot to fill a small fish tank!
If you enjoyed the disgusting facts in this feature, you will find even more in the pages of the brilliant Gross Factopia by Paige Towler, which is our now.
These Cape seals live on Seal Island, the ‘smelliest place on Earth’.
MAPIT
AUSTRALIAISBIG!
Themapbelowshowsjusthowbig. Australiaiscolouredyellowandothercountriesshown tothesamescalehavebeenplacedontopingreen.
DID YOU KNOW?
Australia covers around 7,692,000 sq km. It is the sixth largest country on Earth, after Russia, Canada, China, the USA and Brazil.
CZECH REP.
CZECH REP.
DID YOU KNOW?
Many famous animal species – including the kangaroo, koala, platypus, wombat, emu and Tasmanian devil –only occur naturally in Australia.
SPAIN
DID YOU KNOW?
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of Australia. They have been living there for more than 60,000 years.
DID YOU KNOW?
The first European known to have visited Australia was the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. He landed on the northern coastline in February 1606.
DID YOU KNOW?
The world’s longest fence stretches more than 5,600 km across south-east Australia. The fence is designed to protect sheep from dingoes, which are a type of wild dog.
DID YOU KNOW?
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth. More than a third of the Australian mainland is desert!
Are you ready for the summer holidays? Inside this special 16-page activity pull-out, you will find quiz questions to answer, tricky puzzles to solve and fun activities that will keep you and your family entertained for hours! And don’t worry if you get stuck – all the answers are on page 42.
WORD LADDERS
Change the word COLD to WARM in 4 moves by changing one letter at a time. Each new word you create by changing a letter must be a proper word. Then try changing MISS to TALK and LOVE to MILK.
ANIMALS
1 What type of animal is a frog?
a. Marsupial
b. Lizard
c. Reptile
d. Amphibian
2 What is the collective name for a group of crows?
a. Cackle
b. Murder
c. Mob
d. Blackness
3 What type of bird can fly highest in the sky?
a. Rüppell’s griffon vulture
b. Golden eagle
c. Andean condor
d. Penguin
4 What is the largest animal ever to have lived?
a. Giant squid
b. Argentinosaurus
c. Blue whale
d. Megalodon
5 What colour is a zebra’s skin?
a. Black
b. White
c. Brown
d. Pink
EMOJI NAMES
Each of these emoji sequences represents a common girl’s or boy’s first name. Can you work out the first name in each of these five examples?
Can you find your way through our maze of square rooms? Enter through the door marked with the red arrow, then try to find your way to the exit by going through the correct sequence of open doors. Good luck!
HIDDEN ANIMALS!
Four sneaky animals are hiding somewhere in these photos. Can you find them?
NUMBER TRIANGLES!
In the triangles below, the numbers inside the squares are the sum of the two numbers in the connected circles. For example:
Can you work out which number should appear in each of the circles? All the numbers in the circles are between 1 and 10 and a number can only be used once in each triangle.
HUMAN BODY
1 How many muscles are there in the tongue?
a. Two
b. Four
c. Six
d. Eight
2 What is the first sense to develop in babies?
a. Hearing
b. Touch
c. Taste
d. Smell
3 What is poo mostly made up of?
a. Live bacteria
b. Dead bacteria
c. Water
d. Gold
4 At what age is the brain fully formed?
a. 10 b. 15
c. 20
d. 25
5 What is the hardest substance in the body? a. Enamel
Bone
Hair
Muscle 1
Noice-creammaker?Noproblem!
howtomakeyourown… ICECREAM!
WHAT YOU NEED
1 large zip-top bag 1 small zip-top bag
WHAT TO DO
1 Pour the milk into the small zip-top bag and make sure it is sealed tight.
2 Put ice into the large zip-top bag until it is about half full. Then add the salt.
3 Put the small zip-top bag inside the larger bag with the ice and seal the large bag tight.
4 Gently shake and squeeze the bags as the ice melts. Put on the warm gloves if your hands start to get too cold!
TOP TIP!
Be careful when you take out your ice cream so that you don’t get any salty water in it!
5 Regularly check the small bag to see if your ice cream has frozen. After about 5–10 minutes of shaking, your ice cream should be ready!
THE SCIENCE OF ICE CREAM
Water – like the ice in your large bag –freezes at 0 degrees
Celsius. Adding salt to the ice makes its freezing point lower by a couple of degrees. That means your ice is now above its freezing point, and it starts to melt.
For melting, the ice requires energy. That energy comes from your milk, which gets cold and turns into ice cream! If you don’t add the salt, your milk will not freeze. What do you think would happen if you added even more salt?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ICE CREAM
Iced desserts have been around since about 4000 BCE! ccc
In Tang China the emperor enjoyed a dish made of iced buffalo milk. ccc
It is thought that Marco Polo introduced the treat to Europe after his travels in China. ccc
The first US president, George Washington, bought an ice-cream maker for his household in 1784. ccc
Now, ice cream is popular everywhere. There is even an ice-cream machine at McMurdo Station in Antarctica!
Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3x2 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 6.
1
How long does it take the fastest rollercoaster in the world to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h?
a. Two seconds
b. Four seconds
c. Six seconds
d. Eight seconds
2 Which of these was invented first?
a. Gunpowder
b. Paper
c. Wheel
d. Windmill
3 How many black keys are there on a piano?
a. 16
b. 26
c. 36
d. 46
4 Who was the first US president?
a. Abraham Lincoln
b. George Washington
c. Alexander Hamilton
d. Thomas Jefferson
5 Where did the Olympic Games originate?
a. Italy
b. China
c. India
d. Greece
Fill in the missing numbers so that every row and column includes the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Use the inequality signs as clues and make sure numbers always obey the inequality sign between them. This means that the arrows between the numbers always point towards the smaller number.
Here is an example:
In the three squares shown above, the number A must be less than 3 and greater than the missing number B.
We know all the numbers must be between 1 and 4 , so therefore A must be 2 and B must be 1.
Treasure Hunt!
Can you spot these 22 things hidden in the picture below? Plus, figure out what the 7 hidden letters spell.
Illustration by Rod Hunt
spell. Clue: it’s a summer activity. Don’t worry if you get stuck – all the answers are revealed on page 42.
1
What is the name of the process by which cliffs are worn down by the sea?
a. Evolution
b. Erosion
c. Deposition
d. Magnetism
2 Which country’s national flag is shown below?
a. Russia
b. Czech Republic
c. France
d. Croatia
3
After Mount Everest, what is the second highest mountain on Earth?
a. Mount Kilimanjaro
b. Mauna Kea
c. K2
d. Lhotse
4
What is the smallest country in the world by surface area?
a. Vatican City
b. San Marino
c. Nauru
d. Liechtenstein
5
What is the capital city of Australia?
a. Sydney
b. Melbourne
c. Brisbane
d. Canberra
Use the word wheel to help find the answers to the six clues below. All the answers contain the middle letter and each letter can only be used once.
Clue: a person’s name written in their own handwriting which can be used to identify them (9 letters).
Answer:
Clue: unusual, surprising or bizarre (7 letters).
Answer:
Can you spot the 20 words associated with summer holidays in our jumbo word search puzzle? Good luck! WORD WHEEL
G I U N S E A T R
Clue: a very hard rock often used for building (7 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a stringed musical instrument (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: the light-sensitive area at the back of the eyeball (6 letters).
Answer:
Clue: a solitary big cat with stripy fur (5 letters).
Answer:
How to make delightfully disgusting…
SLIME! SLIME!
Prepare to gross out your friends and family as you learn how to create your own sticky slime. Plus, discover the fascinating science of slime and the reasons why it gets to feel so slimy!
You’ve probably seen oozy blobby slime in TV shows and films about aliens and mutants, but did you know that there’s plenty of slime in real life as well? Most living things use slime somehow. We humans, of course, have gloopy, slimy snot and other mucus to help our bodies function, while a jellyfish’s body is made of slime! Believe it or not, scientists use slime as well. They are working on ways to make slimes into adhesives to stick things together, special bandages to heal wounds, and even soft robot parts. You can be a slime scientist, too! Read on to find out how to make your very own slimes with household ingredients.
THE SCIENCE OF SLIME
1 Glue is a type of substance called a polymer. Polymers are made up of long chains of small molecules. In glue, these chains are long and straight, which makes it easy for them to slide against each other.
WHAT YOU NEED
Bicarbonate of soda
Contact lens cleaning solution (Note: make sure it includes boric acid or borax among the ingredients, or it won’t work.)
Spoon or spatula for stirring
Bowl for mixing
2 To make slime, we add in borax, a key ingredient in contact lens cleaning solution and other cleaning products. Borax is also used as a pesticide and can help make glass and enamel.
Washable PVA school glue
TOP TIP!
If you buy a 100 ml bottle of glue, there is no need to measure first.
Measuring cups and spoons
3 The borax starts linking the glue’s polymer chains together. This makes it harder for them to move around. With its polymer chains linked up, the glue starts to thicken into a slime!
and
Lucy
her gooey slime!
WHAT TO DO
1
Squeeze 100 ml of glue into a mixing bowl.
TOP TIP!
Using more food colouring makes a more intense colour.
TOP TIP!
Make multicoloured slime by preparing batches in different colours and then plaiting and rolling them together.
Playing with slime is a great sensory activity, which means it’s fun to watch and touch and play with! You can make your slime even more fun by adding in a variety of additional ingredients that change its look or texture.
2
Add ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
3
If you want to, add gel food colouring to make your slime coloured.
6
The slime should turn stringy and then pull away from the sides of the bowl to form into a ball.
STYLE YOUR SLIME
Glitter can give your slime some sparkle and shine.
Tonic water will make it glow under UV light, and glow paint can make your slime glow in the dark!
Shaving cream will make your slime fluffy!
4
Add 1 tsp contact lens solution. Mix well. After about a minute, the mixture should start turning to slime.
5 If your slime is too runny, gradually add up to 2 tsp additional contact lens solution.
7
Knead the slime with your hands until it is smooth. It will be very sticky at first, but just keep kneading! At this point, you can add mix-ins if you like.
TOP TIP!
Store your slime in a zip-top bag or a pot with a lid so it doesn’t dry out.
Beads or sequins will give your slime texture and make it extra shiny.
If you have access to iron filings and magnets, you can even make your slime magnetic!
Slime with beads
Glitter slime
Slime with shaving cream
Magnetic slime
Multicoloured slime
Draw a line to connect each pair of planets. You can’t use diagonal lines and the lines can’t cross or touch each other. You must fill the whole grid with lines but only one line is allowed in each square.
LINK WORDS
A link word is a word that can be added to the end of one word and the start of another word to create two new words. For example, the word FRIEND can be added to the end of GIRL to create GIRLFRIEND, and also added to the start of SHIP to create FRIENDSHIP. Can you think of link words that fill the gaps below and create two new words in each case?
1 How many times a day does the ISS orbit Earth?
a. Four
b. Eight
c. Twelve
d. Sixteen
2 Where is the giant volcano Olympus Mons?
a. Venus
b. Mars
c. Jupiter
d. Uranus
3 The first pizza eaten in space had what topping?
a. Salami
b. Mushroom
c. Sausage
d. Ham and pineapple
4 How many Earths could fit inside the Sun?
a. 1,300
b. 13,000
SPACE
c. 130,000
d. 1,300,000
5 What does the planet Uranus smell like?
a. Ice cream
b. Bacon
c. Rotten eggs
d. It doesn’t have a smell
The six-sided shape on the left can be folded up to form a cube. Only two of the cubes on the right can be made by it. Which are they?
Can you spot all 2O differences between these two zoological illustrations?
WELCOME TO THE ZOO!
LONDON MAP
LONDON MAP
CUBE IT!
Emoji Names
A. Olivia B. Melanie C. Anthony D. Rosemary E. Mathew (math-ewe)
Treasure Hunt The hidden letters spell: CAMPING
Wheel
Strange
Granite
Guitar
Retina
Tiger
Hidden Animals
Picture Quiz
Quiz Answers
Hot dog Lion Roundabout Beach ball Rose Golden Gate Bridge
Leopard Frog Seahorse Hare
EYE DON’T
BELIEVE IT!
Amazing optical illusions that trick your brain…
Let your gaze wander around this pattern of circles. What do you notice? Yes, that’s right: the coloured circles appear to be moving! This optical illusion is caused by the positioning of the black and white lines
that run around the outside of the coloured circles. The pattern these lines form tricks your brain into thinking it can see a rippling movement when, in fact, all the coloured circles are completely still!
GET SET FOR GET SET FOR OUTER OUTER
On 6th July, a group of intrepid explorers will finally be able to hang up their space suits and return home after a year-long mission for NASA. Contrary to what you might assume, however, these explorers never left the ground!
NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) missions are a key step to getting the
first humans to Mars. But for now, these missions have to take place on Earth. CHAPEA missions are what are known as analog missions, which means they act as an analog, or comparable replacement, for something else.
In CHAPEA’s first mission, a crew of four people tested out a home base and equipment that might be used in a real mission to Mars. Analog missions give scientists important information about what might happen during a space mission while keeping everyone safe on the ground. They can test equipment to make sure it doesn’t malfunction and figure out how to fix it if it does. Plus, it saves a lot of money to test everything on Earth, because it’s very expensive to transport things into space. Let’s take a look at how they did it!
Mars Dune Alpha
NASAishopingtosend human astronauts to Mars as soon as the 2030s.
This habitat was made using an enormous 3D printer from a company called ICON and a special type of concrete material. Sending a 3D printer to Mars is much easier than sending building supplies, and it will use local materials on Mars to make the habitat airtight.
From left to right: Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Kelly Haston and Nathan Jones.
Find out how training and preparations for the latest space missions to the Moon and Mars are starting right here on planet Earth.
SPACE! SPACE!
Life on Mars
CHAPEA’s crew were locked inside Mars Dune Alpha for 378 days. They communicated with friends, family and co-workers on ‘Earth’ with a simulated delay to mimic what astronauts on Mars would experience. They also were given assignments, such as ‘spacewalks’ in a red sandbox, and even grew their own crops!
Desert RATS
The team behind Desert RATS (Research and Technology Studies) test robots and vehicles for use in space environments. They drive their robots through the desert to see how they would cope on the harsh desert terrain of the Moon or Mars and test equipment that will send messages back to Earth or collect samples for testing.
Finding NEEMO
NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) sends astronauts and other scientists to live in an undersea research station. Living on this station, 19 metres below the sea, is similar to staying on the International Space Station, as it is quite quiet and secluded.
Taking the ‘vomit comet’
Astronauts sometimes train for zero gravity by flying in an aeroplane that allows them to experience brief periods of weightlessness. The flight manoeuvres are topsy-turvy and can sometimes make people sick, which has earned these planes a gross nickname: the ‘vomit comet’!
Dark side of the pool
These divers are preparing training for astronauts to get used to lighting conditions on the Moon. It is very dark at the Moon’s south pole, so astronauts have to prepare for dark conditions by using lights and navigating with shadows. This team is simulating the Moon’s darkness at the bottom of a 12-metre-deep pool that has all the lights off and dark curtains installed around it to block out reflections.
VR adventures
Astronauts can use virtual reality simulators to help them train for the experience of being in outer space from the safety of Earth.
CAVES training European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts train for teamwork in harsh environments by exploring caves.
One small step towards the Moon
NASA is planning a big mission to the Moon for 2026. It will be the first time in more than 50 years that astronauts have walked on the Moon. During this mission, NASA hopes the first woman, the first person of colour and the first non-American astronaut will walk on the Moon. In preparation for this, astronauts have been testing space suits and other equipment in the desert of Arizona, USA. They chose the desert because it is a similar environment to the Moon – very dusty and full of rocks.
SHOW THIS PAGE TO GROWN-UPYOUR TEACHER!OR
Would you like to be a national quiz champion?
AGE CATEGORIES
Would your school like to enter a team of four contestants into this year’s What on Earth! Schools Quiz Challenge?
There are two age categories: Junior (8-to-11) and Senior (11-to-14)
HEATS
The live online heats take place between the 6th and 11th November
The online heats, which feature general knowledge questions inspired by What on Earth! Magazine, are exciting and fun. They will be hosted by our very own What on Earth! quizmaster – plus, there will be lots of prizes to be won! The ultimate prize is, of course, to qualify for the Grand Final in London (with What on Earth! Magazine paying for your team and teacher’s trip to the capital).
THE GRAND FINAL!
The top four schools in each age category in the online heats will enjoy an amazing day out in London for the Grand Final, which will be held at the historic Stationers’ Hall (pictured left) on Friday 29th November. Our finalists will compete for trophies, medals, prizes and the chance to be crowned What on Earth! Schools Quiz Challenge Champions 2024!
HOW TO ENTER
It is easy and free to enter. Just show this page of your magazine to a grown-up or a teacher at your school and ask them to visit www.whatonearth.co.uk/quiz to find out more. Good luck!
435
The length in kilometres of the world’s largest glacier, the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica. It is 97 kilometres wide.
69
The percentage of the world’s fresh water found in glaciers.*
46
The number of metres per day that the world’s speediest glacier, the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, can move. Most glaciers move just a few centimetres each day.
GLACIERSINNUMBE RS.. .
10
The percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by glaciers today.
30
198,000
The estimated number of glaciers in the world.
91
The percentage of the world’s glaciers found in Antarctica.
The percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by glaciers during the last ice age.
70
The height in metres that global sea levels would rise if all the glaciers in the world melted at once.
*Glaciers are a vital source of clean water for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Biggest beasts of the land and sky
The heaviest land animal on Earth today is the elephant, and the tallest is the giraffe. But in prehistoric times even larger animals roamed the planet and soared in the sky. Over the next eight pages, you can see how the giants of the animal kingdom – both those alive today and those long extinct – measure up.
Infographics by Valentina D’Efilippo
HOW TO READ IT
The pink lines show the length, height or wingspan of the animal.
The pink circles show the weight of the animal.
Wandering albatross
The wandering albatross has the longest wingspan of any living bird. Its huge wings allow it to ‘wander’ across the sky and travel thousands of kilometres in just a few days.
Animals that are alive today are coloured in greens, whites and blues. Animals that are extinct are in purples and browns, and highlighted with this symbol
Argentavis
Prehistoric bird, and the largest flying bird ever discovered
Pelagornis
Prehistoric bird
Quetzalcoatlus Pterosaur
Hippopotamus
Hornless
Paraceratherium
Hatzegopteryx
Pterosaur
250 kg
7,100 kg 8,800 kg
Scientists think that thegiantflyingpterosaur Hatzegopteryxwas the apexpredatorofits island home.
Triceratops
Ceratopsid dinosaur
Tyrannosaurusrex
Theropod dinosaur
Green anaconda
Meganeura
Brachiosaurus
Sauropod dinosaur 28,700 kg
WHEN DID THESE EXTINCT ANIMALS LIVE ON EARTH?
This chart shows the approximate timespan during which the extinct animals featured in this infographic were alive. The pink lines represent the number of millions of years each species lived on Earth. (Note: all of them became extinct by about 10,000 years ago.)
Dreadnoughtus
Sauropod dinosaur 59,300 kg
Argentinosaurus
Sauropod dinosaur 75,000 kg
Mammuthus columbi
Gigantopithecus
Argentavis
Pelagornis
Paraceratherium
Quetzalcoatlus
Tyrannosaurusrex
Triceratops
Hatzegopteryx
Dreadnoughtus
Argentinosaurus
Brachiosaurus
HOW TO READ IT
SCALE 1 m
The pink circles show the weight of the animal.
Animals that are alive today are coloured in greens and blues. Animals that are extinct are in purples and browns, and highlighted with this symbol
The pink lines show the length or width of the animal. Extinct species
kg
Giants of the sea
The sea is home to billions of organisms – some of them enormous! Here are some of the biggest underwater creatures, from the giant spider crab that lives off Japan’s Pacific coast, to the biggest animal of them all, the blue whale (on the next page), whose heart alone is the size of a small car.
Saltwater crocodile
Giant Pacific octopus
Basking
4,500 kg
I have only tiny teeth – and I’m not interested in eating humans.
A prehistoric sea reptile
kg
A prehistoric sea reptile
2,000 kg
shark
Orca 9,800 kg
Giant squid 200 kg
Elasmosaurus
Pliosaurus
Phew! 19,200
A prehistoric sea reptile 80,000 kg
Althoughbluewhalesareenormous,theyeattiny krill – and their throatsareonlyaswide asyourhand!
Whale shark 14,000 kg
Blue whale 150,000 kg
Megalodon A prehistoric shark 65,000 kg
Sperm whale 40,000 kg
Shastasaurus
Absolutely Everything!
Each month we feature an amazing story from world history taken from the bestselling book by Christopher Lloyd, with illustrations by Andy Forshaw. This month: the 20th-century world at war.
Sad as it is to say, the time between 1845 and 1945 seems to me to have been one of the most brutal periods in the history of humankind. During this 100 years, and for reasons that I find hard to work out, appalling violence and fighting between humans erupted in almost every part of the world. Maybe it was because the number of people in the world was increasing quickly thanks to advances in farming and technology. In 1804 the world’s population passed one billion. By 1950, it had more than doubled to 2.5 billion. Having so many more people quite possibly increased the chance of clashes between countries and cultures. Or maybe living in an increasingly connected world made some people feel jealous or deprived and others more greedy.
Above: British soldiers during the Battle of the Somme in France. Below: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is shot in Sarajevo.
And I’m sorry to say that by the start of the 20th century these 100 years of terrible warfare were only just warming up. In Europe things were spinning out of control. The creation of two new European countries had made things a lot more competitive. The Italian city-states merged to become the modern country of Italy in 1861. Ten years later, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united 25 German states into a single mighty nation. This new Germany was headed by Emperor Wilhelm I. He was very aware that Germany had been left out as other European nations had built up powerful empires. So Germany
THE TRENCHES
Much of the fighting in France and Belgium was done in long, muddy trenches dug into the ground. The soldiers stayed in their own trench for protection, while trying to shoot enemy soldiers who were hiding in a facing trench, which could be as little as 50 metres away.
took over parts of Africa, including present-day Namibia, Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania. All of this made France and Britain very nervous.
Gradually, two alliances emerged. Britain, France and Russia were on one side. On the other were Germany, Italy and Austria–Hungary (made up of what are now Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Poland, Serbia, Ukraine and Romania).
France was keen to win back lands lost to Germany in 1870. Italy and France were arguing over colonies in Africa. Russia was battling with Austria–Hungary for control of lands near the Black Sea. And Britain
Below: many women worked in non-combat roles in the military or in factories during WWI.
SHOT IN SARAJEVO
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (right) in the Serbian city of Sarajevo was the incident that helped to spark the outbreak of World War I.
was terrified of Germany’s craving to build a rival empire.
By 1914, Europe was like a box of fireworks, waiting for someone to strike a match. That match was struck by Serbian student Gavrilo Princip
in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was 28 June 1914. Princip was angry because he thought Bosnia should be free from the Austro–Hungarian Empire.
So he shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
WORLD WAR I
Central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire)
Allies (France, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, Russia, USA, Italy, Serbia, Portugal, Romania, Greece and Japan)
Neutral countries
The frontline at different times during the war 1914 The year in which each country joined the war
heir to the throne of Austria–Hungary, as he rode by in his car.
Because Princip was Serbian, Austria–Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the assassination and invaded Serbia in revenge. But then everything got completely out of hand. Serbia’s allies – Britain, France and Russia –lined up on one side. Austria–Hungary’s ally Germany lined up with it on the other.
One assassination had turned into a war that involved almost all of Europe. It was so confusing that many of the soldiers didn’t even know why they were fighting.
This war, later named World War I, was fought mostly in Europe between 1914 and 1918. The United States entered the
war on the side of the British and their allies in 1917.
Before it was all over, about 20 million people were dead, either in the fighting itself or during a horrible flu epidemic that broke out towards the end of the war.
Russia was one of the key players in the struggle for Europe. From prehistoric times, this vast country was home to a wide range of ethnic groups. Then the Viking Rus settled in Russia around 840 CE and a wave of settlement by the Mongols followed.
From 1547, Russia was ruled by kings and queens known as tsars and tsarinas. Like most
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
CASPIAN SEA
Continued from previous page
rulers, they had their good sides and their bad. The first tsar was Ivan the Terrible, who created a huge empire, mostly by taking over territory that had been part of the Mongol empire created by Genghis Khan and his family. Peter the Great, who ruled from 1682 to 1725, modernised the country by supporting science and technology and starting Russia’s first newspaper.
Catherine the Great, who ruled from 1762 to 1796, was planning to free Russia’s serfs, who, like enslaved people, were the property of nobles. But in the end she needed the nobles on her side so changed her mind and took away the few rights the serfs had instead.
In 1917, three years after the outbreak of World War I, Russia collapsed into chaos. The war had weakened the country, and the people blamed Tsar Nicholas II.
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Food shortages made people miserable, hungry and cross. And nobody trusted Grigori Rasputin, a royal adviser who called himself a holy man.
Women in the city of Petrograd (now St Petersburg) revolted over the shortage of bread in February 1917. Across the country others joined the protest. In March, Tsar Nicholas was forced to resign the throne. After a power struggle, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky seized control of the government, in what is known as the Russian Revolution.
In May 1918, the Tsar and his family were executed.
Lenin and Trotsky were eager to try out an experimental form of government called Communism. The basic idea had been developed by a German philosopher named Karl Marx who proposed that the world would be a better place if
Fought over four years between July 1914 and November 1918, World War I was the largest war that the world had seen up to that time. More than 30 countries were involved and most of the major battles took place in Europe and the Middle East.
Almost 8 million went missing or became prisoners of war
22 million people killed
Almost 9 million military personnel were killed
governments were run by the workers. He also believed that workers should own the companies they work for. Civil war now broke out between two sides – Lenin’s communist army (Reds) and
Revolutionary posters such as the one shown on the right inspired many Russians to throw off the chains of the Tsar and to support Lenin, pictured below, who was the leader of the Russian Revolution.
those who didn’t like the idea of communism (Whites). Britain, France, the United States and Japan supported the Whites. In June 1923 Lenin’s Red Army won the war. They changed the name of Russia to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union.
But what started off as a radical idea got
hijacked by someone who cared only about power. Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist from 1924 to 1953. Anyone who disobeyed him was either executed or sent to labour camps, known as gulags, in bitterly cold Siberia. During his reign, Stalin is believed to have caused the deaths of up to twenty million of his own people.
Some people thought World War I had been so awful that Europeans would never want to go to war again. It was even called ‘The War to End All Wars’. But sadly, that’s not how it turned out. In fact, its end sowed the seeds of an even more devastating conflict.
The Treaty of Versailles, the peace agreement that ended the war, blamed Germany. As punishment, the German people had to give up all their weapons and pay 96,000 tonnes of gold, which would be worth £1.8 trillion today. Even though they could
65 million people in active military service
13 million civilians died
21 million were wounded
Each soldier = 1 million people
Soldiers who returned home
Military wounded
Military prisoners/ missing Military or civilian deaths
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Fought over six years between September 1939 and September 1945, World War II is the largest and bloodiest war in history. More than 50 countries were involved in the fighting, and almost every part of the world was affected. Estimates of the number of people killed vary. The highest figures suggest that as many as 80 million people were killed.
pay over many years, the punishment left them very poor and very angry.
One man who took part in World War I felt deeply let down. His name was Adolf Hitler. In his view, Germany’s leaders had dragged the country into a war and then lost it. Hitler wanted to go back to the ideas of ancient Sparta. He would make sure that Germany had only the strongest people. This, he said in his book Mein Kampf, would make Germany great again. Many of the downtrodden people of Germany liked what they heard.
So on 30 January 1933, Hitler was voted in as Chancellor, or head, of the German government. Almost immediately Hitler’s real plans became clear. He believed his country needed to get rid of people who he didn’t think were ‘real’ Germans. He also decided that the best way to improve the German economy was to give people jobs
70 million people in active military service
building weapons. Tanks and aeroplanes could scare Germany’s neighbours into giving it more land. If that failed, they could be used to take the land by force.
Hitler used emergency powers to make himself a dictator. He then banned all political parties except his Nazi party.
Finally, he introduced a secret police force, who made sure anyone saying anything against Hitler was found and punished.
In 1938, Hitler’s armies rolled eastwards into Czechoslovakia, a country that is now Czechia and Slovakia. (Austria–Hungary had broken up after World War I.) Britain, France and the Soviet Union were still hoping that they could persuade Hitler to stop without actually having to go to war. But the next year Hitler invaded Poland, and Europe collapsed into a second dreadful conflict that lasted
Continued on next page
37 million people killed Civilian deaths include more than 6,000,000 Jews, which was more than a third of all Jews in the world at this time, who died in Nazi concentration camps.
More than 6 million went missing or became prisoners of war
Continued from previous page
until 1945. Hitler’s forces advanced rapidly through Europe, invading Belgium and then France.
Nobody could stop them. By May 1941, it looked like Hitler’s dream of European conquest might come true.
This was Europe’s darkest hour. Between 1941 and 1945, Hitler’s Nazis ran a group of brutal prisons known as concentration camps.
In some, prisoners were worked to death. In others, they were executed. In all about eleven million innocent people were killed.
The victims included about three million prisoners of war, six million Jews and two million other people the Nazis thought were inferior.
In this last group were Roma, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, political opponents and others.
More than six million Jews were murdered in Nazi camps. One of them was Anne Frank, pictured above, a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she recorded her family’s experiences of hiding from the Nazis before their arrest.
Below: Allied troops land on the beaches of France in 1945.
This atrocious crime is known as the Holocaust.
World War II wasn’t just fought in Europe the way World War I had been. It truly included most of the world. That’s because in the 1930s, Japan had started to do what European countries had been doing for 400 years – build a mighty empire.
In 1931, even before Hitler came to power, Japan invaded the northeastern Chinese province of Manchuria. A few years later the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China with 350,000 soldiers. They used aeroplanes to bomb cities all over the country.
Japan and Germany both wanted to defeat the Soviet Union (Japan had its eye on the Asian part and Germany wanted the European part), and each wanted to dominate its part of the world. So Japan signed the
Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940. That made it officially an enemy of the Soviet Union and also of Britain, France and the United States.
China fought back against Japan, and Britain and the United States helped them by preventing the Japanese from getting the fuel they needed. Without oil, Japan could not power its army, navy or air force. No oil, no victory. The best plan for Japan would be
Above: people in London celebrate the end of the war in Europe.
Left: this was the only building left standing after an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. It is now a peace memorial.
Right: this monument in Hiroshima features 12-year-old Sadako Sasaki, who died from cancer caused by the atom bomb’s radiation.
THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB
Although the famous physicist Albert Einstein, pictured below, never worked directly on developing the atomic bomb, his famous equation E=mc2 predicted the enormous amount of energy that the bomb would release. The first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 by the US bomber Enola Gay, shown above.
E=mc 2
to take over oil-rich Dutch and British territories in Asia.
That’s why Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. It needed to destroy the US’s battle ships there so they couldn’t interfere with the Japanese takeover of the oil territories.
Japan hoped that the United States wouldn’t want to get into a war in Asia and would quickly negotiate a peace deal once it was clear that Japan had successfully built their empire. But Japan was wrong. Attacking Pearl Harbor proved a terrible mistake. The United States had been selling weapons to Britain and France. But now US president Franklin D. Roosevelt had the reason he needed to convince his country they had to fight. The
They warned that Nazi Germany might find a way to unlock all that energy trapped inside atoms. They feared that a new generation of superbombs would surely help the Germans win. Once the United States entered the war, the government started a top-secret project. Its goal? To make sure the US, with support from Britain and Canada, developed nuclear bombs before the Nazis did.
The programme, known as the Manhattan Project, invented the atom bomb before Germany did. But in the end Germany wasn’t the target.
United States entered the war in December 1941, both in Europe and in Asia. The fighting was brutal. It ended in Europe first.
On 30 April 1945, Hitler’s army was surrounded on all sides by British, American and Soviet forces. He knew he was about to lose the war, so Hitler shot himself in his underground hideout near the German capital of Berlin. Without its leader, Germany surrendered. But that wasn’t the end of the war. Remember E=mc2? In 1933, Albert Einstein had been touring America. As a Jew, he was so worried about the rise of Hitler that he decided to stay in the US instead of returning to Germany.
When war broke out, Einstein and another scientist, Leo Szilard, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt.
In August 1945 the people of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were the first to feel the power of this terrible force.
Only one bomb was dropped on each city. But each of those bombs killed as many as 70,000 people in an instant. Thousands more died later in a flood of invisible but deadly radioactive energy that lingered for years.
Einstein felt bad that his letter to President Roosevelt had led to such a horrible weapon. ‘Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb,’ Einstein said, ‘I would have never lifted a finger’.
But the bomb did end the war. By 15 August, Japan had surrendered and World War II was over. Estimates of the death toll range from fifty to eighty million people, making this the most devastating conflict in human history.:
IN OUR
NEXT ISSUE…
The Cold War race to land the first human on the Moon.
1st PLACE
Beware of these killer plants – all created by you!
In our June Issue, we explored the thrillingly dangerous world of poisonous and carnivorous plants. Suitably inspired, we challenged readers to draw a killer plant of
their own. You can see some of the awesome (and, frankly, terrifying) entries here. Huge congratulations to our three winners – 7-year-old Roux, 9-year-old Sophie and
1st PLACE
13-year-old Misha – who will all receive special prizes.
To watch a video showcasing all the fantastic entries, go to: www.whatonearth.pub/plants
AGES 4–7
MATILDA, 10
CHARLIE, 6
ELOISA, 6 JACOB, 7 EDIE, 6
MERRYN, 10
WINNER:
ROUX, 7
WINNER: AGES 11–14 MISHA, 13
1st PLACE
Published by
What on Earth Magazines Ltd, The Black Barn, Wickhurst Farm, Leigh, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 8PS
Editor-in-Chief
Andrew Pettie
Editor
Alison Eldridge
Art & Design Director
Mark Hickling
Senior Designer & Illustrator
Susanna Hickling
Production
Sarah Epton
Contributors
Andy Smith (including cover), Andy Forshaw, Paige Towler, Christopher Lloyd, Julie Beer, Valentina D’Efilippo, Kate Hale, May, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Dr Nick Crumpton, Adrienne Barman, Rod Hunt, Dan Knight
With thanks to
Andy Forshaw, Natalie Bellos, Helen Thewlis and the whole team at What on Earth Publishing
Editorial Consultant
Nancy Feresten
Marketing Director
Luise Mulholland
Business Development
David Falzani
CEO, What on Earth Magazines
Christopher Lloyd For Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mary McCudden, Director, Middle School and Elementary Products
Printing and distribution
Warners Midlands PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH
Editorial enquiries editor@whatonearth.co.uk
Subscriptions 01778 392479 whatonearth.co.uk
Picture credits Library images from: Getty Images; Shutterstock; Alamy; iStock; NASA; ESA. What on Earth: World Nature Photography / Andy Schmid, Ivan Pedretti; British Wildlife Photography / Ian Mason; Red Bull / Alex Grymanis. Eureka: Dani Clode Design, Safruddin, Denver Museum of Science and Nature, Ken Hill/National Parks.
Copyright 2024 What on Earth Magazines Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publishers. Awards
Subscription Brand of the Year
