Our mission here at News Bites (a monthly children’s newspaper) is to Engage, Inform, and Inspire by bringing news, STEM, sport and entertainment to young people in a language they understand and in a manner they can easily relate to.
Welcome to the October issue of News Bites, everyone! I hope last month’s issue didn’t leave you too dizzy as we looked high into the sky at the world of skyscrapers. This month, we’re looking at a creature that is every bit as amazing but (thankfully) not as big – the spider! At the end of the month (October 31), children from all over the world will be celebrating the festival of Hallowe’en. So, we thought now is the perfect time to dispel some myths on our eight-legged friends so you can see that spiders are far more super than spooky. Don’t believe me? Head to pages 12-14 and you’ll see what I mean. For all you football fans out there, you’ll be delighted to know this month sees us…
Elizabeth Grandmother of a Nation A queen by chance Lilibet never expected to be a queen. Her Uncle Edward was king and she only became queen because he fell in love. The woman he loved and wanted to marry was divorced so he was told it was impossible for him to be king. As king, he was also Head of the Church of England, which didn’t allow remarriage after divorce. Edward chose love over duty and abdicated (gave up the throne). He had no children – and that meant that his brother, Lilibet’s father, became king. Then her father, King George VI, died at the early age of 57. Lilibet had no brothers, who would have been in line before her, so she became queen. She was only 25 years…
Special Passengers for Artemis I First planned to launch in August, the Artemis I unmanned test flight to the Moon is now set for sometime in October. This Space Launch System (SLS) will carry the Orion test capsule around the Moon and back to earth in a six-week journey. The success of this mission will lead the way to future astronaut visits to the Moon on Artemis II, beginning in 2024. Although Artemis I is unmanned, several special ‘passengers’ will be traveling aboard. Four LEGO figures are set to travel into space, as a part of ‘Build to Launch: a STEAM Exploration Series’. To go along with this, LEGO offers a free course on its website. It’s all about space and related STEAM topics: science, technology, engineering, arts and maths.…
Canine Cool The recent heatwaves have been rough on dogs the world over, but trust the Japanese to come up with a wacky, weird and wonderful solution. Rei Uzawa has teamed up with vets to invent a wearable fan for pets. This small, light, battery-operated fan is attached to a mesh outfit that blows air around an animal’s body. Rei is the president of a maternity clothing maker called Sweet Mommy, and she came up with this idea when her chihuahua couldn’t endure going for walks in the extreme heat. Tokyo suffered the longest heatwave ever in June, with temperatures up to 35°C for nine days. The outfit comes in five different sizes and in different styles – for example, a sporty vest-like one or a flouncy fancy one. Of…
Ferrari F8 Tributo Maker: Ferrari Model: F8 Tributo Years: 2020-2023 Fuel: Petrol Transmission: Automatic Top Speed: 340km/h Horsepower: 710hp Materials: The F8 Tributo is made almost entirely from carbon fibre right down to the wheels. Ferrari’s famous carbon-fibre racing rims were made available for buyers of the F8 Tributo in 2020. Behind the BADGE The first Ferrari ever made wasn’t even a Ferrari! Founder Enzo Ferrari worked with Alfa Romeo and ran Scuderia Ferrari as their racing division until 1939. A legal agreement stopped him from using the Ferrari name for four years afterwards. So, in 1940, Enzo launched his first car – the 815 Auto Avio Costruzioni. 1. The F8 Tributo was built to celebrate Ferrari’s V8 engine, which won the ‘International Engine of the Year’ for four straight…
AI Art! New Artificial Intelligence (commonly known as AI) is creating forms of art based on what you ask for or describe. The AI takes all of the images on the internet and blends them together to create something completely new. For example, you could type into the AI system ‘Primary Planet’ and you would end up with something like this! With faster internet speeds, scientists are developing AI that will be able to take all of the information on the internet and combine it together. This could be really useful for your homework! There are lots of different AI art creators online, so make sure you play around with some of the free ones! Octopus Gloves! Engineers from Virginia Tech (a university in America) have developed an octopus-inspired glove…
