Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i The Primary Planet/News Flash Combo edition

Thirsty Koalas If I asked you how a koala gets water, you might suggest from the moisture in eucalyptus leaves. Zoologists (scientists that study animals) would have likely agreed with you up until several years ago. It turns out that koalas actually lick water from the sides of trees when it rains! Although some scientists have dedicated vast amounts of time watching koalas in the wild, they never noticed this licking behaviour. The World’s Largest Cashew Tree A cashew tree in Brazil has grown to cover almost two acres. It is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest cashew tree in the world. The tree looks like a mini forest and it’s still growing. The time when it was planted and people who planted it aren’t entirely certain. Experts…

Have you ever felt as though the temperatures your local weather app reported failed to capture how it felt outside? Well, you were right. That’s because how we talk about hot weather is seriously flawed. What matters is not how hot the air is but how hot the weather is to a human body. For that, we need “wet-bulb globe temperature”. The measurement, which athletic organizations, the military and federal regulators have used for decades, comes from a device with three thermometers to better capture how heat stresses the body. The first is a basic thermometer, which measures the air temperature. The second is a thermometer inside a black ball, which captures the heat our bodies absorb from direct sunlight (radiant heat). The third is a thermometer covered in a…

Zorbing is the sport of rolling down a hill in a giant plastic inflatable orb called a zorb. It started in Rotorua, New Zealand, but is now a worldwide sport. The goal of zorbing is just to have fun, and it is a popular activity for adrenaline junkies (people who love doing crazy and dangerous sports). The person inside a zorb is known as the zorbonaut, and there are different zorbs that can carry one person or up to three people together. Zorbonauts are strapped in using harnesses so that they don’t fall out while the zorb is rolling. There are several sports that have adopted the zorb – including zorb racing and zorb football. Zorb racing is – as you can imagine – chaos! The competitors line up on…

One of the wonderful things about plants is the beautiful flowers they grow. Many people give flowers as gifts and choose plants for their gardens. Well, if you’re a fiend for flowers, then you will love the night-blooming cereus. You need to be quick though – this flower only blooms for one night a year! The Queen of the Night The night-blooming cereus is also known as the Queen of the Night. It comes from southern Mexico and is famous for its amazing white flowers. (Sometimes in rarer cases, they are a very light shade of yellow or some other similar color.) The plant will only flower once it is fully grown at around five years old, but it seems that it is worth the wait. The flowers of the…

Forgetful Flashy Did you find Flashy’s lost ball of wool in last month’s issue? It was on page 2, hiding beside a title. It’s been thirsty work travelling all the way back from the United States, and Flashy needs a nice drink of water. Unfortunately, the forgetful feline has somehow managed to lose his water dish. Can you help him find it? Let us know if you do, by emailing primaryschoolenglish@outlook.com. One lucky reader will receive a gift from us.…

The world population could peak in your lifetime. In July, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs released the World Population Prospects, the international body’s annual report on the current and future state of global population. The headline was clear: We are well past the days of worrying about having more people than the Earth can handle. The UN’s demographers now expect the number of people on the planet to peak at a bit under 10.3 billion in 2084. 10.3 billion, of course, is some 2 billion more people than the planet currently holds, so population growth isn’t stopping anytime soon, but it is slowing down rapidly. Women on average now have one less child than they did in 1990, and in more than half of all countries and…

Banking has been in existence since the first currencies were minted and wealthy people realized they needed a safe place to store their money. Banking is born The barter system of exchanging goods for goods worked reasonably well for the earliest communities. It prove problematic as soon as people started traveling from town to town in search of new markets for their goods and new products to take home. Over time, coins of various sizes and metals began to be minted to provide a store of value for trade. Coins, however, need to be kept in a safe place, and ancient homes did not have steel safes. Religious temples became the earliest banks because they were seen as safe places to store money. Before long, temples got into the business…

When you think of friendship, what comes to mind? Is it a phone conversation that lasts late into the night? Watching a movie and sharing a pizza? Enjoying some laughs over a drink? Friendship is a central part of the human experience. Humans aren’t the only ones who form friendships, though. It may not shock you that our closest relatives, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, make friends. But species throughout the animal kingdom, from birds and fish to horses and dolphins, have pals too. And you might be surprised to learn just how much they resemble our own human friendships. Birds of a feather When you think about your own friends, you might realise that you are alike in one way or another. Maybe you grew up in the same…

I really, really want to get a phone but my parents are saying I can’t have one. It’s so unfair – practically all my friends have one. I feel really left out when my friends are on social media and texting each other the whole time. How do I convince my parents to let me get a phone? Sarah, aged 11 Hi Sarah, This is a tough one as so many children have phones these days, so I can understand you’re feeling hard done by. Some parents are perfectly happy to let their children have every new gadget available, while other parents (like yours) may feel it’s not appropriate until you reach a certain age. Have you asked your parents why they’re unwilling to let you have a phone? Some…

Nala the social media star Nala is the world’s richest cat. It has a net worth of $100 million. Nala, also known as the “Emoji Cat”, is a house cat living in the United States. Its story began at a pet shelter in California. Her owner, Pookie, had no intention of adopting a kitten before she first saw it in 2011. Now, it is a social media star, with millions of fans. It is considered the most well-known feline online. Blackie the millionaire Blackie is officially considered the richest cat in the world. In 1988, a rich man in the United Kingdom, called Ben Rea, passed away at the age of 82. When the millionaire left a will, members of his family guessed they would receive large sums of money.…

You may think you know your pet, but what if it could actually talk to you? Well, we could be communicating with animals sooner than we expected, and that it could be “one of the biggest, most exciting technological advances in the next few decades”. There is precedence for animal communication. Already, we know that creatures like whales, bats, parrots and elephants have names for things – like each other or their families. But AI could be the missing step between them “talking” and us being able to understand. Some of the problems with humans deciphering their messages include establishing what is just background noise, plus separating the sounds made by different individuals. That’s where AI comes in. Which animals will be the best to communicate with through AI? Because…

Planet Art What you are about to read will reveal one of the greatest minds of all time. An artist, sculptor, engineer, designer, inventor, anatomist, mathematician, animal rights activist, the list goes on… So, without further ado, we present to you the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, 505 years after his death in 1519. Prepare to be amazed! 1. Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in northwest Italy. 2. Leonardo wrote most of his notes in “mirror writing”. That is where the words are written in a direction opposite to the normal one, with the letters reversed. It looks like a secret code but appears as normal when viewed in a mirror. So, Leonardo wrote from right to left instead of left to right. He…

Where Is It? Uruguay lies south of the equator, in South America. Its two neighbours are the countries of Argentina to the west and Brazil to the north and northwest. Uruguay has 660 km of Atlantic coastline in the south and east, with many beautiful beaches. Official Name: Oriental Republic of UruguayPopulation: ≈ 3,400,000Capital: MontevideoArea: ≈ 176,000 km 2 Major Rivers: Uruguay River, Río Negro (“Black River”)Main Languages: SpanishMoney: Peso The Country The name Uruguay comes from the Uruguay River, which means “river of the painted birds”. It starts in Brazil and ends in the Rio de la Plata Basin which forms the border between Uruguay and Argentina. Uruguay is South America’s second-smallest country – only Suriname is smaller. Human History The first people of Uruguay lived there about 13,000…

In science, the word energy has a very specific meaning. It refers to the ability to perform some type of work on an object. That could be lifting an item. Or it could be speeding up molecules to kick-start a chemical reaction. Two common types of energy are kinetic and potential. Every object in motion has kinetic energy. This could be a car zooming along the highway or a ladybug walking along a leaf. Kinetic energy depends on just two quantities: mass and speed. Each has a different impact on kinetic energy. For mass, it is a simple relationship. Double something’s mass, and you’ll double its kinetic energy. A single sock tossed toward the laundry basket will have a certain amount of kinetic energy. Ball up two socks and toss…

Planet Places Location: Naica, Chihuahua State, MexicoDepth of cave: almost 300 metresLength of cave: around 110 metresSize of cave: 5,000 to 6,000 cubic metres The Naica Mine in Chihuahua, Mexico, is a lead, zinc and silver mine that has been famous since 2000 when 2 miners drilling there discovered the “Cave of Crystals” by chance. It’s “the Sistine Chapel of crystals”, says geologist Juan Manuel. The gigantic crystals are made of gypsum. The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring over 11 metres long and weighing up to 55 tons. They were probably caused by boiling magma (melted rock) beneath the cave. This created sauna-like conditions in the cave and supercharged the growth of the crystals. They were also fed by mineral-rich water…