Tabla de contenidos para October 2025 en What on Earth! Magazine

Language is more than just sounds that become words and words that become sentences. One of the most difficult aspects of a language to master is its set phrases and sayings that sometimes seem nonsensical but have a straightforward meaning to native speakers. For example, has anyone ever asked you not to ‘spill the beans’ about a secret? What do beans have to do with secrets? Many English speakers know the meaning of this phrase and use it all the time – but they might not know where it comes from. Here are the surprising origins of six everyday expressions in English that you might not know about. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth This saying, thought to have originated in the 5th century, means to be grateful…

What is infrared sensing? Infrared is a type of light that is outside the visible spectrum, which means we humans are unable to see it. Infrared waves feel like heat to us, but other animals, including certain snakes, sense them with specialised organs. We call this ‘heat vision’ or thermal vision. You may have seen an infrared picture, like the mouse shown below, which mimics what a snake detects. Warmer areas appear brighter than cooler areas, making prey easier to see against cooler surfaces. How does a snake's thermal vision work? Snakes such as pit vipers have a special organ called a pit organ that enables this sense. In pit vipers, the pit organ is located between the eyes and nostrils, and in boas and pythons it can form heat-sensing…

Impossible shapes If you look closely at the four shapes above, you will probably feel your brain start to bend. How many pink rectangular blocks do you see? Which sides of the two triangular shapes seem closest to you? And how on Earth does the orange cube fit together? These ‘impossible’ shapes trick your brain by following some rules of 3-D drawing but breaking others. Although the drawings are two-dimensional, your brain interprets them as representations of three-dimensional objects. But, at the same time, your brain knows that three-dimensional objects like these couldn't possibly exist. It can cause quite a headache! Impossible shapes fascinate mathematicians and artists. Artists even build sculptures that seem impossible using tricks of perspective. Seen from most angles, these sculptures look like broken lines, but line…

SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD People talk about the ‘Seven Wonders’ but don't always know what they are. This famous list dates back to the 1st or 2nd century BCE, when the ‘Seven Wonders’ were used as a kind of early travel guide for Greek sightseers. Seven were chosen because the Greeks believed the number seven represented perfection. The only one still standing today is the Great Pyramid. 1 THE STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA, GREECE MADE About 430 BCE This huge statue of Zeus, the leader of the Greek gods, was said to be a towering 12 metres tall. It was carved by Phidias, the greatest Athenian sculptor of his day. The statue was initially placed in a temple at Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic games. It…

You probably know that animals – including us humans – use the senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell to learn about the world around them. Animals that hunt for food use their senses to track and find their prey. Animals that are prey use their senses to spot nearby predators and to stay hidden. But did you know that many animals have senses beyond our own? Animals can see, hear, smell, taste and feel things that we can't even imagine. Here are some fascinating examples of these animal super-senses, starting with super hearing through echolocation. What is echolocation? One of the most well-known and useful super-hearing powers is echolocation, which uses sound waves and their echoes to work out where things are in space without the need for…

The far side of the Moon If you look carefully at the surface of the Moon, perhaps through a telescope, you will notice that the same side of the Moon, called the ‘near side’, is always facing Earth. The other side of the Moon, called the ‘far side’, can never be seen from Earth. This is because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it orbits Earth. So, as the Moon moves around Earth, its far side is always rotating away from us, which keeps it out of sight. However, space rockets and probes have been able to take photographs of the far side of the Moon, so we now know what it looks like. The Moon and the tides Tides are the regular rise and…

Why do fish have gills? Just like people, fish need to take in a gas called oxygen in order to live. We get oxygen from the air we breathe, but fish get oxygen from the water. They breathe by using special body parts called gills. Gills need water in order to stay open. Without water, the gills will collapse and the fish can't survive. Special fish called lungfish have both gills and lungs and can breathe in and out of water. These creatures can survive for five years on land! Water goes into a fish's mouth and comes out of its gills. As the water goes through the gills, oxygen is taken into the fish's body. How do magnets stick to metal? All magnets have two ends called a north…

DID YOU KNOW? Tasmanian devils have the strongest bite relative to size of any mammal in the world!…

Solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks light from the Sun from reaching Earth, casting a shadow on part of the Earth. Total solar eclipse, as seen from Earth When the Sun, Moon and Earth line up exactly, it causes a total solar eclipse in which the Moon completely covers the Sun, blocking out its light. This perfect alignment of the Sun and Moon in the sky, which astronomers call a totality, is possible only because of an astonishing coincidence, which is that the Sun is both 400 times bigger than the Moon and 400 times further away. This unlikely combination means that the Moon covers the Sun perfectly in the sky. Only people in the umbra (see above) can see the totality. The visual phases of…

letters@whatonearthmag.com Your photos: the speedy brothers skating their way to the top! Check out these brilliant photos sent in by brothers Jayden, 12, and Leon, 10, who live in Geneva in Switzerland. As you can see, both are talented ice hockey players who train up to four hours a day to improve their skills. Jayden started skating when he was just three and a half and now plays for the U14 Genève Future Hockey team. He loves scoring goals and skating very, very fast! Leon started at six and is goalkeeper for the U14 Genève Servette Aiglons. Leon says he most enjoys ‘white’ matches when he doesn't let a single puck into his goal. Switzerland has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh (which is spoken by less than…