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It's time for another BIG and BRILLIANT adventure into the world of science on this week’s Science Quest!
In Science in the News, Earth’s climate is now more out of balance than at any point in recorded history, with the planet gaining more heat than it can release. We also explore a surprising Iron Age discovery that has stunned scientists, before heading into deep space to investigate a newly discovered type of liquid planet, as Harrison Nicholls from Oxford University explains what it could reveal about worlds beyond our own.
It’s time for your questions too. Toby wants to know how the science behind the Northern Lights, and Dr Scott Paterson answers Rocco’s question: about why humans have bones and what they actually do?
Dangerous Dan introduces the Spanish Ribbed Newt, a creature with a truly unusual defence mechanism.
And in Battle of the Sciences, astrobiologist Dr Vic Pearson takes us on a journey beyond Earth to explore the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
Plus, Professor Hallux is back with Bones and Skeletons, putting his brand-new invention to the test as he discovers what our skeleton really does and why we need it.
What we learn about:
• Why Earth’s climate is becoming unbalanced
• A newly discovered type of liquid planet
• How the northern lights are created
• Why humans have bones and what they do
• The Spanish Ribbed Newt
• How scientists search for life beyond Earth
All that and more on this week’s Science Quest!
Join Fun Kids Podcasts+: https://funkidslive.com/plus
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Well, hello, explorer. What a joy it is that you've popped along. You've joined me on an awesome adventure through the universe
We are discovering secrets. No one could dream of my name is Dan and it's a brand new science quest
This week on the smartest show in the solar system. We're looking at your skeleton. You are carrying 206 bones in your body every day
But have you ever wondered why?
Bones themselves aren't just scaffolding. They're also really important to our function
So it's all in the core of bones
There's the what's known as the bone marrow and that's a really important site of a process called
hematopoetus or a blood cell production
Also thinking of bones
We're looking at a creature that uses its ribs as a weapon and
And we're exploring a science that tackles one of the biggest questions of all is their life elsewhere in the universe
I'd really like to know
What it looks like underneath the ice of the icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus
I would like to know what the ocean floor looks like and whether or not there's any life there
It's all on the way in a brand new science quest
Let's start with your science in the news then not a brilliant one to kick us off because the Earth's climate is more out of balance than at any other time in recorded history
That's what the world meteorological organization has said
They've warned that our planet is gaining much more heat energy than it can release
Mainly caused by gases that trap the heat and this excessive energy
It's heating the oceans to new heights, and it's still melting the planet's polar caps now
This is not new to us. We've always heard about the ice caps melting the oceans levels rising
But it's still quite important for us to hear that the climate is out of balance
That the levels of energy aren't equal and everything that we can do to
Recycle to cut down on our emissions really helps the planet try and get itself back into order
Also this week some timber found in the ground near Gloucester in the UK
It's been revealed as a rare glimpse into life in the Bronze Age
Archaeologists have found this wooden timber structure built more than
3500 years ago. They've discovered that it was used for collecting water
Now it's rare to find wood it can quite often break down and they've used this to understand why villages were building these wooden
Constructions near sources of rivers and that what happened a period of weather warming has caused more rivers and streams there
Which has helped keep the timber in such good condition?
So that's pretty amazing
They would have used this back in the day to find water that maybe wasn't
Immediately accessible, but because of loads more water it's helped to preserve it and our final story this week
Astronomers have identified a planet made of molten lava
It could mean the existence of an entirely new type of planet one made of liquid
Let's find out more with Harrison Nichols an astronomer from the University of Oxford
Harrison thanks so much for joining us
What were the signs that led astronomers to think?
This might be made of lava
Well, thank you Dan for having me
There's a couple signs that this planet could have been made of lava and it wasn't clear before our study
What was planet really what and this planet is a part of a new category of planets?
It was about a few hundred of them. We know of
Cool supers and what this means is there was lots to learn about we don't really know what the insides of these planets look like
However, what's interesting about this planet?
particular is it's when we know it's size and we know how heavy it is
We can put this together to know how dense it is and what that suggested
From these measurements previously is that this planet had a very low density and what this means is it's very gassy
Do you think about gas is much much much less dense than then rock for example because it's gassy
This means it's got a very big atmosphere and the atmosphere
means that the
Inside of the planet could potentially be hot. However, this was just a suggestion and
We showed this in our paper in our in our study
We discovered that this planet is indeed molten inside and we also explained lots of other properties using the observations from the telescopes that we have
So you've got these ideas that because it's less dense that there's not much stuff in it as other planets of that size
You think well, that might mean it's liquid. There's a lot of gas. So maybe that means that liquid is hot
Yeah, you've kind of figured out that it is molten lava. What were you using computers to really decide this?
Yeah, so that's really the key
methodology used in our in our work here
So we previously to this work we had observations from the ground from
Space-based telescopes like James Webb Space Telescope
But really these
Measurements don't tell us anything unless we can interpret them and as we can understand them
I'm really that's what we did in our study. We put these data together to explain what happened
To this planet over its entire lifetimes five billion year lifetime and to do that we use computer simulations
Which basically we considered a range?
This this these computer simulations are a bit like by the forecasting where you sort of simulate what's going to happen in the future
Except rather than the future we consider how this planet starts out and then a range of different initial
potential starting points and
Ran all of these forward like a sort of five billion year forecast for this planet up to the present day and then compared those with the
Observations and the ones which
Match the observations are the ones that tell us that this planet was molten
So an entire planet made of molten lava and as I say this could mean the
Existence of an entirely new type of planet. What does this mean for our understanding of the universe around us?
The important thing to note is that the idea of a lava planet or a magma oceans as a sort of an ocean of magma
It's not is not new to this study. This has been an established idea for a while and it's important because the
Earth for example would have started molten all planets starting a molten state
Except this planet is interesting because it is a planet which we can show a state molten and
It's stayed molten because of its big atmosphere and that means that we can look at these planets and use them to study
The early earth for example, so earth started molten and we see a planet that the state molten
We can effectively get a window into what the early earth might have looked like and therefore we can you know in future studies
Use this sort of analysis to learn about for example the ocean of life on earth
So there's lots of ways in which we can take this forward using these magma oceans as a sort of window into the past
Well, it's been a real joy to learn all about this very strange planet l98-59d
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it doesn't have a great name in the it's someone needs to name this planet
Well, we've got something to work with now
Listen, thank you so much Harrison Nichols. Thank you for joining us. Thank you
All right, then it's time for your questions if you ever have anything
Sciencey that you want answered on this show whether it's about molten lava planets
Whether it's about the climate or strange
Constructions from the Bronze Age make sure you leave it as a voice note for me on the free fun kids app
You can do that at funkidslive.com to really easy. There's a big red button click that
Let me know who you are what you're up to and also any brilliant science question that you've got lurking around in that brain of yours
Send over free fun kids app first question this week a message from Toby who wants to know
How do the northern lights happen? Have you ever seen these?
Normally around the polar regions of our earth so the north and south pole sometimes they creep a little bit outside of that though
It's where the night sky can be filled with waves of these bright colors
They look magical hanging shimmering through our air
Well, it all happens through the Sun even though the Sun is 93 million miles away. It has an effect on everything
Storms on the Sun they send the gusts of charged solar
Particles bits of energy they send it hurtling across space if earth
Is in the path of these particles they hit our planet's magnetic field and they react those charged particles
They excite the molecules in our atmosphere and they excite them so much that they light up
They light up because the electrons they move further away from the nucleus of the atom little atoms in every single thing
And then they move back towards it
So these electrons are going in and out and in and out and when that happens it releases energy it releases photons of light
It works a bit like a neon sign that you might have seen
Advertising things near where you live
Electricity excites the atoms in the neon gases, which cause a light
That's pretty much what's happening in our sky the different gases in the sky give off different colors
Oxygen causes the greens nitrogen the blues and the reds
So it's all happening because of these storms that are taking place 93 million miles away on the Sun
Toby, thank you so much for the question. Let's get on another one brilliant. It's a voice note from Rocco
Rocco, thank you so much for your question. It's amazing isn't it because well we have bones
But what a brilliant thing to to wonder I've never considered why we actually have them and could we have anything else are they all bones?
Should we find out doctor Scott Abbott Patterson is an anatomist from the University of Bristol and joins us
Scott, thank you so much for being there. You know all about anatomy. So why do people have bones?
Thank you. What a great question. So I think
Bones make up our skeleton and so that's really important in terms really of giving us structure because without them
Really, we wouldn't have any shape or form. We just kind of be a bit of a blob of organs and tissues really
What so they give us form there Scott, but do we have other things apart from bones?
Absolutely, so first of all they give us that structure they give us that bone and
For us that's that's what we call an endoscalerton
So it means that our bones are inside our body and that's different from some insects where they have what we call an exoscalerton
So they have that structure really on the outside of the body
But it's not just about that kind of structure
It's also really about movement and what we call locomotions movement of the body
We move by muscles attaching to the bones
So if you slightly bend your elbow and you you press on the front just in that just in the middle of the sort of the crease of your elbow
You'll maybe feel a sort of cylinder of quite solid tissue at the end of your muscle
That's that's attending that attaches the muscles of your arm
Into your forearm into that bit between your elbow and your hand
And so when we flex our elbow, we sort of hold our arms up to show off our biceps
What's happening is the muscle they are
It's attaching above the elbow but also attaching below is pulling on those bones
And then those bones are acting like a lever and that's how we move our body
And that's happening across joints all over our body and so that we can combine those muscles with our skeleton
To allow us to move and interact with the world
It's amazing to think about when you say it like that because we are moving bones all the time
And and I never stopped to actually think about
How many times our bones must move every single day Scott
Absolutely and something like the hand where you've got so many little bones
Just picking up a pencil, taping on a keyboard, something like that
You're using muscles and you know moving all of those joints all the time
So all of that is thanks to those bones and say our body
And they're not just there as a skeleton and to move
bone to pretty remarkable things because I know that they're really strong Scott and also
Isn't there something really special inside a bone which helps everything else in our system
The thing that it's easy to think about bones is just being the scaffolding
You know as you mentioned they're really strong
And so we think about them all sort of offering that protective function
You know we think about our skull being a little bit like almost a helmet for our brain
You know it keeps keep the internal brain safe and the ribs keep the
The heart and the lungs and those organs inside safe
But actually yes, you're right bones themselves aren't just scaffolding
They're also really important to our function
So so in the core of bones there's the what's known as the bone marrow
And that's a really important site of a process called
hematopoetis or or blood cell production and what's happening there is
That the body is producing new red blood cells new white blood cells
You platelets and those are really important for our function. So they are
The red blood cells are important and encouraging oxygen around the body
And the white blood cells important in our immune system and fighting infection
And then the platelets helping us clot our blood so that if we do cut ourselves it's it stops the stops as bleeding
In my mind that process the bone marrow. It's like a little tube inside our bones
If you imagine the wheel around your your your your the tire around your bike wheel
And then you've got an inner tube. Is it quite that simple? Is it a bit more
fancy and smart than just one tube inside a bit of bone casing?
I like to think of born be a little bit like um a chocolate bar that sort of
Solid chocolate on the outside and then a sort of honeycomb center
But the bone marrow then is a more of a gap thing within the very core of that bone
And so bones are very complex in that they do have their own blood supply and that blood supply
Get smaller and smaller as it branches out into the various parts
Of the of the bone of the tissue and the cells that are contained within there kind of nourished by that
But so it's it's it's complex and that there's
branching into the core of the bone
But you're you know you're you're an allergy. There's not far from from the truth really
Well, there you go Rocco. That's why we have bones and that's why they're so important
Not just to to hold your body together Dr. Scott Abbott Patterson. Thank you for joining us. No problem at all. Thank you
Rocco, thank you so much for your question. Thank you so much for Dr. Scott Patterson for coming on the show
Talking all about the bones in our body and how they are so useful to not just how you look
But how you move and how you keep yourself healthy if you have a question that you'd love to hear answered on the podcast
Make sure you leave as a voice note for me on the free fun kids app. You can do that fun kids live.com too
It's time for this week's dangerous Dan where we search for the most weird strange
Unique and brilliantly deadly things in the universe and this week
It's another one of our awesome amphibians. We're traveling to Spain and Morocco. We're meeting the Spanish ribbed new
It's like a real-life superhero or maybe a supervillain actually if you're in the animal kingdom because when most creatures run away and hide when they're scared
This new turns itself into a living pin cushion
The Spanish ribbed new is dark brownish in color. It's got orange warts lining their body
They're really important. They can grow quite long up to a foot
So they're giants of the new world down there similar to most amphibians
Spanish ribbed newts they are born in water. They breathe through their gills when they start to grow up
They they grow limbs than they lose their gills and they gain the ability to survive on land as well as in water
And they've got a hidden power. It's like something from a yeah like a superhero movie
When a hungry bird or snake tries to grab them this newt pushes its own sharp pointy ribs
Right through their skin those orange warts that I mentioned they slightly tear apart their ribs stick through it
And they are tiny they are covered in venom like little toxic spears
Just imagine if your ribs could pop out of your sides to protect you
Something's trying to eat the newts
These ribs they jut out and they do the work. What a dangerous deterrent warning them don't come near me because these are toxic
And I will use them to spike and I will go for the kill
Now it sounds painful if it would happen to you with your ribs jutting out
But for a new it's no big deal because their skin is amazing at healing. They don't get permanent scars
And actually it's not just that that's brilliant at healing
They can regrow parts of their heart and even their own brain
Which is why this awesome Spanish ribbed newt goes straight on to our dangerous Dan list
It's time for this week's battle of the sciences where we try to discover the greatest science in the history of the universe
And the universe is billions of years old so there's a lot to crack through
Who's fighting for their field today? Well, Dr. Vic Pearson is from the open university
We're discussing astrobiology
Taking us into space I would think let's find out Vic you have one minute to tell us why astrobiology is the greatest science of them all that minutes starts in three two one go
Well the universe is a really huge place
It's not only billions of years old, but it's vast
The earth is the only place in that vastness that we know that it has that has life
And we're looking for life in other parts of our solar system and other parts of the universe
Because we haven't found it yet
So that's what astrobiology is all about
So what we do is we look for things that life might need like water or elements and energy
And look for environments where we think might life might might once have been present
All that where life might be today
And that includes things like the oceans
The lakes on Mars that are preserved in the rocks
Or even the ocean floors of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn where life may even be present today
And if we find life elsewhere in the universe it would be a massive result
Because it wouldn't only blow our minds
But it will also mean that we're no longer alone that we've got neighbors
And that we should be considerate of them
So that means taking care of the planets in the moons if we go to visit them
Vic, there's your minute it's up
Uh, but
So here's what boggles my mind about astrobiology in particular
Biology down here on Earth we can study the soil
We can study rivers that are right there
Yet you're looking for signs of life
Life years away
Uh, and across the solar system too
How on earth can you tell if there might be life
In a frozen lake in Mars where no human is ever set foot
So we can get information that comes from spacecraft
And that spacecraft can either be orbiting around another body
Or we can send spacecraft that land onto the surface of other
Other bodies like Mars
And on board thought that spacecraft that carry instruments
That are able to determine what the rocks might be made of
Or if water might be present
And the things that we're looking for are elements that are important to life
Like every everybody on earth
Every organism is made of carbon
Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and a whole load of other elements
So we're really interested in finding places that might
Contend those elements
And of course we all need water
Our bodies are predominantly made of water
So anywhere that might once have had liquid water
Like a lake in ancient Mars or an ocean of an icy moon
Is a good target to find to possibly find life in the future
So we're reliant at the moment on getting data from spacecraft
But of course in the future
We actually hope that we'd be able to send humans to other planetary bodies
We've obviously only visited the moon so far
And hopefully there'll be some humans stepping foot on the moon again
In the next couple of years
But we haven't sent humans anywhere else in the solar system
But perhaps in the future when we're able to visit Mars
Then they might be able to go and study the environments in much more detail
And that will mean that we'll get first-hand evidence of whether or not there has been life there
Is there a lot of waiting around twiddling your thumbs before the Mars rover sends back
Samples of a rock?
So for astrobiologists we can be waiting years for information that might come from spacecraft
Some spacecraft that are going to the outer edges of the solar system
Or to the icy moons of the giant gas planets
Can take several years to get there
But meanwhile we can do plenty by studying either within our laboratories here on Earth
Or by going to places on Earth that have got quite similar environments to the places that we're interested in
So that could be a straight forward
Is visiting somewhere that's got an acidic river here in the UK
Or going to places like Iceland
To study whether or not there might be life in really extreme cold environments
Or we could even recreate some of the environments from the
Elsewhere in the solar system here in our laboratories
And that's something that we do here at the open university
So we don't sit in twiddler thumbs
We keep ourselves quite busy
I always finish these chats in exactly the same way
Vic, tell us at the end of your career in astrobiology
What's the one thing you want to discover? What do you want to know about your field?
I'd really like to know what it looks like
Underneath the ice of the icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus
I would like to know what the ocean floor looks like
And whether or not there's any life there
Wow, have you any idea what it might look like?
We think it might be a little bit like the what we call the mid-ocean ridge
That runs in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
Where there is on the earth where there are vents
That come up from the ocean floor and bubble hot water out into the ocean
We think that there might be similar environments to that on Enceladus
And on earth those environments are actually a really attractive place
For organisms to live
So if those do occur on Enceladus
They're a good place where we might be able to find life
Wow, it's been amazing to talk to the universe
With you Dr. Vic Pearson, thanks for joining us
You're welcome
Now in our questions earlier on we answered Rocco's question
Didn't we all about the bones in your body
All about our skeleton and we can dive in a bit more with that now
Catching up with one of our favourite geniuses
Professor Halux, who knows everything about how your body works
And why it does what it does
At this week Halux has invented a new and improved skeleton
It is called the Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000
It's a grand title isn't it Halux?
Now it might look good but can it do all the jobs that our bones do
And what are those jobs? Let's find out
Halux is physiology fix up
Finally, you're putting up those shelves we need
No, making some improvements to this skeleton
Really? What's wrong with skeletons the way they are?
I can't believe no one's thought of it before
Look at it, all those white lumpy bones
Skinny and nobly and white
Like my granddad on the beach
So what precisely are you proposing?
This
A titanium skeletal structure with carbon fiber into locking joints
I've called it the Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000
Finished in a number of high-gloss, fashion-forward shades
You chow's those colours?
Of course, we have a viola pink, umbilisous grey
And my personal favourite, carbuncle green
Very, um, carbuncular
I'm not sure your turbo titanium skeleton is going to be able to do all the jobs that bones have to do
Jobs? What? Like Lollipop Lady, Zookeeper, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Professor, you know what I mean
Only joking? As a matter of fact, I do
Organes and systems in our bodies have a number of jobs to do
They're able to do these jobs because of the way they're constructed
And the way they work with other parts of the body
Shall we see if your new and improved skeleton makes the bride?
Floating Physiology File
Bones and skeletons do many important jobs in human bodies
Job 1, support, holding bodies upright
The Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000 should ace this one
That metal is five times the strength of bone
Physiology, ha, ha
See?
Job 2, protection
Bones and skeletons structures protect squishy bits in the body
For example, the ribcage protects the heart and lungs
Physiology, ha
I think this is looking promising nanobot
Job 3, movement, bones and joints allow movement in all the ways needed
Physiology, bail
Not so promising now, that metal skeleton would take a lot of energy to move around
Bones do a great job because they are strong but very light
Unlike that stack of metal
Job 4, storage, bone store, important fats and minerals including calcium
Physiology, bail
Your stack of metal doesn't store anything?
Although you could store a few bikes on that massive metal ribcage
Ha, very funny
Look, this one job left, everything to play for
Job 5, production of blood cells
Blood cells are made in the bone marrow inside bones
Physiology, bail
Well, it's only a prototype
Noise-try-professor
Physiology is fundamental
It not only helps us understand the job's parts of the body have to do and how they do them
It also means we can understand the effect
Other things have on our bodies, like the effect of aging
Can you wheel that door, nanobot?
Physiologists have observed that the more bones work, the more weight they bear
And the more exercise they do, the more they produce cells
Which rebuild the very bones themselves
Your grandad was known for his beach limbo
But many old people aren't as active as younger people
We can predict that older people may have weaker bones
Knowing this helps us to encourage people to stay active
For as long as possible
Which means stronger bones and...
More beach limbo?
Exactly
Right, back to the drawing board
Now, surely there's a better way to build a heart, you know?
Have you seen a heart?
It's a big, globy mess
Uh-oh, just don't make it carbon-cooled grain
Alex is Physiology Fixer
With support from the Physiological Society
Find out more at folkitslive.com
Slash-Hallux
Thank you so much to Alex for a genius
You can learn loads more with him all about
What your body does, why it does the things that it does
Uh, wherever you've got this podcast, brilliant episodes from him loads more
Two that take you through the universe, take you time-traveling
And take you inside your favorite stories
You can find those on the free funkidsapp
at funkidslive.com
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And I'll see you soon for a brand new science quest
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