Planex News

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a Victorian engineer who was one of the main architects of Britain’s industrial revolution. He was famous for his leading work on both Britain’s railways and ships; building railways and designing bridges, tunnels, viaducts and passenger ships. He built lots of bridges not just in London, but all across Britain. These included The Clifton Suspension Bridge (412m), The Royal Albert Bridge (667m), Maidenhead Railway Bridge (128ft), Wharncliffe Viaduct (270m), Winsor Railway Bridge, Gatehampton Railway Bridge, Moulsford Railway Bridge, Avon Bridge and Bishop’s Bridge. Here are some amazing facts about Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9th April 1806, to a French father, Marc Brunel, and an English mother, Sophia Kingdom. He was educated in Normandy and England, with his parents giving him the best opportunities possible to learn the skills of an engineer. He completed an apprenticeship as a clockmaker. In 1822, Isambard took on his fi...

The Yellow Boxfish (Ostracion Cubicus) is a member of the Boxfish family and grows to no larger than 45cm. Divers can find these fish as deep as 40 metres, however they tend to spend most of their time in the shallower and warmer parts of the world’s oceans like the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and also parts of the south eastern Atlantic Ocean. Boxfish tend to spend most of their days on the reef, their main diet is algae, small invertebrates, worms, crustaceans and sponges for example.     Using its puckered lips, it blows small bursts of water at the corals and sand to reveal anything that might be hiding. The Yellow Boxfish is in fact, a yellow, box-shaped fish – who would have guessed it? It is a bright yellow colour with black spots, which helps them to survive by telling nearby predators that they are poisonous. However, as they begin to mature, the number of spots decreases and the yellow blends into almost a dirty, mustard colour. It’s not just the colours that ch...

In the Kamchatka Peninsula of far east Russia, there lies a coral reef formally known as the valley of death. Surrounded by seas that are very cold and are almost frozen all year round, there are dozens of mini volcanoes crammed into one space it has got the nickname ‘Land Of Fire And Ice’.  However, there is more to Kamchatka than its wild beauty - in the shadow of one of one of its fiery volcanoes, called Kihpinych, there is a small, narrow valley - that animals enter - but never leave. The Valley Of Death was first discovered in 1975 by volcanologist Vladimir Leonov. At first, Vladimir thought is was just a normal coral reef, but as he explored further, strange icy clouds and a number of dead animals drew him in. Nobody had properly explored them before, so it was a complete surprise to him. But, just as he feared, there were hundreds of dead animals with blood dripping down their head that had been perfectly preserved by the ice. What was even more strange is that they don’t se...

Parrotfish are more than just ordinary fish. As well as being able to create pyjamas for itself, it can also help create coral reefs! Living alongside many other fish, such as clownfish and stonefish, the parrot fish may seem ordinary. But in reality, it anything but. One of it’s amazing powers includes creating ‘pyjamas’. It essentially vomits out a thick protective mucus that coats its body and stops predators from picking up its scent Night-night, parrotfish! Adding to this, they can also change from male to female! It might sound impossible, but the parrotfish thinks not. Scientists, don’t know how this happens though; maybe they can’t change! Why do white sandy beaches look so nice? Probably not because they are actually made of parrotfish poo! Yep, you heard that right - they can also help to form coral reefs!  As remarkable coral reef residents, these superheroes of the sea can come in many different colours and sizes. Their front teeth are fused together to make a beak, and...

On Friday night, citizens of Hull got a mysterious visit by a pirate ship containing no driver. Some people reported that it only comes every 50 years, as they had seen it all those years ago. When some explorers started to join the crowd of confused people, they decided to board the ship and hunt down civilization. A long table was roughly nailed to the rustic floor of the living room. Over this hung a very expensive chandelier made with 102 wax candles that were still lit. Bowls of ripe fruit were scattered across the table. Two old wooden staircases lead up to various places, but the explorers decided to go up the right one. They then found themselves in a metal storeroom. Flashing yellow rectangular lights hung from chains above huge metal barrels. All of a sudden, the lights went off and eerie sounds echoed around the thik metal walls. A loud crackling sound came on, as purple fog lifted out of the ground. The ship was disappearing! In a rush, the five brave people sped out of the...

Last time, we featured some of the world’s wackiest animals, but there are so many bizarre beasts on our amazing planet that we couldn’t possibly tell you about them all. So we’re back, with even more crazy-looking creatures for you to wonder and and learm more about. From the forests to the seas, we’ve scoured the globe to bring you some truly weird and wonderful examples to enjoy... 1. Sea Bunnies  Sea bunnies are a form of mollusc, specifically a nudibranch. The little bunny ears you can see are actually a form of rhinosphore which help them sense the world around them. They eat sea sponges which contain toxins. These chemical-sensing cuties are found primarily in Japan but have also been spotted off the shores of Taiwan, The Phillipines and Indonesia. 2. Sunda Colugo Until recently, it was believed that this Malaysia-dwelling creature was a form of flying lemur, but closer studying of the animals has revealed that they glide between trees. What’s more, it is not even a t...

Everyone nowadays says that the lost city of Atlantis is found, or something like that. But in truth, no. People have ‘seen’ the underwater city in lots of places; near Ireland, just off the coast of Gibraltar, but none of these are actually correct. If you ever talk to someone studying Atlantis, they will probably describe it as ‘having greek-style buildings and advanced technology’, but, in fact, they haven’t looked at the real facts.  When the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about what he described Atlantis as, he didn’t say all this jibber-jabber. He said that it was made out of three rings around a central island. This was 4 stadis (A greek measurement) squared, followed by a ring of water (1 stadis), then an embankment of 1 stadis, then another ring of water (2 stadis), and so on and so forth. The final embankment was 3 stadis, covered on the outer edge by lots of stadis of water that Plato didn’t describe exactly. So now you know the real, time to find out about the fake. Myth...

The coral reef is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but sadly they are dying. For example, in Mexico, a mysterious disease was wiping out lots of the coral and fish. Also, as climate change rages on, when the coral gets too hot, they release the algae that live in their cells and provide them with nutrients, turning the corals white and sometimes causing them to starve. This usally causes the surrounding fish to die as well. In other news, a coral reef is an underwater ecosystem containing reef-building coral. Reefs are formed of colonies of ‘coral polyps’ which hold together with calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from ‘stony corals’, whose polyps cluster in groups. There can also be ‘artificial reefs’, which are formed when  some sort of man made machine (such as a boat or car) sink into the ocean, and over time coral begin to form on them. When fish see the brightly-coloured stuff, they automatically go there. As crazy as it may sound, corals are actually liv...

Greenland shed an extraordinary 600 billion tonnes of ice by the end of summer last year. This melt-driven loss would have raised global sea levels by 2.2mm, say scientists who've just published an analysis of satellite gravity measurements taken over the Arctic. Of course, when winter set in, some of that mass would have been recovered as it snowed across the ice sheet. The data comes from the joint US-German space mission known as Grace-FO. It's actually a pair of satellites that circle the globe, sensing the "lumps and bumps" in Earth's gravity field that correspond to variations in mass. Key signals being detected are changes in the amount of water stored on land surfaces and the withering state of the planet’s great ice fields.