Planex News

Many companies like SpaceX have tried (but failed) to send rovers and robots to Mars, also known as the Red Planet. But now NASA is going to move forward with their new Mars rover. Just like Solar Orbiter, Perseverance promises to ‘touch the Red Planet’, with a whole heap of hi-tech technology on board. The mission takes the art of space travel further as the whole point of the mission is to see whether life existed on Mars, or even see if microbial life exists NOW. It does this by searching for habitable conditions or dips in ground level where water could have thrived millions of years ago. Perseverance introduces a fast moving, hi-tech drill that can bore into the ground. It sends a message to the ‘brain’, which sends ANOTHER message to the arm, which picks the sample up and stores it in a drawer which will later be examined back on a Earth. Bigger samples or samples that share too heave will be left behind a special rock which future humans will pick up on a future mission. There a

In Hucknall, Nottinghamshire we go past a theme park testing facility, a local told us. Here, they test exciting rides to see if they are safe before they are shipped all across the world. These, of course, are the latest rides available and I’m sure they will thrill and excite even more than they used to. In 15th century Russia, people would slide down wooden slopes covered in ice. Fast forward four centuries, this sort of entertainment was found in Paris, but with some simple modifications, like adding wheels. Later on, in the 19th century, there was machinery in place that would pull the cars to the top of the track. The first ever modern rollercoaster was revealed to the public in 1884 in the US. Although this only went up to speeds of 6mph, it still entertained people. The revolution in rollercoaster history happened when people decided to use metal instead of wood. Steel, the metal they used, is more aerodynamic, is stronger, and can cope with much faster and more forceful moveme

Uses: Many, some include moving Users:  Billions Who: Unknown Why: Unknown You might not think of it as an invention, but, yes, the humble wheel is one. In its primative form, a wheel is a circular block of hard, sturdy and durable material, usually stone, with a hole bored through the middle. Then, a pole, usually wood, is fitted through the centered hole. When four wheels and two sticks are put together, the poles go through a hole in or attached onto a board, and when they get the wheels to turn, the vehicle moves forward or backward. Of course, in the stone age, there were no bikes. This is because they wouldn’t be able to get it to balance, but also, they would never think of it anyway.

Technology has definately developed over the years. Since Michael Faraday’s discovery of electricity, the world has gone crazy for it. We’ve had ovens, tumble dryers, TVs, computers, even LEGO that you control with a laptop. But, most importantly, robots. They come in all shapes and sizes, from a few micrometres wide to  as big as a skyscraper. But what are robots and how do they work? When you think of a robot, you think of a humanoid-like thing (left). But they aren’t all like that. Some can be just a few micrometres wide, and take the form of a computer’s CPU (see last issue). Some can be bigger than skyscrapers and have a huge wrecking ball attached to them. Did you know, there are actually more CPUs than humanoid robots! To build a humanoid robot, you will have to study the human body. Instead of bones, robots have lots of moveable segments attached to one another. Each segment is fitted together with special metal ‘joints’, which can spin, turn, twist and much more when you progr

Film-makers have created a lot of cool films over the years, some with cool graphic effects or creepy alien invasions. But how would they work if they WERE real life? Read this article to raise your brain levels up and outsmart your parents... The classic Star Wars character C3P0 is not much different to any other humanoid robot. Instead of bones, robots have lots of moveable segments attached to one another. Each segment is fitted together with special metal ‘joints’, which can spin, turn, twist and much more when you program them to do so. All these special parts make the robot really flexible. In the American film Back To The Future, a professor invents a time-travelling car powered by plutonium. Based on this, the british chemist and inventor Professor Flux, PhD invented a time-travel machine. Powered by Ghlucoshianian Acid, a substance only found on Saturn, this incredible invention had to have cleaning machines to concentrate the acid, because it would horrible mutate humans if i

As far as we know, liquid metal robots from the future have yet to show up. But new research into alloys and lattice materials shows how liquid metal shapes can be deformed and reformed using heat. Researchers have developed a method of wrapping Field’s alloy - a mixture of bismuth, indium and tin - in a lattice or shell made out of rubber-like elastomers, which gives the liquid metal some useful extra properties. In particular, the liquid metal and elastomer lattice combination can be deformed after heating, and then recover its original shape after being heated up again a second time: not quite a robot rising up out of a lava pit, but the same sort of idea. “We spent over half a year developing this manufacturing process, because this new lattice material is very hard to process,” says mechanical engineer Pu Zhang from Binghamton University. “You need to find the best materials and processing parameters.” “Without the shell, it won’t work, because the liquid metal will flow away. The

The ancient aztec city of Teotihuacan (say tee-otto-hoo-i-can) has puzzled more experts than the Great Pyramids Of Giza have! The pyramid complex  consists of quite a few building and temples. At the front of the city, The Temple Of The Sun sits proudly overlooking the rest. A few more pyramid-like buildings follow, all leading to what is now known as the Avenue Of The Dead. This is quite a few miles long, but all of the buildings are the same, except one. Temple of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl is the third-largest pyramid in the whole site. Also on the avenue is the Great Pyramid Of  Cholua and The Pyramid Of The Moon. Interestingly, a lake of liquid Mercury was discovered in an excavated tunnel beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. There has been various lakes of other metals in other areas of the Mayan empire, but never Mesoamerica. Even more interestingly, Mercury is a superconductor. Although it is extremely dangerous to human beings, scientists have performed experiments w

Electricity is everywhere. But what is it? Let’s find out. Electricity is the flow of tiny particles called electrons. They are one of the particles that make up an atom (see last week’s issue). The other two, protons and neutrons, are stuck in the centre and usually don’t move. But electrons are free to move from atom to atom, causing an electrical current. If an atom has fewer electrons than it wants, it is called positively charged. It tries to pull electrons from neighbouring atoms that have more electrons than they want and are called negatively charged. If you get the electrons to flow through an electrical component, some of the energy can be converted to another form of energy like  light, heat, sound or movement. So how do we get this electricity to flow? Well, we have to make a circuit. In it there is an energy source liken a battery. Electrons get pushed out one end of the batteryand flow from atom to atom until they reach the other end. The wire is made of the most conducti

Computers have come a long way from the traditional versions that are the size of a house. These could only be instructed by people putting cards with holes punched in them into a special scanner. Now, you can activate an app by the press of a button or touch of a finger. Your PC or laptop is most likely to have special features such as voice-recognition technology, like Cortana, speakers, cameras and many ways to communicate with the outside world. Beneath all that clever coding, the idea stays the same: computers are machines that solve problems by making vast numbers of mathematical calculations. To a computer, everything is a number. A picture? Number. A sound? Number. A word? Number. A computers ‘brain’ is called the central prosseccing unit (CPU). This microchip consists of many millions of tiny electronic comductors and components, aranged in ways that allow them to calculate faily simple maths but at high speed. The chip races through billions of sums per second. That’s even

In Glasgow, Scotland, a passage was discovered that lead to an old laboratory. Scientists observing the lab said that it was strangely abandoned in 1852, but haven’t figured out why. One of their four only theories is that the observatory was having renovations of some sort, hence the huge hole in the roof, and the people that worked there were afraid the laboratory was going to get discovered. Other scientists studying the history of it think it was going to carry out a top-secret mission that was being prepared when the renovations were happening, and if anyone found out then the leader would be killed.

On this page you will discover how to use the app ‘Adobe Illustrator’, which even some grown-ups struggle to use. I know because I am already better than my dad! If you haven’t already got a subscription to Adobe, this page is no use to you, so don’t bother getting upset. Anyhoo, I’m going to show you how to make what I call a ‘Blended Brick’, using only two tools. Open Adobe Illustrator and click on ‘create new’. a box should appear asking you the page size, but just click on ‘A4’ to keep things simple.   An A4 sheet of paper should appear on your screen. On the left of your PC or laptop there should be a little symbol with two circles and a square. If you can’t find this, click on the three dots in the left hand corner and more options for tools should appear then.   This symbol is the blend tool, the primary ingredient for our art. Also you will need the shape tool, which will create a rectangle unless you click on the little arrow in the corner, where you can create things li

To celebrate 75 years since World War Two ended, we’ve got a special article for you... this one! So don’t go just yet, this won’t be boring! World War 2 was a battle between two groups of countries – the “Allies” and the “Axis“. The major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States. The major Axis Powers were Germany, Italy and Japan. The terrible Adolf Hitler lead the Axis, but don’t think he was nice. Hitler and his army marched across the whole world, sparking many battles in different places. At one point in the war, the Nazis (Hitlers army) were said to had been building ‘Die Glocke’, or ‘The Bell’. Nazi documantary writers said that The Bell was some sort of ‘time-travel machine’, but nobody really knows the truth. Die Glocke, says authors, was inspired by alien technology. The were said to have come down to earth in the war, and told the chief scientist about their machines. Strangely, he disappeared at the end of WWII. Many believe he went through a

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 1 -

Uses: Sticking together Users:   billions Who: George de Mestral Why: wanted to stick things together Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral invented his first touch fastener when, in 1941, he went for a walk in the woods and wondered why burdock seeds clung to his coat and dog. He discovered it could be turned into something useful. George patented it in 1955, and soon it became one of the most famous inventions of all time. The fastener consisted of two components: a lineal fabric strip with tiny hooks that could “mate” with another fabric strip with smaller loops, attaching temporarily, until pulled apart. The first ever strip of Velcro was made out of cotton, which proved impractical after getting reports of them ripping apart. Now, the fastener is made of nylon and polyester. Ask The Pro Yo! I’m writing this letter to you in 1964, because some dude told me to. Velcro straps together all of my fancy clothes, and my guitar! I also used velcro to create my quiff, because I wa

Levitating Lamp Uses: Lighting Users:   200,000 worldwide Who: Miros Hampton Why: wanted a quirky way to work As much as the levitating lamp sounds incredible, it is merely just a light bulb floating on top of a base. A magnet inside the bulb contains a coil which receives the electricity transmitted from the base and powers the bulb through the air. As for the levitation, when gravity pulls the bulb downward, the opposing force of the magnetism causes it to repel the base, leaving it suspended in air. Mobile Phone Uses: Lots Users: over 70,000,000 global Who: Martin Cooper Why: wanted to do lots of things in a small box In the most basic form, a phone is essentially a two-way radio, consisting of a radio transmitter and a radio receiver. When you chat with your friend on your phone, your phone converts your voice into an electrical signal, which is then transmitted via radio waves to the nearest cell tower. For other things, this is the same except instead of calls it broadcasts

Yesterday, Proffessor Flux made all your favourite sci-fi movies true when he single-handedly invented a functional time-machine that was powered by Ghlucoshianian  Acid, a substance only found on Saturn, but was handily picked by Flux’s other creation, Ranger. The Ghucos was loaded into a powerful laser, which instead of light, blasted the chemical out as pure energy, and  when it hits the floor, a small mirror blasts  it back up, and so on and so forth. If a mist appears, says the Proffessor, it means the time machine is malfunctioning and the room should be immediately evacuated, but he added on the end that it would happen once in a blue moon, and we don’t have a moon that’s blue, so phew! The only downside to Flux’s amazing invention is that you have to stand right in the middle of the Ghucos beam, and as we all know, if Ghlucoshianian Acid was touching a human, he or she could get horribly mutated. Because of this, Flux had to find a way to calm the Ghucos, resulting in the time

Uses: Flying Users:   only 1,000 so far Who: Clive Rupert Burn Why: wanted to fly with STYLE! A jetpack is a powerful invention that lets human beings - or anything else for that matter - fly high above the ground. The tanks blast out hot air that moves people quickly when they turn it on. Attached to all this machinery is two handles, and whatever way you turn them, the jetpack goes. Because such powerful equipment is packed in such a small container, it might not be a surprise to you that is hard to control.  If you see someone flying over a lake at highspeed, they’ve obviously had years of training and practise, indicating you should not try this at home. Also, always make sure your jetpack is on full power, otherwise the battery could pop its clogs any moment. As well, as Will Smith (right) applied, a jetpack is an extremely dangerous thing to ride because especially if a child rode one, it could easily go out of control, even for grown-ups. We here at Toby News really hope you

Scientists studying the icy giant exoplanet Neptune, one of the largest bodies in the solar system, discovered a stunning new form of life. But rather than dwelling on the implications of the finding (which, again, was stunning), The New York Times ran a story questioning whether there even was any such life, or, more to the point, whether we should be surprised by the discovery at all. One of the Times’ contributors, Lawrence Krauss, thinks life begins when, for reasons best known to our own species, “answering the universe’s call.” We behave as we do because we have some desire, expectations or fears, and we want to act as if we should be allowed to act as we do. As Krauss put it, “we are not awe-inspiring beings because we are smarter than chimpanzees. We are awe-inspiring beings because we are more intelligent than chimps.” What Krauss doesn’t mention, however, is that if he wanted to doubt the existence of life, he would not want to be the one to find it. The same is true of many

Uses: Measuring, zapping Users:   around 12,000,000 worldwide Who: Sir Alan Murphy Laser Why: Wanted to measure quickly A laser is an instrument that can produce a powerful beam of light. The word laser stands for the scientific words that explain how a laser beam is produced: “light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation.” In the 1950s scientists in the United States and the Soviet Union came up with the ideas needed to build lasers. A U.S. scientist built the first laser in 1960. Since then scientists have built many more types of lasers. A laser is usually made up of a tube with mirrors at both ends. One mirror is partly transparent (see-through). Inside the tube is some type of material, such as gas, crystal, or liquid. A powerful lamp or some other source of energy adds energy to the material. Then the material produces light. The light bounces back and forth between the mirrors at the ends of the tube. As it does so, it causes the material in the tube to produce

This is a photograph taken from a prior expedition of five ridge seaguls. (Image: Toby Parry-Russell) West coast seaguls are twelve foot deep freshwater pools. The seaguls are incredible depth pools consisting of sediment left over from ancient ocean sediments. They exist in many regions of Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and British Columbia. They have been known and documented since the 17th century. Many times the seaguls have disappeared after a wave or another large event but then new ones appear. The government is very interested in these enormous physical remnants of life because their geology and ecology provide valuable information about what life and the oceanic environment was like when the Pacific Ocean first broke off from Asia. Here is a history of the seaguls and the water they are composed of: The Dipole Anomaly, 41 miles northwest of Newport (Oregon), was the first known land formation in the Northwest. These pools were formed in the shallow pools from the vast