Newsademic Issue 247 A

April 16, 2015American English edition

Issue Number 247

In this issue

Fairy circle and skin patternsPopes message angers TurkeySurprising whale carcass found7th Summit of the AmericasNew power line winnerChinas Qingming dayPrehistoric art copiedWar camel in AustriaDelivery company takeoverSpider fear experimentTambora 200 years agoUniversity attack in KenyaBird hunting in MaltaAtom smasher restartsNigerian schoolgirls rememberedNew dwarf dragonsGravitational lensingThe Great Dying cause?UNESCOs Education for All reportGlossary Crossword and Wordsearch Puzzle

Covered statue of Cecil Rhodes at Cape Town University (insert: the statue before the Rhodes Must Fall protest)

For 81 years the statue of a man seated in an armchair has looked out over the campus of the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. On April 9, watched by a crowd of cheering students, a crane lifted the heavy statue off its stone plinth. As it was taken down some protesters put red paint on the seated figure. Others danced on the empty plinth, as the bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes was loaded onto a truck and taken away.

The universitys 30-member council had voted to remove the monument the day before. The council is made up of students and teaching staff. The vote fol-lowed a month-long campaign to have the statue taken down. It was called Rhodes Must Fall. Council members said that they had spoken with many people who study and work at the university. The majority thought that it honored a person who did many bad things. Rhodes, most

of them said, was a racist. He stole land from local people and became rich by paying black laborers, or workers, low wages.

Cecil Rhodes was born in Britain in 1853. His father was a priest. As a young man, Rhodess health was poor. His elder brother had moved to south-ern Africa where he had set up a cotton farm. Then, this part of Africa was one of Britains many colonies. Rhodess fa-ther thought that warmer weather might improve his sons health. So Rhodes was sent to join his brother. He arrived in southern Africa in 1870, aged 17.

A few years earlier diamonds had been discovered in a place called Kim-berley. Rhodes and his brother decid-ed to give up cotton farming and move to the diamond fields. Within a few years Rhodes had made a lot of money. Later, he set up the famous De Beers

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diamond company. At the age of 20, Rhodes sailed back to Britain and went to Oxford University.

On his return to southern Af-rica, Rhodes became a politician. He was elected to the Cape Colony parliament. This ruled over what is now South Africa. Between 1890 and 1896 Rhodes was the prime minister of the Cape Colony. During this time he passed sever-al laws that reduced the rights of black people.

After leaving politics, Rhodes set up several new companies. He used his wealth to get permission from tribal leaders to mine for met-als and minerals on their land. Often his companies would take over large areas. Some of these places were eventually named after him. Zimba-bwe was formerly called Rhodesia. What used to be Northern Rhodesia is now Zambia.

Rhodes became convinced that the British were superior to all other peoples. He thought that the more of the world the British controlled the better it would be for the human race. His dream was for Britain to take control of most of the eastern side of Africa. He wanted to build a railway from the Cape (or South Af-rica) to Cairo (the capital of Egypt). A famous cartoon of this time shows Rhodes standing on the continent of Africa. One foot is in the Cape and the other in Egypt. At the same time he is holding up a telegraph wire.

Rhodes died from heart failure in 1902 aged 48. He left much of his large fortune to Oxford University. He gave instructions that it was to be used for a special type of schol-arship. This has become one of the most famous scholarship programs in the world. At first, it was set up for young men from Britains col-onies to study at the university.

Therefore people living in New Zealand, Australia, South Afri-ca, and Canada could apply. Even though they were not British colo-nies, Rhodes also included the U.S. and Germany in the program.

Over the years the rules for Rhodes scholarships have changed. Now 83 students go to Oxford each year. They can come from many other places such as Zimbabwe, Bermuda and Hong Kong. Nowadays, black South African students are also selected. Those that win these scholarships are known as Rhodes scholars. Perhaps two of the best-known Rhodes schol-ars are Bill Clinton and Tony Abbott. Mr. Clinton is a former president of the U.S. Mr. Abbott is the current Australian prime minister.

Famous cartoon of Rhodes standing on the continent of Africa while holding a telegraph wire

Rhodess grave is in the Matopos hills in Zimbabwe. In the past some people have said that his remains should be dug up and returned to Britain. Yet this has never happened. Many buildings in South Africa are named after him. Rhodes provided money for the Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, in South Africa. He also donated the land on which the

University of Cape Town was built. This is why a statue of Rhodes was put up in the grounds of the university.

In 1910 Britain agreed to hand over the running of South Africa to Afrikaners. These were white peo-ple descended mostly from Dutch and German settlers. Their ancestors had moved to southern Africa many years before. In 1948 the governing National Party introduced apartheid. This segregated the races. Certain places were for white people only. Black people were not allowed to vote in elections.

The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912. It was set up by people who were an-gry about the unfairness of what was happening in South Africa. In 1960 the South African government banned the ANC. Some ANC lead-ers were sent to prison, including Nelson Mandela (1918 2013).

In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became South Africas president. He de-clared that he would work with the ANC to end apartheid. Mr. Man-dela and the other ANC prisoners were released in 1990. Elections, in which black people were allowed to vote for the first time, took place in 1994. Mr. Mandela, who had been a prisoner for 27 years, was elected as the president.

The ANC has won all the elec-tions since Mr. Mandela stepped down in 1999. Jacob Zuma is its current leader and South Africas president. The ANC has been in power for 21 years. Yet the country has many problems. Many thou-sands of black South Africans still live in poverty. Few disagree with the removal of Rhodess statue. Yet many believe that the inequalities in South Africa today have more to do with the present than the countrys past.


FAIRY CIRCLES AND SKIN CELLS

In nature, similar patterns on a small and a much larger scale are rare. However, scientists working at a university in Japan have found a strange match. They noticed that fairy circle patterns and tiny pat-terns formed by skin cells are sim-ilar. This, the scientists say, is very, very unusual.

Fairy circles in Namibia (Thorsten Becker)

Fairy circles are one of natures greatest mysteries. No one knows how they form, or what creates them. Most fairy circles are found in Namibia, in southern Africa. There, some grassland areas are covered in them. Fairy circles are round bar-ren patches of land. Researchers have been trying to work out what causes these circular shapes for over 40 years. There are several ideas, or theories.

The circles were thought to be permanent. Yet, studies over long periods of time have shown that this is not true. The circular shapes seem to grow bigger very slowly. The largest ones have a diameter of 40 feet (12 meters). Its thought that some bigger circles last for as long as 75 years before they die. When this happens, the surrounding grasses begin to regrow inside them. Eventually, the barren patches are covered over and they disappear.

Local people say that spirits make the round patches. They believe that their dead ancestors become these

god-like spirits. Therefore, to them, the fairy circles are the footprints of the gods.

In the past, scientists have sug-gested that several different things cause the circles. One theory is that another type of plant leaves a form of poison, or toxin, in the soil. So nothing else will grow. Another idea is that something coming up from deep under the ground creates the rings. This could be radioactivity or poisonous gases. A more recent theory says that small insects are to blame. Called sand termites, they feed on the grass roots. Yet, so far, none of these ideas have been shown to be true.

The scientists in Japan looked at satellite pictures of fairy circles. Using a computer, they drew lines halfway between each circle and the ones nearest to it. On the ground these lines would be like boundaries, which cannot be seen. One circles boundaries form the boundaries of several others. The scientists call the surrounding circles neighbours. The computer then calculated how many neighbours surrounded each fairy circle.

Similar patterns: fairy circles in Namibia (left) and microscopic skin cells (right) (OIST)

Some time ago other research-ers did a similar thing with skin cells and their neighbours. When they compared the fairy circle and skin cell results, the scientists were amazed. They matched. Most fairy circles and skin cells have six neigh-bours. Whats more, the percentage of fairy circles with four, five, six,

seven, eight, and nine neighbours is the same.

The scientists do not know what causes fairy circles. Yet, they now suspect that it has something to do with fighting for space. This is what creates this type of pattern in skin cells. The scientists say that any future theories about fairy cir-cles will need to explain why these two patterns are so similar.

POPES ARMENIAN MESSAGE

Pope Francis is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. On April 12, he led a special religious ser-vice. During it the pope spoke about genocide in Armenia. Genocide is the deliberate killing of large num-bers of people from one ethnic group or nation. Pope Franciss words an-gered Turkeys leaders. They insist that what he said was both untrue and historically incorrect.

The religious service, or Mass, was held at St Peters Basilica. This large church is part of the Vatican, or headquarters of the Roman Catholic faith. The Mass was arranged to commemorate the 100th anniversary of what many people call the Armenian Geno-cide. Karekin the Second, the leader of the Armenian Church, took part.

Armenia has a population of about three million. It is a small mountainous country. To the west it shares a border with Turkey. Armenia was the first Christian nation. It adopted Christianity as its official religion in 301 BCE. In ancient times Armenia was a sepa-rate kingdom. In later years it was part of both the Persian and Ot-toman Empires. In 1922 commu-nist Russia took over, or annexed,


Armenia. The country then became part of the Russian-led Soviet Union. In 1990 Armenia declared that it was an independent nation. This was when the Soviet Union was starting to break up.

Karekin the Second (left) and Pope Francis

Disagreements between Turkey and Armenia date back to 1914. Then, Turkey, which is a Muslim country, was the center of the Ot-toman Empire. During the First World War (1914 1918) Turkey and Russia were on opposing sides. There was fighting along the border between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. This was where many Ar-menians lived.

Turkish leaders began to mis-trust the Armenians. They accused them of helping Russia. Between 1914 and 1918 many thousands of Armenians were forced to move to other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Many people believe that, at this time, Turkish soldiers deliberately killed over one million Armenians. Thousands of other Armenians are thought to have died between 1918 and 1923. Today, many claim that Turkey was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians. Nowadays, this type of mass killing is called genocide.

However, Turkish officials and many of the countrys historians say that this is untrue. They ad-mit that over 300,000 Armenians died between 1914 and 1923. Yet none were deliberately killed, or

murdered. The deaths, the officials claim, were caused by civil war, disease and hunger. They insist that there was no genocide. In Turkey it is against the law to say that hun-dreds of thousands of Armenians were murdered.

What happened in Armenia 100 years ago is a difficult subject. Many world leaders do not talk about it. If it is mentioned they do not use the word genocide. This is because they dont want to upset the Turkish gov-ernment.

In 1967 a large memorial was built in Yerevan, Armenias capital city. It is called the Tsitsernakaberd. In Armenia, April 24, is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Each year, on this day, thousands of Ar-menians gather at the memorial to remember all those who died be-tween 1915 and 1923.

The Tsitsernakaberd memorial, in Yerevan

Serzh Sargsyan, Armenias pres-ident, attended the service at St Pe-ters. Mr. Sargsyan said that Pope Franciss words sent a powerful message to those who deny the Ar-menian Genocide.

RARE WHALE FOUND

A reporter was recently walking along a remote beach in Australia. The beach is near the town of Ex-mouth on the countrys northwest coast. The reporter came across a dead whale-like creature. It was

lying on the sand, above the high tide area. He told local wildlife offi-cials what he had seen.

The officials went to look at the carcass. They were sure that it was a type of whale. Yet they did not know what species it was. A pow-erful storm had struck this part of Australia a few weeks before. The whale had probably died at sea. It was then washed up on the beach by the rough seas. The dead whale was 19 feet (5.7 meters) long. It was a female and seemed to be a juvenile, or not a fully-grown adult.

The officials took a sample from the dead whale and arranged a DNA test. The results showed that it was an Omuras whale. These sea crea-tures are very rare. Scientists from Japan only identified the species in 2003. This was after they carried out DNA tests on samples taken from whales caught a long time ago. Since then only a few Omuras whales have been recorded. They were seen around Indonesia, the Philippines and in the Sea of Japan.

Not much is known about this type of whale. Some marine re-searchers believe that they can grow to lengths of 38 feet (11.6 meters). The females are probably bigger than males. The creatures upper parts are dark grey. Its lower body is much lighter. Omuras whale is one of the smallest of the baleen whale species.

All whales, dolphins, and por-poises are known as cetaceans. There are two types of cetacean: those with baleen plates and those with teeth. Dolphins and porpoises have teeth. Most baleen whales are bigger than toothed whales. Blue whales, which are the largest animal in the world, have baleen plates. These whales can be 98 feet (30 me-ters) long.


Baleen whales have comb-like filters or bristles attached to their upper jaws. These whales will take in large mouthfuls of water. This is then pushed out, or expelled, through the filters. Some baleen whales do this with their tongues. The bristles filter out any fish or small marine creatures that are in the water. These are then swallowed.

Omuras whale (Geof Parry and Department of Parks and Wildlife, Western Australia)

Omuras whales have been seen lunge feeding. This is when a ba-leen whale swims up to a school, or group, of fish. It then tries to engulf as many fish as possible in a mouth-ful of water.

The Omuras whale found on the beach is the first to be seen in Western Australia. The discovery is important, as it will help scientists learn more about this rare species. After samples were taken, the dead whale was buried in the sand. The skeleton will be dug up in a few years time. It can then be used for further scientific research or dis-played in a museum.

7TH SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS

A large meeting, called the 7th Summit of the Americas, was held on April 10 and 11, in Panama. The meeting took place in Panama City, the countrys capital. Pana-mas president, Juan Carlos Varela, hosted the summit. The meeting had

extra importance. For the first time Cuba was invited.

The first Summit of the Americas was in 1994. In recent years these meetings have taken place every three years. The last one was in Colombia in 2012. The leaders of about 30 nations from North, South, and Central America and Caribbean countries usually attend. This part of the world is often called the West-ern Hemisphere. These summits are organized so the leaders can talk about subjects that affect this hemi-sphere. Examples are: trade, climate change, human rights, and criminal drug gangs.

The nations that are invited to these meetings are members of a group called the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from this group over 40 years ago. This was at the insistence of countries like the U.S. and Can-ada. At the last two summits the exclusion of Cuba caused disagree-ments. Nearly all the OASs mem-bers argued that it should be allowed to rejoin.

In 1956 Fidel Castro started a revolution in Cuba. He led a group of fighters, or rebels. After two years of fighting, Castros rebel army captured Havana, Cubas cap-ital city. Soon after taking control, Fidel Castro declared that Cuba was a communist state. His government would now own all the businesses, factories and houses. Other political parties were banned. Many Ameri-can businesses in Cuba were tak-en over.

Not all Cubans were happy that their country had become a com-munist state. Thousands decided to leave. Many went to live in Florida, which is one of the U.S.s 50 states. Florida is less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) across the sea from

Cuba. In 1959 the governments of the U.S. and Cuba stopped speaking with each other. This is known as breaking off diplomatic relations. The following year the U.S. imposed an economic blockade, or trade em-bargo, on Cuba. This embargo still exists. It means that American com-panies are not allowed to sell any-thing to Cuba, or buy goods made in Cuba.

One year after the embargo be-gan, the American government se-cretly helped to organize an attack on Cuba. It became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. Fidel Cas-tros forces easily defeated the in-vading force. After this Fidel Castro decided to work with the communist Russian-led Soviet Union.

Russia continued to help Cuba. Yet when the Soviet Union began to break up in 1990, Cuba lost its big-gest supporter. In 2008, after run-ning Cuba for 49 years, Fidel Cas-tro decided to step down. He was 81 years old and in poor health. It was agreed that his younger brother, Ral, would take his place.

Leaders at the 7th Summit of Americas

At the end of last year, Barack Obama, the president of the U.S., made an announcement. It surprised many people. Mr. Obama declared that the U.S. would start to speak and work with Cuba. At the same time, Ral Castro made a similar statement. This was the first time that the two countries had official-ly communicated for over 50 years. Now plans are being made for the


U.S. and Cuba to open embassies in each others capital cities. The trade embargo may end. Yet, this will probably be done gradually.

Ral Castro and Barack Obama shake hands

At the Panama summit in Pana-ma, Ral Castro made a long speech. He said that Mr. Obama was not re-sponsible for things that happened a long time ago. Later, the two men met each other in a separate room. They talked for a short time. This was the first official meeting be-tween the two countries for over half a century. Mr. Obama described the meeting as historic. Many of the other OAS members praised Mr. Obama and Ral Castro for agree-ing to renew diplomatic relations.

NEW TRANSMISSION TOWERS

In many countries overhead cables transport electricity from power stations to homes and workplaces. These high voltage power lines are suspended from tall metal towers. A few years ago a power line network company in Britain approved a new design. The first of its new electric cable carrying structures have just been built.

In different parts of the world the towers that carry high voltage power lines have different names. In many places they are called trans-mission towers. Yet in Britain, and some other European countries, they are known as pylons, or electricity

pylons. The word pylon comes from the Ancient World. A pylon is a type of tall Ancient Egyptian tem-ple gateway.

In Britain, the first electricity py-lons were built about 90 years ago. Their design has never changed. They have a very strong steel lat-tice design. Larger pylons have three arms. They are about 164 feet (50 meters) high. Many peo-ple think that electricity pylons are ugly. They complain that long lines of these transmission towers ruin countryside views and landscapes. So far, about 88,000 metal pylons have been erected in the UK.

Lattice steel tower pylon

Electricity companies in most countries now have to change the way they make, or generate, some of their electricity. Less is to be made from burning fossil fuels (oil, natu-ral gas and coal) in power stations. Making electricity from fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide (CO

2). Most

scientists are sure that this extra CO2

in the atmosphere is acting like a greenhouse. They believe that it is causing average world temperatures to rise and climate change in certain parts of the world.

In the future more and more elec-tricity is to be made from whats

known as renewables. Wind, so-lar, hydro, and tidal power are all renewable energy. Most renewable energy will be generated in places far from towns and cities. Many more power lines and pylons will therefore be needed to take this electricity to where it will be used.

The new T-pylons (National Grid)

The National Grid Company runs the power transmission network in Britain. Four years ago, bosses at the company decided to set up a competition. The old style metal pylons work well. However, the Na-tional Grid bosses thought that new technologies and materials could be used to make something better. The competition was for a new pylon design. People and companies were invited to send their ideas to the Na-tional Grid. The company received over 200 entries. They came from all around the world. A design cre-ated by Bystrup, a firm of architects from Denmark, was judged to be the winner. Bystrups design is shaped like the letter T.

The new T-pylon is 36 metres are (118 feet) high. This is much short-er than the old lattice metal tower. Instead of arms, the T-pylon has two diamond-shaped frames. These hold the power cables. The frames hang from either end of the top part of the T. They carry the same number of power lines, but in a much smaller area.

The T-pylon has many other ad-vantages. Each one can be put up in


a day. This is far quicker than the old towers. Most importantly, lines of T-pylons can be set up to follow the contours of the land. They can blend into the landscape and are therefore not so ugly. The old steel lattice towers had to be built in a straight line.

The National Grid has put up its first new T-pylons. Six have been erected at one of its training centers. There, they will be used to teach workers how to string power ca-bles between them. The T-pylons will not replace all the old lattice towers. However, they will be used to carry all new high voltage elec-tricity cables.

TOMB-SWEEPING DAY

In China, at the beginning of April, many people take part in an import-ant festival. Its called Qingming (or Ching Ming), which means pure brightness. In English Qingming is known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. This yearly event is both a happy and a sad day.

This year Qingming was on April 5. In China the festival marks the beginning of spring. At this time of year, days in the northern hemi-sphere are getting longer and the weather warmer. This is when farm-ers traditionally begin preparing the fields to plant new crops. Most people try to spend the day of the festival outdoors. Many fly colorful kites. Some even do this after dark. Small lanterns are tied to the kites, or kite strings, to light them up.

At Qingming people commemo-rate their ancestors. These are long dead relatives and family members who died recently. This is import-ant for many Chinese people. For some, ancestor worship is a type of

religious faith. These people believe that, after dying, their ancestors spirits live under ground. These spirits look after the living members of the family. The spirits homes are their tombs, or graves. So it is im-portant to keep these places clean and tidy.

Not everyone believes in ances-tor worship. However, most want to remember and show respect to family members who have died. They do this at Qingming. On this day many families visit the graves of their ancestors. Cemeteries, or graveyards, can be very crowded on Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Cemetery during the Qingming festival

People clean the headstones and areas around their ancestors and relatives graves. Weeds are cleared away and fresh soil may be added to the grave. Offerings of tea, food, and flowers are placed on the tombs. People burn sticks of incense and fake paper money as an offering to their ancestors. Often, they put types of food on the graves that their relatives liked during their life-times. This is done to make sure that those buried in the tomb have what they need.

In recent years, shops have be-gun to sell paper copies of many modern-day items just before the Qingming festival. These include paper cell phones, tablet computers, cars, and even houses. People buy these replicas and then burn them at their ancestors graves. For some, it

is a serious symbol of offering their ancestors things that are valuable today. For others, its a family joke or way of keeping their ancestors up-to-date with modern day tech-nology.

As so many people visit cemeter-ies on the same day, there can be huge traffic jams at Qingming. Trains and buses are very crowded. In recent years people have complained about the extra smoke and air pollution. Nowadays, the Chinese government tries to persuade people not to burn so many paper items. It says flowers should be left at the tombs instead. Other non-polluting ideas are read-ing poems and playing audio and video recordings.

CHAUVET CAVE REPLICA

On April 10, the president of France, Franois Hollande, traveled to Val-lon-Pont-dArc. This village is in southern France. There, Mr. Hol-lande visited a recently completed replica, or copy, of a well-known cave. The original, called the Chau-vet cave, is near the village. It con-tains some of the worlds oldest and best-preserved prehistoric art. The paintings inside the cave are be-tween 32,000 and 30,000 years old.

Replica Chauvet cave building

Three speleologists (speleolo-gy is the study of caves), or local cavers, found the cavern in 1994. They discovered it by accident. The


caves entrance had been blocked by a rockfall. This happened about 22,000 years ago. Therefore, the cavers were the first people to enter the cavern since prehistoric times. They were amazed by what they saw. Many of the caves walls are covered in animal drawings and paintings. The cave is named after one of the speleologists, Jean-Marie Chauvet.

Replica Chauvet cave painting

There are several large caves in southern France that contain this type of prehistoric art. The ancient humans who lived in this part of the world 32,000 years ago are often called Cro-Magnon Man.

Neanderthals were an early hom-inid, or type of human. From the dis-covery of ancient bones and teeth, its known that Neanderthals were living in Europe at least 300,000 years ago. Their name comes from a place in Germany. This was where some of the first Neanderthal bones were found in the 1850s.

After the discovery of Neander-thal bones, two ancient skeletons were found in southern France. They were dug up in a cave-like rock shel-ter. Scientists compared the Nean-derthal bones with those found in the rock shelter. There were several differences. For example, the shape of the skulls were not the same. The new ancient humans from southern

France were named Cro-Magnon Man. (Cro is a local word that means hole. Magnon was the name of the person who owned the land that in-cluded the rock shelter.)

However, later, it became known that these ancient humans were the ancestors of modern-day humans (Homo sapiens). They originally evolved in Africa. After moving to the Middle East, they arrived in Europe about 44,000 years ago. Therefore Cro-Magnon Man, or the Cro-Magnon people, were the an-cestors of modern-day humans or Homo sapiens. This meant that the Cro-Magnon name was no longer needed. Yet, today, it is still used to describe the ancient humans who lived in southern France.

Within 5,000 years of Homo sapi-ens arrival in Europe, all the Nean-derthals had died out. No one knows why. Some scientists believe that there was a change in the climate. Oth-ers say that Neanderthals could not compete with Homo sapiens. A dis-ease, from which Neanderthals were not immune, is another possibility.

The Chauvet cave has never been opened to the public. Officials did not want to repeat what hap-pened at another cave. Called Las-caux, this cave is also in southern France. It was discovered in 1940. Lascauxs cave art was created about 14,000 years after the Chau-vet cave paintings.

The Lascaux cave was opened to the public in 1948. Soon, over 1,000 people were visiting it each day. Within eight years moisture and car-bon dioxide from their breath had damaged the caves ancient artwork. Lichen, a plant-like organism, began to grow on the walls. To preserve the paintings, the cave was closed.

The Chauvet cave contains about 1,000 paintings, or drawings. These

are of 14 animal species. Some of them are now extinct. They include: the ibex, mammoth, giant stags, horses, bears, rhinos, lions, and even an owl.

The replica cave is about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the real one. It has been made from a steel frame and concrete. The original caves roof and walls were scanned using 3D (three-dimensional) tech-nology. Scientists took over 6,000 digital photographs of all the prehis-toric images. Using these pictures, a team of artists then copied the paint-ings onto the concrete walls.

The cost of recreating the cave was 55 million (40 million). Visi-tors say that it looks exactly like the real one. It will officially open to the public on 25th April.

WAR CAMEL?

Tulln is a town in Austria. It is not far from Vienna, Austrias capital city. Recently, work began on building a new shopping center in the middle of the town. Building workers dug up some old bones. They seem to be the remains of a large animal. A team of archaeologists were asked to investigate.

Uncovered camel skeleton in Tulln (Ute Scholz)

At first, the archaeologists thought that the animal was a cow or horse. Yet, after uncovering the whole skeleton, they realized it was a camel. Some camel bones have


been found in Europe before. Most have been dated to Roman times. However, this is the first time that a complete camel skeleton has been discovered in a European country.

Dromedary camel (left) Bactrian camel (right).

The skeleton was in an old cel-lar. The house above it may have fallen, or been knocked, down. This is thought to be the case because the cellar seems to have been used as a rubbish dump. Alongside the camels bones, the archaeologists found broken household pots. They also dug up an old French coin and a medicine bottle. This type of coin was in use between 1643 and 1715. The medicine bottle had the name of a pharmacy on it. This store, or shop, was in Vienna. Its known that it opened in 1628 and closed down about 40 years later.

The coin and medicine bottle help to date the camels bones to 1683. This was the year of the Battle of Vienna. Then, a large Ottoman army tried to capture the Austrian capital. The Ottoman Empire was centerd on modern-day Turkey. This em-pire began around 1300 and lasted for just over 600 years. At its most powerful, it included large areas of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

In 1683 the Ottoman army sur-rounded Vienna. Traditionally, Ot-toman armies used camels. The an-imals can carry heavy loads. Also, if food supplies ran short, camels could be killed and eaten. Two months after Vienna was besieged, a large force of German and Polish

soldiers arrived. The two opposing armies then fought a daylong battle. The Battle of Vienna is famous for the largest cavalry charge in histo-ry. During the battle, 18,000 men on horseback charged at the Otto-man soldiers. The Ottoman army lost the battle and withdrew.

There are two types of camel. One has a single hump. Known as a dromedary, it comes from the Middle East. The other is a Bactrian, which is found in Central Asia. It has two humps. DNA tests on the camels bones show that it was a seven-year-old hybrid. Its father was a Bactrian and its mother a dromedary. Otto-man armies often used crossbred camels. They are larger and can carry heavier weights. These camels are also easier to handle.

The Ottomans never captured Tulln. The archaeologists think that Ottoman soldiers left the camel be-hind or traded it for something else. To the people of Tulln, the camel must have been an unusual sight. They may not have known what to feed it. There are no cut marks on the camels bones. So the animal was not butchered, or cut up and eaten. The archaeologists think that the camel probably died a natural death. It was then buried in the old cellar soon afterwards.

FEDEX AND TNT

On April 7, the FedEx Company an-nounced that it planned to acquire, or buy, TNT Express. Both compa-nies are large international delivery, or shipping, firms. FedEx is based in the U.S. TNT Express headquar-ters is in the Netherlands. Soon after FedExs announcement, TNT Ex-press shareholders, or owners, said that they agreed with the plan.

Organisations and people use companies like FedEx and TNT Ex-press to pick up and transport their consignments. These include: mail, packages, parcels, freight, and car-go. The companies can quickly de-liver these shipments to destinations all around the world.

There are two other large deliv-ery companies that offer similar ser-vices. These are UPS (United Parcel Service) and DHL. UPS is another American company. Three Amer-icans started DHL in the 1960s. (The company was named after the initials of their surnames.) Deutsche Post bought DHL about 15 years ago. Germanys government used to own this organisation. It sold Deut-sche Post to private investors and shareholders in 1995. A government owned business being sold in this way is called a privatisation.

At first, FedEx was called Feder-al Express. Frederick W. Smith set up the company. He is still the com-panys boss. Federal Express began its operations in 1973. Then, con-signments shipped from one city in the U.S. to another took a long time. Sending shipments to other coun-tries took many weeks. Mr. Smith decided to change this. His new company offered to deliver items to larger cities in the U.S. the next day, or overnight.

Federal Express grew very quick-ly. Within ten years the companys annual sales, or revenues, were $1 billion (680 million). In 2000 the company was renamed FedEx. It now has five different divisions. To-day, the company owns 660 cargo planes, and over 100,000 vehicles.


It operates in almost every coun-try and territory in the world. Over 300,000 people work for FedEx. The company delivers about ten billion consignments every business day (Monday to Friday).

The TNT Company began in 1946 in Australia. Ken Thomas founded it. At first, Mr. Thomas only had one truck. He called his company Thom-as Nationwide Transport (TNT). Later, TNT merged, or joined to-gether, with another transport com-pany called Alltrans. The company then started to expand quickly. By the 1980s it had operations in 180 countries. At that time, most of TNTs business was in Europe.

TNT was the first transport company to own its own planes. These were used to deliver parcels overnight to different cities in Eu-rope. Today, TNT Express owns 54 aircraft. In 1996 a Dutch company called KPN acquired TNT. Then, KPN was a large telecoms and post-al company. Soon afterwards, KPN decided to separate its telecoms and postal businesses. TNT Express was sold to investors and shareholders. Its shares are now listed on the Am-sterdam Stock Exchange. TNT Ex-press operates all around the world. It has 58,000 workers and collects about one million shipments every business day.

Buying all the TNT Express shares will cost FedEx 4.4 billion (3.2 billion). Before this happens, TNT Express will have to sell all its planes. Under European Union (EU) rules, or regulations, American companies are not allowed to own a

fleet of aircraft in Europe. The boss-es of both companies believe that their European customers will get a better delivery service. This, they say, is because of the combination of FedExs aircraft and TNT Express European road network.

FEAR OF SPIDERS

Researchers in the U.S. have com-pleted a number of experiments with humans and spiders. They believe that the results show that many peo-ple are born with a fear of spiders.

There are over 43,000 types of spider. They can be found every-where in the world except for Ant-arctica. All spiders have eight legs, but they vary in size. The smallest have a body length of only 0.015 inches (0.37 millimeter). The larg-est, called the Goliath birdeater, can have a leg span of 9.8 inches (25 centimeters). All spiders are able to produce silk. It is from this that they make their webs.

Many people think that spiders are insects. This is incorrect. Insects bodies have three main segments. They have six legs and most insects have wings. Spiders are a type of animal called arachnids. These crea-tures have no wings, eight legs and two main body parts. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae.

Other arachnids include scorpi-ons, mites and ticks. Arachnids are not able to chew. Spiders have no teeth. They cover their food with enzymes. These turn the food into a liquid, which the spiders then suck up. Many living things have en-zymes that help to digest, or break down, food. Normally they work inside the body.

Nearly all spiders are preda-tors. They catch and eat insects or

small animals. Many feed on other spiders. Most are venomous. This means that they have a poisonous bite. Yet only a few spiders produce poison that is strong enough to harm humans. One of the most dangerous species is the black widow spider.

Black widow spider

The word arachnid comes from the Ancient Greek word for spi-der. People who are scared of spiders have arachnophobia. This is a combination of the Greek words for spider and fear. Its thought that about 4% of people have arachnophobia. If these peo-ple see a spider they may have a panic attack. Many people dislike or are scared of spiders. Yet this does not mean that they suffer from arachnophobia.

Over 250 people helped the re-searchers with their experiment. Each was shown images on a com-puter screen. Most were meaning-less shapes. Then, every so often, the researchers added images of things that many people are known to dislike within the shapes. These included flies, needles and spiders. They were difficult to see. The re-searchers timed how long it took people to see these unpleasant things. Spiders were recognized far quicker than any of the others. They were quickly picked out even if the spider image had been deliberately misshaped, or distorted.

Humans first evolved in Africa hundreds of millions of years ago.


Then, there were many poisonous spiders in Africa. A bite from one of these spiders may not have killed these hominoids, or early humans. Yet it would have made them very ill. The researchers believe that those who could quickly spot spi-ders may have had an evolutionary advantage. If so, the ability to see this danger might have become a part of these hominoids DNA.

TAMBORA ANNIVERSARY

On April 10, 1815 a huge volcano in Indonesia, called Mount Tambora, exploded. This was the biggest vol-canic event for at least 10,000 years. Therefore, April 10, this year was the 200th anniversary of the most pow-erful eruption in recorded history.

Mount Tambora is on the Indone-sian island of Sumbawa. The volcano first began to erupt in 1812. Before that it had been quiet, or dormant, for more than 1,000 years. Then, three years after the first of many small eruptions, the whole volcano suddenly blew apart. The sound of the explosion was heard 1,553 miles (2,500 kilometers) away.

Tambora was about 14,110 feet (4,300 meters) high and shaped like a large cone. The eruption blew away the top half of the mountain. Today, there is a large circular de-pression where the volcano used to be. This is known as a caldera. These are formed when the ground sinks or collapses after a large vol-canic eruption. The Tambora calde-ra is roughly 6.5 kilometres (four miles) across and 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometers) deep.

The explosion ejected billions of tons of rock, ash and sulfur gas high into the air. Most of the bigger heavier rocks fell into the

surrounding sea. They triggered, or set off, four-metre (13 foot) high waves or tsunamis. These then struck other Indonesian islands. Huge amounts of volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide were thrown over 25 miles (40 kilometers) into the air. In places 373 miles (600 kilometers) away from Tambora, there was no sunlight for two days.

All the vegetation on the island of Sumbawa was destroyed. Large islands, or rafts, of pumice floated on the surrounding sea. Pumice is a type of light volcanic rock. It is cre-ated when lava and gases erupt from a volcano. As both cool very quick-ly, air is trapped inside the rock. This makes pumice very light, which is why it floats. Six months later, one pumice raft was found near Calcut-ta, in India. People on ships report-ed seeing islands of floating pumice near Indonesia for many years after the eruption.

Mount Tambora caldera (Jialiang Gao)

Within weeks of the eruption, winds high in the atmosphere blew the ash and sulfur dioxide all around the globe. The tiny particles of ash blocked out some of the sunlight. The volcanic haze therefore affect-ed the weather in many countries. Skies that contain a lot of volcanic ash will reflect some of the sunlight. If there is a lot of ash in the air sun-sets look much redder than normal. For many months after the eruption there were very colorful sunsets in Europe. Today, these sunsets can be

seen in the works of several artists who were painting 200 years ago.

The volcanic haze in the atmo-sphere caused average world tem-peratures to drop by roughly 0.7C. This lasted for almost three years. In Europe and parts of North America, 1816 became known as the Year Without a Summer. There was snow and frost in June and July. Rainfall increased. Many crops were ruined and farm animals died. There were famines in Europe and China. The eruption disrupted In-dias annual monsoon rains. This led to food shortages in many parts of Asia. Its estimated that the eruption and tsunamis killed 80,000 people. Another 90,000 are thought to have died of starvation.

A team of scientists have recent-ly written a new volcanic hazard re-port for the United Nations (U.N.). It states that there is a 30% chance of another Tambora-size eruption within the next 100 years. Indone-sia, the report says, is the most like-ly place where this might happen.

UNIVERSITY ATTACK IN KENYA

Hundreds of people took part in a candle-lit vigil in Nairobi on April 6. Many wore black clothes. Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya. The vig-il was held to remember those who had died when one of the countrys universities was attacked.

The attack took place on April 2. Then, several gunmen entered Ga-rissa University College. The town of Garissa is 93 miles (150 kilome-ters) from Kenyas border with So-malia. About 750 students study at the university. Many are training to be teachers. The attack began early in the morning when many students were still asleep or just getting up.


The gunmen shot and killed two unarmed guards at the entrance to the university. They then moved from building to building firing their weapons. About 70% of Ken-yans are Christians. The other 30% mostly follow the Islamic faith. The gunmen spoke to many of the stu-dents. Those who could show that they were Muslims were let go. The Christian students were killed.

Soldiers and armed police then surrounded the university. They be-gan to take control of the university buildings one by one. The students hiding in these places were rescued. Eventually, 15 hours after the attack began, four gunmen were shot dead. Another was captured. At least 150 people were killed in the attack. Eighty were wounded. Most of those killed and injured were students. Several soldiers and police officers were among the dead. Around 580 students were rescued or escaped.

Uhuru Kenyatta president of Kenya

A group called al-Shabaab claimed that it had organized the university attack. Al-Shabaab is a militant Islamic group. Its name means the youth, or the boys. This group is based in Somalia. Its supporters believe that everyone should obey a very strict version of Islamic law.

For many years Somalia was whats known as a failed state. It was a lawless nation with no effective government. Militant groups, such as al-Shabaab, con-

trolled large parts of the country. These included areas next to Soma-lias border with Kenya.

INDIANOCEAN

Four years ago the African Union (AU), with help from the United Na-tions (U.N.), decided to intervene in Somalia. Over 50 African countries are members of the AU. The AU and the U.N. wanted Somalia to elect its leaders. An elected government, they hoped, would solve some of Somalias many problems.

Around 9,000 AU soldiers were sent to Somalia. Many are still there. These soldiers come from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti. By the beginning of 2012, the AU soldiers had forced all the al-Shabaab gunmen to leave Mogadishu, the capital city. Now Somalia has an elected president and a parliament. Yet al-Shabaab has not been defeated. It continues to control areas of southern Somalia near the border with Kenya. Today, there are about 3,500 Kenyan sol-diers in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab is thought to have 8,000 armed supporters. Two years ago a small al-Shabaab group at-tacked a shopping center, in Nai-robi. Nearly 70 people died in this attack. Al-Shabaabs leaders have demanded that Kenya withdraw all its soldiers from Somalia. They say that the group will continue to organize attacks in Kenya until this happens.

After the university attack, Uhu-ru Kenyatta, the president of Ken-ya, spoke on live television. He said that Kenya would retaliate. Mr. Kenyatta also announced an increase in the size of the countrys police force. The next day Kenyan air force planes attacked parts of So-malia where al-Shabaabs bases are thought to be.

Many Kenyans blame the gov-ernment for what happened at the university. They say that, because of previous al-Shabaab attacks, buildings like the university at Garissa should have been proper-ly guarded.

BIRD HUNTING VOTE

A referendum was held in Malta on April 11. This is a vote in which all adults can take part. The refer-endum was to decide if people can or cannot hunt birds in the spring. The population of Malta is about 450,000. Around 340,000 people were eligible to vote.

Turtle dove

After all the votes had been counted, it was announced that those who wanted spring hunting to continue had won. Yet the result was very close. Just under 50.4% voted in favor of hunting and 49.6% voted to ban it. The difference was only 2,220 votes. Those who wanted to stop the spring hunt said that they were disappointed.


This map shows countries to which news stories refer in this issue. Visit www.newsademic.com for more detailed world maps.

ZAMBIA

USA

UK

UAE

TURKEY

SOUTH AFRICA

SOMALIA

RUSSIA

PERU

PANAMANIGERIA

THE

NET

HER

LAN

DS

NAMIBIA

MALTA

KENYA

JAPAN

INDONESIA

FRANCE

ECUADOR

CUBA

CHINA

CHILE

AUSTRIA

AUSTRALIA

ARMENIA

ZIMBABWE

Malta is an archipelago, or group of islands, in the Mediterranean Sea. The three largest islands are inhab-ited. These are called Malta, Gozo and Comino. For over 150 years Malta was controlled by Britain. In 1964 it became an independent country. The island nation is now part of the European Union (EU). It joined in 2004.

Malta is between the Italian island of Sicily and the coast of North Africa. Every year many types of birds migrate from Europe to Africa and back again. Most lay eggs and raise their chicks during the spring and summer months in Europe. Then, before the colder winter weather arrives, they fly south to Africa. In the spring these birds return to Europe. Malta is therefore a useful stop off , or resting place, for these migrat-ing birds.

Many years ago large flocks of birds arrived in Malta every spring and autumn. They stayed for a few days before flying on. Shooting some of the birds became a tradi-tion. The dead birds were cooked and eaten. Most bird hunters in Malta are men. They claim that it is something that their fathers taught them to do.

Common quail

However, in recent years, fewer birds making the journey between Europe and Africa. Their numbers have declined for several reasons.

One is loss of habitat, or the places where they like to live and breed. This means that fewer birds stop off in Malta.

The EU has strict rules about shooting birds. Hunting birds in springtime is banned in all EU coun-tries except Malta. Wildlife experts argue that shooting birds in spring is the worst thing to do. This is because they are killed before they can breed and lay eggs. In the autumn this is not so important. By this time their young would be looking after them-selves. Hunting birds in Malta in au-tumn was not part of the referendum.

When Malta joined the EU, its government asked for permission to keep spring hunting. The EU agreed, but said that only two types of bird could be killed. These are turtle doves and quails. The EU also insisted on strict rules. The spring hunt starts on April 14, and lasts for


16 days. Only an agreed number of birds can be killed. Hunters cannot kill more than two birds per day. They can be fined large amounts of money, or even sent to prison, if they break the rules. Last spring about 4,100 turtle doves and 630 quail were shot.

Many of those who voted to ban spring hunting say that the rules are difficult to enforce. They claim that many hunters ignore them. Joseph Muscat is Maltas prime minister. He voted to keep spring hunting. However, he warned the hunters that in the future they must all obey the rules.

LHC RESTARTS

On April 5, two beams of high-energy particles sped around a circular tunnel. The 27-kilome-tre (16.8 mile) long tunnel is deep under the ground below the Swiss-French border. It is part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is often called the worlds biggest physics experiment or the worlds most powerful atom smasher.

Part of the Hadron collider (CERN)

The LHC is operated by an or-ganisation called CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The April 5, particle test marked the restart of the LHC. Scientists use the LHC to send particles spinning around the long tunnels just under the speed of light. The particles then

smash into each other. Huge detectors in the tunnel record what happens.

Two years ago the LHC helped to prove the existence of the Higgs boson. After this, the LHC was shut down. Over the last 24 months it has been upgraded. This means that par-ticles can now travel at even greater speeds through its tunnels.

The Higgs boson was thought to exist. It was a theoretical particle. (A boson is a type of particle.) A British scientist called Peter Higgs came up with the idea for a particle that explained mass. A particles (or an objects) mass is the amount of matter it contains. Sometimes we confuse mass with weight. Yet an objects weight is really gravity acting upon its mass. An object of the same mass would weigh differ-ent amounts on the Earth and on the Moon. This is because the Moons gravity is weaker.

Nobody really understands ex-actly what mass is or where it comes from. Yet the Higgs boson would help to explain it. If the Higgs boson could be found it should show how fundamental particles get their mass by sticking, or binding, together. For example, by sticking together, particles form stars, planets, human beings or any other objects in the Universe. Scientists thought that something called the Higgs field was responsible for this sticking togeth-er. Without it, particles would fly around the Universe at high speed and not form any objects. Detect-ing the Higgs boson proved that the Higgs field exists.

After the success with the Higgs boson, the scientists want to use the LHC to detect something else. Its called dark matter.

It is known that gravity (or grav-itational forces) holds each galaxy together. For instance, in the Milky

Way, it is the gravity created by the Sun that keeps the Earth (and the other seven planets in the Solar Sys-tem) orbiting around it. However, about 70 years ago, a problem about gravity and the Universe was dis-covered. There are not enough stars, planets, gas, and dust in all the gal-axies to create the amount of gravity needed to hold them together.

Galaxies do not fly apart. Therefore there must be something that makes extra gravity, which holds galaxies in place. Whatever it is, it cannot be seen or easily detect-ed. Scientists call this mystery sub-stance dark matter. They think that as much as 85% of all the matter in the Universe is dark matter. Some describe dark matter as the cosmic web that holds everything together.

Hadron collider collector (CERN)

If particles of dark matter are detected it could change our under-standing of the Universe. However, scientists at CERN say that many years of experiments will be needed before this happens.

BRINGBACKOURGIRLS

Hundreds of young women and girls marched through the center of Abuja, Nigerias capital city, on April 14. The day was an important anniversary. It was exactly one year since 276 girls were forcibly taken from a school in northeastern Nige-ria. Many Nigerians are angry about


what happened. They accuse their government of not doing enough to rescue the girls.

The Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok. This small town is in Borno state, in the northeastern part of Nigeria. Then, the girls were aged between 16 and 18. Not all attended the school in Chibok. Some came from other schools in nearby towns. They had gone to the larger sec-ondary school to take an important physics exam.

In the early hours of the morning armed men broke into the school. The men were supporters of Boko Haram. This is an Islamic mili-tant group. After setting fire to the school, the attackers ordered the girls to get into several large trucks. These were then driven to a nearby forest. Some girls managed to jump from the trucks and escape. Over the next few days and weeks, others managed to get away. Yet 219 are still missing.

The parents of some missing girls started a campaign. They called it Bringbackourgirls. This slogan soon spread around the world. Many people supported it including Michelle Obama, the wife of the American president. However, the Nigerian army seemed unable to find where the girls were being kept. If their commanders knew, they may not have wanted to try to rescue them. This is because it might have put the girls in greater danger.

A few weeks after the girls were taken, the leader of Boko Haram spoke. In the past he has said that he wants to set up an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. Here, everyone would have to follow strict religious laws. Under these rules, girls would become wives when they were young. They would not go to school

or have any type of education. A video of the Boko Haram leader talking about the Chibok girls was posted on the internet. He explained that they had all become Muslims. Each would be married to one of Boko Harams fighters, or gunmen.

Over the last six years Boko Haram has carried out hundreds of attacks in northern Nigeria. These have been on schools, churches, po-lice stations, and government build-ings. Thousands of people have died in these attacks. Boko Haram is believed to have between 7,000 and 10,000 armed supporters. Many Nigerians have criticized the army. This is because it has not been able to defeat Boko Haram.

Several months ago, Boko Ha-ram fighters crossed into Camer-oon, Chad and Niger. There, they attacked villages and towns. Nearly every African country is a member of the African Union (AU). At a recent AU meeting, it was agreed that soldiers from Nigeria, Camer-oon, Chad, and Niger would work together. In recent weeks this joint force has been successfully attack-ing Boko Haram bases.

There was a presidential election in Nigeria at the end of March. Mu-hammadu Buhari won. He will take

over from Goodluck Jonathan at the end of May. Mr. Jonathan has been the countrys president for the last five years. Mr. Buhari is a former army general. He has said that he will do everything he can to find the missing girls and bring them home.

WOOD LIZARDS

Researchers working in Ecuador and Peru have discovered three new species of wood lizard. These small colorful dragon-like lizards are only found in the northern part of South America and Panama.

The new discoveries mean that there are now 15 known species of wood lizard. Ten of them have been found since 2006. Therefore these South American reptiles have one of the fastest discovery rates in the animal kingdom.

Rothschilds woodlizard (Pablo Venegas)

The researchers first saw one of the new lizards ten years ago. They found the 5.1 inch (13-centimeter) long lizard near a village in Ecua-dor called Alto Tambo. At first, the researchers did not think that it was a new type of wood lizard. It looked similar to one that had been found and named over 100 years ago.

However, after taking the spec-imen back to their laboratory, they noticed something different. Its eyes were brown with a golden ring in the center. The known wood lizards


eyes were bright red. Wood lizards are covered in scales. The research-ers also realized that their speci-mens scales were much smoother. They suspected that it was a new species. Yet to make sure, it would be necessary to find several more.

Alto Tambo woodlizard (Pablo Venegas)

Unfortunately, it had become dangerous for outsiders to visit this part of Ecuador. So the research-ers did not return for five years. When they did, they collected some more specimens. The researchers were then able to confirm that it was a new species of wood lizard. All wood lizards have scientific names. Each begins with Enyalioi-des. This is their genus, or group-ing. In taxonomy a genus is above a species but below a family. The researchers named the new creature the Alto Tambo wood lizard after the village where they originally found it. The lizards scientific name is Enyalioides altotambo.

The researchers found the oth-er new species more recently. Last year they were walking in the forest near the border between Peru and Ecuador. They came across a group of wood lizards that looked very dif-ferent. These ones had spiky scales and dark spots all over their bodies. Another type was found with a thin-ner body. It has a white throat and bright green spikes along its back.

Later, DNA tests showed that both lizards were new species. The researchers named them the rough-

scaled wood lizard and the Roth-schilds wood lizard. Their scientif-ic names are Enyalioides anisolepis and Enyalioides sophiarothschil-dae. The Rothschilds wood lizard was named after the person who helped the researchers with funds, or money.

After identifying three new spe-cies, the researchers suspect that there are many more. These, they say, are now waiting to be discov-ered in the forests of southern Ecua-dor and northern Peru.

EINSTEIN RING

Scientists working at the ALMA telescope have recently produced an image of a far away galaxy. The image does not look like a normal distant galaxy. Instead, it appears as an almost complete circle of light. This is known as an Einstein ring. These light circles are formed by a phenomenon called gravitation-al lensing.

ALMA is a radio telescope. It became fully operational two years ago. Radio telescopes have to be much bigger than optical ones (or those that we use to look at the night skies). This is because the wave-lengths of visible light are much smaller than the wavelengths of radio waves. Unlike an optical tele-scope a radio telescope has a large antenna, or dish. The bigger the radio telescopes dish the farther into space it can see. Radio tele-scopes with a number of dishes, which are connected to each other, are called an array.

ALMA stands for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The array has been built on a plateau. It is about 16,570 feet (5,050 meters) above sea level, in

Chiles Atacama Desert. This is one of the worlds driest places. Almost every night is clear of clouds and it hardly ever rains. There is very little moisture in the air, which can affect the light. So this part of Chile is one of the best places in the world to study the planets and stars.

The array is so high up that sci-entists working there have to have an extra supply of oxygen. The base station, from where the telescope is controlled, is 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) lower down. It is one of the highest buildings in the world.

The powerful radio telescope is a joint project between Chile and countries from North Amer-ica, Europe and Asia. Planning and building ALMA took more than ten years. It cost $1.3 billion (860 million). ALMA has an array of 66 dishes, or antennas. Each is about 40 feet (12 meters) across. Huge remote controlled transporter vehicles move each of the dishes around. On the desert plateau they can be as far apart as ten miles (16 kilometers).

Einstein ring or gravitational lensing (ALMA)

The circle of light is a galaxy called SDP.81. It was first record-ed by a space telescope five years ago. The galaxy is about 12 billion


light years from the Earth. However, when viewed from the Earth another galaxy is directly in front of it. This one is much closer to the Earth. So the Earth and the two galaxies line up, or align.

Albert Einstein (1879 1955) was a German-born scientist. He is often described as the father of modern physics. Einsteins famous general theory of relativity changed the way in which scientists thought about gravity, space, light, and time. It says that mass can warp, or bend, space, time and even light. (In later years this was shown to be true.)

ALMA array, in Chile ALMA)

As Einstein predicted, when seen from the Earth, the mass of the nearer galaxy bends the light of the farthest one. So instead of seeing the distant galaxy as a white light, it appears around the nearer galaxy as a circle. This is why these circles are known as Einstein rings. As well as chang-ing its shape, gravitational lensing magnifies the image of the faraway galaxy. This is like giving a telescope a boost. Using the ALMA telescope, scientists can now study SDP.81. Without the gravitational lensing, it would be very difficult to see.

THE GREAT DYING

A team of researchers has been studying some rocks in the Unit-ed Arab Emirates (UAE). These rocks were on the seabed about 252

million years ago. The rocks, the scientists say, show that the sea had become very acidic at that time. The researchers work may help to ex-plain what caused the worlds worst mass extinction.

During the worlds long history there have been at least five mass extinctions, or extinction events. Perhaps the best known is the extinc-tion of the dinosaurs. This happened about 66 million years ago. This may have been caused by a large asteroid or comet hitting the Earth. Another possibility is an enormous volcanic eruption in what we now call India. This eruption lasted for over 500,000 years.

The worst extinction event hap-pened before the age of the dino-saurs. Known as the Permian-Tri-assic mass extinction, it happened 252 million years ago. This event marked the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic geo-logical periods. Then, the world looked very different to what it does today. All the continents were joined together in one large landmass. Sci-entists call this land area Pangaea. Panthalassa was the super ocean that surrounded it.

Trilobite fossil

The Permian-Triassic mass ex-tinction is also known as the Great Dying. Around 96% of all life in the sea and about 70% of life on the land died out. Even the in-sects disappeared. This is the only

extinction event that affected in-sects. The tropics, or large areas on each side of the Equator, were the worst affected. One marine crea-ture that did not survive the Perm-ian-Triassic extinction was the tri-lobite. These creatures were one of the worlds most successful. Before the mass extinction, they had been living in the oceans for 270 million years. Today, the organism that is most like the trilobite is the horse-shoe crab.

Pangaea showing where todays continents were at the time of the Great Dying

The researchers work in the UAE seems to confirm that the seas became very acidic. Very high levels of carbon dioxide (CO

2) in

the air would have caused this to happen. This extra CO

2 could have

come from a very large volcanic eruption. Around the time of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction there was a huge eruption in whats now Russia. It happened at a place called the Siberian Traps. Traps is the Swedish word for stairs. It is used to describe hills that have a step-like formation.

The Siberian Traps are in north-ern Russia. They cover an area of about 772 thousand square miles (two million square kilometers). Its


known that the step-like hills were formed by a huge volcanic eruption. This eruption is believed to have been the largest in the Earths histo-ry. It probably lasted for many thou-sands of years.

The huge amount of CO2 in the

atmosphere would have made the seas more acidic and the land and air much warmer. Apart from places near the North and South Poles, it became too hot for almost anything to survive.

After mass extinction events there is what is sometimes described as a dead zone. This is the time it takes for certain species to reappear. The dead zones following most mass extinctions lasted for tens of thousands of years. However, the Permian-Triassic event was differ-ent. Its dead zone seemed to contin-ue for at least five million years.

EDUCATION FOR ALL

UNESCO is part of the United Nations (U.N.). Its name stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-tion. UNESCOs headquarters are in Paris, the capital of France. The organisation takes responsibility for the U.N.s education ideas, policies and targets.

Fifteen years ago UNESCO or-ganized a large education meeting. It was held in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Over 1,000 officials from 164 countries took part. A move-ment, or campaign, was set up called Education for All (EFA). Six goals, or worldwide targets, were agreed. These were to be reached by 2015. Some of the goals were to provide free and compulsory prima-ry education for all, and to increase adult literacy by 50%. This means

reducing the number of adults who are unable to read and write.

On April 9, UNESCO released its EFA report. It covers the 15 years since the six goals were agreed. The report lists the successes and fail-ures. It says that 50 million more children are now going to school. Countries that have greatly im-proved childrens education include Afghanistan, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Tanzania, and India. In Nepal, all children now have a pri-mary education. This also means that many more girls are now at-tending school in this country.

Afghanistan has done well. The country has had many problems over the last 15 years. Yet the number of girls going to junior school has increased from 4% to nearly 90%. India is another country where near-ly all younger children now attend school. It is also the only country in Asia where the number of boys and girls in senior school is equal.

Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and several European countries man-aged to reach all their education goals. The report says that about half of the 164 countries now ed-ucate all their younger children.

Today, 58 million children in the world do not go to school. Around 100 million fail to complete their primary education. Countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen, Niger, Chad, and Ethiopia did the worst. All are a long way from meeting the targets for young children.

The plan 15 years ago was to halve the number of adults who were illiterate. This has not hap-pened. In 2000 about 18% of adults all around the world were unable to read and write. This figure is now 14%. There are 781 million illiterate adults. Two-thirds are women.

The report states that at least four million more teachers are needed. There are too few teachers in many countries. The countries with the greatest need for extra teachers are in Africa.

UNESCO has organized another large education meeting. This is to be held in Inchon, a city in South Korea, in May. At this meeting new goals and targets will be set for the next 15 years. The report says that countries and donor organisations will need to find an additional $22 billion (15 billion) if all these new goals are to be met.

Newsademic.com

Editor: Rebecca Watson

American Editor: Chris Tarn

Acknowledgements:

News story photographs by gettyimages

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Newsademic 2015


ISSUE 247 GLOSSARY PUZZLE

INSTRUCTIONS: Complete the crossword. The answers are highlighted in orange in the news stories. There are 25 words highlighted and you need 20 of them to complete the crossword. Once you have solved the crossword go to the word search on the next page

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ACROSS 2 Noun An area of high ground with a fairly level

surface 7 Noun Two or more things joining or mixing together, or

happening at the same time 8 Verb Cover completely, or swallow up 9 Verb To intentionally become involved in a difficult situa-

tion to stop it from getting worse 13 Noun Plural Places to which people are going 15 Noun Plural Substances produced by living creatures that

cause a biochemical reaction 16 Adjective Describes something that must be done;

theres no choice 17 Verb Kidnapped or taken away illegally 18 Verb Surrounded by military forces for a long time 19 Noun A framework made to a design of strips of wood

or metal

DOWN 1 Adjective Unable to support life 3 Noun Plural People who designs buildings 4 Noun Guarding a place or period of prayer, especially

at night 5 Noun An unusual or remarkable event or occurrence 6 Verb Delayed or stopped something from happening 8 Noun The act of deliberately preventing, or stopping,

someone from entering a place 10 Noun A shop, or store, that sells medicines and health

care items 11 Verb React to someones action to harm or upset you by

doing something to hurt them back 12 Noun Plural Outlines of natural features such hills or

valleys 14 Noun Science of classification of living organisms

according to their similarities


ISSUE 247GLOSSARY PUZZLE CONTINUED

INSTRUCTIONS: Find 19 of the 20 crossword answers in the word search. Words can go vertically, horizontally, diagonally and back to front. After finding the 19 words write down the 20th (or missing) word under the puzzle.

S N O I T A N I T S E D J O T R H N

T R Y K A W A Q E M K G K L Z J D O

C E U H V A O M T M T O U V B C Z N

E Z J O G E Y W U A E T A L P M M E

T W H O T Z X U E R U Q H I P H L M

I X T I N N R D E D W L N P E E F O

H L P E Y E O T T B H K T N X N A N

C G S N O X A C V V N S G C Q E K E

R B U N C L U Y P O D U L O Z V Y H

A A W W I C U E I I L U A V N R C P

C R G A P Y J T S F S H T D Z E A S

G R T D O E A R S I D F T E Y T M U

T E O Y L N U G O Q F B I G B N R Q

W N A I I P L N H R V S C I D I A X

R A G B T D T T C R X M E E S B H D

R I M E T E G R O D D F S S J L P N

V O D E T C U D B A N Q B E O E G X

C O M P U L S O R Y H A I B H P O Z

MISSING WORD ANSWER =

ISSUE 246 A

NSW

ERS

N O I T A T I N A S D E G B U F Q D

O O S Y E L U S I V E C J E G E A E

I D I Q L V Z C Y B Q N D V T K R T

T I K T B K P O R T R A Y E D F O A

A S B L A G D G E X A T H R I K T L

S T F W D N D C O I O S H A U S U U

N R F O R O I X O J Y I E G L E C M

E E R Z O V I T P M D S E E S X E U

D S U X F J J A S I P E H T P P S C

N S A U F G R H S E B R A D A Y O C

O S U R A T X T D U D T O T Z Z R A

C A N R I R U V A G E W H M V R P O

L O E A V R K S F S U O I C I L E D

L S L I B E P R O H L T T K L S L Z

Z L J A Y G Y Y F K C O O G K Q E A

P S N B N C A O R J Q M G R U C V N

M C M F J C A Y R I O B J A G Q V S

E L B A N I A T S U S I S K N P J O

If you wish to earn additional Demics please email the missing word answer to: [email protected] entries need to be submitted by 10 pm on April 22, 2015 (GMT/UTC).*

L A N D M A R K S

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C U M U L A T E D

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U R V E Y O R D M

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O R T R A Y E D9

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U S T A I N A B L E L T

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L U S I V E

Newsademic Issue 247 A

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