2:00

must be different to our lives. And

2:03

I've got your questions to answer this week.

2:06

They are on dishwasher tablets and

2:08

the different types of

2:10

stones. We're covering everything this

2:12

week in a brand new Funky Science Weekly.

2:19

Let's kick things off with your science in the news.

2:22

The US space agency NASA has said

2:24

astronauts won't get to walk on the

2:26

moon again until September 2026 at the

2:28

earliest. Now

2:31

they did want to get astronauts back on the moon next year

2:33

for the first time since 1972, but

2:35

they've had to push it back a little while. NASA

2:38

says the delay to what's known

2:40

as its Artemis 3 mission will

2:42

help it build more technology. Importantly,

2:44

NASA don't have a craft to

2:46

put astronauts on the moon or

2:49

any spacesuits for them to wear yet. And

2:52

that's quite important, don't you think? You can't

2:54

just fire astronauts in the moon without a

2:56

rocket and give them nothing to wear. So

2:58

maybe taking a bit more time to develop

3:01

that tech is a brilliant idea. Also,

3:03

Norway has become the first country

3:06

in the world to move forward

3:08

with the practice of commercial scale

3:10

deep sea mining. Now this is

3:13

controversial. The plans

3:15

will mean that experts

3:17

and scientists and companies, really companies,

3:19

can hunt for precious metals, which

3:22

are in high demand for green tech.

3:24

Now they'll do it on a massive

3:27

scale, digging way down deep under the

3:29

ocean. Environmental scientists have

3:31

warned that it could be devastating for

3:33

marine life, almost destroying

3:35

many creatures home that live

3:37

down there in the seabed,

3:40

and doing that to find

3:42

metals and minerals that are needed so to

3:44

make money. So there's a lot going on.

3:47

The Norwegian government has said it is being

3:49

careful and cautious and would only let these

3:51

things happen after further

3:53

environmental studies were carried out.

3:55

Now I understand the need

3:58

for new metals,

4:01

precious minerals that we can't really

4:03

find many other places for green

4:05

tech. But if it means

4:07

destroying the seabed and destroying the ecosystem

4:09

down there, is it worth it? But

4:11

perhaps it is worth it because without

4:13

the metals we find, we can't use

4:16

green tech which can help save the

4:18

world going forwards. Lots of

4:20

pros, lots of cons, a real ethical quandary

4:22

this one. And also

4:25

the Nigerian government has destroyed £7 million

4:28

worth of confiscated elephant tusks that

4:30

have been smuggled from different African

4:32

countries. The Environment Minister, Isaac Salakos

4:35

said that he wanted to send

4:37

a clear message that the illegal

4:39

wildlife trade would not be tolerated.

4:42

Experts say tens of thousands of

4:44

elephants are killed over the world

4:47

every year for their tusks. It's

4:49

despite a ban on the International

4:51

Trade Advisory which has gone on for years

4:53

and years and years. You see

4:55

many different cultures around the world want

4:58

to use ivory for their

5:00

properties that they believe that they hold.

5:03

Ivory is found in elephant tusks, it's one of the

5:05

only places that you can find it so loads of

5:07

elephants every year are killed for the tusks but they're

5:09

trying to put a real stop to this. So

5:11

the government has taken a lot of

5:14

these tusks and simply destroyed them so

5:16

they can't be used. Which seems like

5:18

a good hard hitting plan

5:21

in the short term but many

5:23

long term plans towards banning ivory

5:25

trade haven't worked in the past so we'll

5:27

have to wait and see. Let's

5:33

check in with Benny and Mal there, these are

5:35

our microbe friends. They take

5:37

a look deep down inside you to find out

5:39

what's going on in your gut, that's what microbes

5:41

do. And also they've

5:43

been looking at ethical dilemmas, that's big

5:46

questions that we need to ask. When

5:48

we think about scientific solutions

5:50

that we might have. This

5:53

week Benny and Mal are looking at what it

5:55

would be like to have x-ray vision. It might

5:57

help doctors, it might help us find things we've

5:59

lost. new

8:00

bonus episode stuffed full

8:02

of your questions. Every

8:04

month I bring you on Fun

8:07

Kids Podcast Plus two bonus episodes, one

8:09

an extra long chat with a special

8:11

guest that we've had and also one

8:13

filled with your questions. If you want

8:15

to get those, get to

8:17

funkidslive.com and you can also find

8:19

out more over on Apple Podcasts

8:21

about Fun Kids Podcast Plus. Around

8:24

here every week I will still bring you a

8:26

couple of questions to answer. You can send them

8:28

to me as a voice note on the free

8:31

Fun Kids app or at funkidslive.com like

8:33

this one from Ella. Which chemical

8:36

makes dishwasher tablets poisonous and

8:38

why are they poisonous? Well Ella

8:40

it's not just one chemical that makes

8:42

dishwasher tablets poisonous. Dishwasher

8:45

tablets are made of a combination of lots of different

8:47

chemicals and loads of them are poisonous. Things

8:49

like sodium hydroxide and chlorine.

8:52

These things can be very harmful to you

8:54

because of how they poison you. But

8:57

how do they poison you? That's a question

8:59

you ask Ella. Well the chemicals interfere

9:01

with a lot of what your

9:03

body does. It can interfere

9:05

with your blood's ability to carry oxygen. The

9:08

chemicals react in a strange way that stops your

9:10

blood doing that properly and without oxygen well your

9:12

muscles and organs can't do their job. Also

9:15

chemicals like bleach and chlorine that you

9:17

find in dishwasher tablets get to work

9:19

on your digestive system. You see they're

9:21

powerful, they are strong and they

9:23

can burn right through your stomach and through your organs.

9:26

So the chemicals they're made of is so powerful

9:28

that it simply destroys the cells. So

9:31

that is why dishwasher tablets are poisonous

9:33

to you and why you need to

9:35

be very careful with them without grown

9:37

up supervision Ella. Thank you so much

9:39

for the question. Let's

9:41

get on one from Ralph. Nine years old Ralph

9:43

thank you for this. You want to know why

9:45

are there different types of stones? Well

9:47

Ralph there are three types of stones. Sedimentary,

9:51

metamorphic and igneous.

9:54

And they're all different because of how they've been made. How

9:56

they've been formed over time. Sedimentary

9:59

rocks come from... glaciers, rivers, oceans, plants.

10:01

They are buried over millions

10:03

of years and the pressure

10:05

and the heat around them

10:08

squashes them. It bonds

10:11

all of those different things, all of the plants,

10:14

all of the glacier stuff, it bonds them

10:16

into rocks. Metamorphic rock

10:18

is made of one type

10:20

of stone that changes to

10:22

another. This is done because of

10:24

extreme heat nearby and that pressure again,

10:26

a massive force maybe from above that

10:28

squeezes it, that squashes it, it might

10:30

change the color or the texture and

10:32

it shifts its type. Also you've got

10:35

igneous rock. Now igneous comes from the

10:37

Latin word for fire. You might recognize

10:39

that like in a lot of books

10:41

people are called like igneous or ignatus

10:43

because they're a fiery character, well that's

10:45

where it comes from. And

10:47

igneous rock is made from baking

10:49

normally molten rock, boiling rock under

10:51

the ground sometimes from volcanoes

10:54

where it's been left over for years and years and years

10:56

after it's erupted. Under the ground it

10:58

gets squashed, it's so hot that it crystallizes

11:00

and solidifies into igneous rock. So that's

11:02

how we get different types of rock and stones Ralph,

11:05

thank you so much for the question. If you have

11:07

anything you want answered next week on the podcast please

11:09

do make sure you leave it as a voice note,

11:11

it's so easy for you to do. Just get

11:14

out your phone or your tablet or your

11:16

mum or dad's whatever it is and just

11:18

click on the free fun kids app and

11:20

leave a voice note for me there, it

11:22

will come right through to the Science Weekly

11:24

Data Hub where I will do all the

11:26

digging for your answer. Be

11:54

mega this month, get mega

11:56

magazine now! It's

12:04

the Fun Kids Science Weekly. Now as it's

12:06

a new year, I was thinking about ways

12:08

to get healthy and how

12:10

about different ways, more creative and technological

12:12

ways to get healthy in 2024. We

12:15

can find out with Dr. David

12:17

Cox who has been researching

12:20

really interesting ways that we

12:22

might exercise in 2024, David.

12:24

This is with medicine and

12:27

it's about really novel approaches.

12:30

What got you thinking about

12:32

this as something to study and look

12:35

into? What I actually, I heard about

12:37

like scientists are really interested

12:39

in what actually makes exercise beneficial

12:41

for us. You know, we've learned a

12:43

lot about exercises great for your mind,

12:45

improves your mood, you know, and there's

12:48

been a lot of people just over

12:50

the last 10 years done so much

12:52

work and like trying to understand what

12:54

actually it is like within exercise which

12:56

kind of is that sort of secret

12:58

to making it so healthy for us.

13:01

So what do we know about

13:04

how exercise makes us feel? We know

13:06

it's very good for us, that it

13:08

kind of keeps our heart pumping, it

13:10

keeps our lungs breathing and it's all

13:12

very good for keeping us in a

13:14

healthy shape as well. But does it

13:16

do more than that? Yeah, there's so

13:18

much. Exercise is actually quite remarkable in

13:20

just a number of different things it

13:22

does to the body. So it boosts

13:24

a hormone in your brain called serotonin

13:27

which is kind of known as like

13:29

the mood boosting hormone. It

13:31

strengthens your bones, it helps you kind of

13:33

like to grow faster. It like

13:35

so obviously likes to kind of be

13:37

like your muscles as well and it

13:39

also helps you sleep better. So there's

13:41

just many, many different things like so

13:43

which exercise does and like researchers

13:46

are really interested in that. One of the

13:48

ideas is if you can find out what

13:50

exercise is doing, could you perhaps like to

13:52

make that into like the next kind of

13:54

generation of mental health treatments and

13:57

all kinds of things. So that's why there's

13:59

been so much hope. focus in this area.

14:01

And what have they come up

14:03

with so far? A way to have

14:05

a healthy mood booster, maybe in

14:07

the form of medicine or other

14:10

things that you can do, which

14:12

gives us the benefits of perhaps running

14:14

10 kilometres. That means we don't actually have to

14:16

put our trainers on. Yeah,

14:18

I mean, there's been one really fascinating

14:21

recent breakthrough in this, particularly in the

14:23

last year. So there's a particular hormone

14:25

called irisin, which is released by your

14:27

muscles when you exercise. And

14:29

this chemical plays like a big role in

14:31

that. So kind of keeping your brain's life

14:33

of kind of healthy. And so

14:35

there's lots of lots of kind of work

14:38

going on now into like, so can you

14:40

make irisin into life of an exercise medicine?

14:42

So basically by injecting irisin, like so into

14:45

the body in the same way, almost like

14:47

we've been seeing with the weight loss drugs

14:49

in the like the last two years, could

14:51

that be basically, you know, a new mental

14:54

health treatment, or, you know, just a

14:56

kind of a broadly beneficial kind of

14:58

exercise drugs so that you can get

15:00

some of the benefits of exercise without

15:02

having to run 10k or a marathon.

15:04

And there's just research groups around the

15:06

world who are now trying to pursue

15:09

that idea. And it's important to point

15:11

out that this is for perhaps

15:13

those of us who aren't able to do

15:15

regular exercise, right? It's not meant to be

15:17

something that will make us feel happy and

15:19

make us feel healthy while we're sitting on

15:21

the sofa all day just watching films, right?

15:23

This is meant to be for people who

15:25

aren't able to get outside as

15:28

much as they would like. Of

15:30

course, of course, yeah, no, definitely. I

15:32

mean, so this is aimed, you know,

15:34

initially people who are in wheelchairs, people

15:37

who have some kind of like disability.

15:39

And obviously at the moment, those people

15:41

are like a massive disadvantage because They

15:44

can't like to exercise, their bodies are

15:46

enabled like to do that. And So

15:48

one of the ideas behind this is

15:50

Can this like support them like to,

15:52

you know, make them healthier? Obviously, like,

15:55

you know, experts will prefer that the

15:57

rest of us who can, you know,

15:59

like to go out and run or

16:01

place the ball. I should do do

16:03

that because exercise a so many different

16:05

effects on the body is probably impossible

16:08

to get like one single Drago Madison

16:10

which would likes of you know we

16:12

capture late all of a slight different

16:14

beneficial things which exercise does. But for

16:16

these people who can't exercise past the

16:18

whole idea, can we come up with

16:21

maybe one or lots of a whole

16:23

set of lots of different medicines based

16:25

on exercise which can keepers people's healthy

16:27

as possible? How close does it seem

16:29

like. This might happen that we might

16:32

all be able sip of a spoonful

16:34

and and that hobbled the benefits of

16:36

exercise. I mean, I think it's close

16:38

to them he expects to people. First

16:40

started working on this about twenty years

16:43

ago when he almost seemed a little

16:45

bit more like science fiction and reality

16:47

that now there's dozens of research groups

16:49

all kind of pursuing the same. Go

16:51

some of the you taste biggest charities

16:53

welcome of Lox! Enough funded a project

16:56

on this so as a lot of

16:58

interest on I really do think. That

17:00

maybe within the next to for years

17:02

we will probably see like the first

17:05

clinical trial of one of these exercise

17:07

medicines and humans have any fat succeeds

17:09

in or by twenty thirty we can

17:11

expect lots of possibly lots of have

17:13

one of these things available. I mean

17:16

is not going to be a the

17:18

nightspots is happening much faster than people

17:20

expect. Was the ethical worries with something

17:22

like this David that we met the

17:25

it is. For. Those

17:27

of us who can't exercise regularly

17:29

that perhaps are in a wheelchair

17:31

all the ethical worried that. Maybe.

17:33

This will get broader and and we've all got

17:36

the chance to really reap the benefits of exercise

17:38

without their benefits. Yeah I mean I do think

17:40

that's a very important question on my I think

17:42

it's very similar to what we're seeing with the

17:44

obesity drugs at the moment. You know best to

17:47

worry that people will simply be lot like it.

17:49

You know I can just eat lots of whatever

17:51

I like and then if I put on weight

17:53

I can get whether the was them back and

17:55

lose that weight again and of a see that

17:57

will be lots of one of the concerns. People

18:00

think oh okay, you know I don't

18:02

need to to run, don't need to

18:04

go to the gym. I can just

18:07

get an exercise drug and stay totally

18:09

healthy both. That's probably not the case

18:11

so often, but gonna have to be

18:13

lots of quite tightly regulated is a

18:15

d become like to be available but

18:18

some class not always easy. So yeah,

18:21

A point. So again, doesn't it the?

18:24

Or hub really of the human body

18:26

and are brilliant. Evolution is it. Would

18:28

you think the exercise is something that's

18:30

really good for us? Really good for

18:33

a body. really good for helping us

18:35

survives, helping us get out and pass

18:37

our genes on, and also. It

18:39

makes us feel really happy when we

18:41

get about it. David oh definitely. I

18:44

mean it really shows just for all

18:46

kind of team and creativity nothing can

18:48

coin much. been a while our body

18:50

does and what than that for wildlife?

18:52

Second day in or is a really

18:54

is kind of quite remarkable of us.

18:56

you know in twenty twenty four was

18:58

still. You notice that the tipping point

19:00

really exploring likes to full range of

19:02

mechanisms like the body has come up

19:04

with keeping us healthy. You know it's

19:06

even with all our sort of ingenuity

19:08

he knows to com final. One drug

19:10

which does everything which exercise does

19:12

died he survives adults David Koch

19:14

said a brilliant so great to

19:16

chat see Brilliant thanked them. For

19:22

this week, I understand where we look

19:24

at some of those weird, strange and

19:26

unique things across the universe. We are

19:28

headed way out across galaxy to an

19:31

ex a panda in the constellation of

19:33

Leo thirty three light years away from

19:35

us. To check out, Gleeson authorize the.

19:38

Glazer. is like it's a gas

19:40

choice and very close to it's parent

19:42

star now because of how close is

19:45

is he's very hot it's boiling the

19:47

temperature is estimated to be about born

19:49

and forty degrees and that makes the

19:52

atmosphere be very strange thing i just

19:54

for reference where i live is them

19:56

or zero a

20:00

massive difference. The oddest thing about Gliese is

20:02

that even though it's so hot there's a

20:05

lot of ice in the atmosphere. Like weird,

20:07

ice is normally only for cold places. Experts

20:10

think that because of the huge pressure on

20:12

the ice, because of the massive gravity, it

20:14

squashes the water and the ice

20:17

together. Scientists call it burning ice

20:19

because it's ice, but it's

20:21

hot and it's red hot and

20:23

it's boiling. You see, burning

20:26

ice, that makes it dangerous. Also, because it's

20:28

so close to the nearest star, the

20:30

gas and the matter on it are pushed in forward

20:32

in strange directions. This way and

20:35

that way and then this way again. That

20:37

means that the way it orbits the star

20:39

chops and changes over time. It is unpredictable.

20:42

So because of its strange tidal

20:44

forces, its weird orbit, because of

20:46

this burning ice in

20:49

the atmosphere, it means Gliese 4, 3,

20:53

6, B. Catchy name, go straight on to our

20:55

dangerous down list. Now,

20:59

do you have glasses? Do you know

21:01

someone who wears glasses? Maybe

21:03

you try them on and you

21:05

can't see properly. Like everything gets

21:07

blurry, everything's massive or really far

21:09

away. And you're wondering,

21:11

how can tiny, flimsy

21:13

bit of glass change

21:16

the way that you see so much

21:18

if you wear them? You're wondering how

21:20

can it help you so much? How

21:23

can it really improve your vision? We

21:26

can find out with Technomum. She is

21:28

our technological genius, a gadget guru. She's

21:30

here on the show. Let's find out

21:32

with Technomum how glasses and contact lenses

21:35

work. Technomum

21:37

Fast Files. If

21:40

you wear glasses or contact lenses, you'll know

21:42

they help you to see more clearly. But

21:45

how exactly do they do it? There's a lens

21:47

at the front of your eye which bends the

21:49

light from all the things we're looking at and

21:51

directs it inside your eye. If

21:54

your eyes are working as they should, that light

21:56

is directed onto the retina. That's a spot at

21:58

the back of your eye. From

22:00

the retina, the image goes to your brain. The

22:02

trouble for quite a lot of people is

22:04

that those bent images don't end up exactly

22:06

on the retina. They may be

22:09

a little or a long way off, and that's

22:11

why things can look blurry. Glasses

22:13

and contact lenses help your eyes out by bending

22:15

the light to the correct amount. Like

22:18

all great technology solutions, it's a very

22:20

simple idea, but one that makes a

22:22

massive difference to our lives. With

22:24

lots of people in your family wear

22:26

glasses, can you tell from looking whose

22:28

eyesight needs the most help? Techland,

22:31

with the institution of engineering

22:33

and technology, advancing and sharing

22:35

knowledge. You

22:54

get loads of our bonus episodes of your favourite shows.

22:56

Over 30 Fun Kids

22:58

podcasts completely ad-free too.

23:01

To find out more, get to funkidslive.com or

23:03

have a look on our page on Apple

23:05

Pup Test. Apple is one of the best views

23:07

that you can hear. A lot of brilliant shows that we

23:10

do. You've heard a few today. We've got tons more

23:12

you can get them on the free Fun Kids app and

23:14

at funkidslive.com too. And Fun Kids, we are a children's

23:16

radio station from the UK. Listen all

23:18

over the country. On the free

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smart speaker and ask you to play Fun Kids.

23:54

Be mega this month. Get

23:56

mega magazine now. Thank

24:00

you.