Is The Great Wall of China Visible from Space?
The idea that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space has been around since at least 1938 and is still popular today. It certainly seems plausible that such a large, linear structure would stand out from the surrounding landscape, but it’s actually not true.
Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, said in 1969
“The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white, some blue and patches of yellow, and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible at this scale.”
But if you can’t see the Wall from the moon, how about somewhere closer to Earth? The International Space Station (ISS) maintains a low earth orbit of between 330-435 km above our planet’s surface.
CURIOUS CREATURES 3 – The Naked Mole Rat
The strangest creatures are, to me,
The ones I love the best.
The slimy, ugly and the odd
Are cooler than the rest…
When I began this Curious Creatures series for Jump! Mag, I made a list of animals and insects I wanted to cover. I began with the ones I had some sort of connection with and most were animals close to home that I’d seen or heard, which intrigued and inspired me.
But rather impatiently, I’m now going to go a bit further afield and invite you to join me in the strange and extra-extraordinary world of “Curiouser and Curiouser”*Creature number 3…
How Much Sleep Do Kids Need?
Julianne Robertson investigates the world of snoozes, forty winks, cat naps and snoring. What is SLEEP, why do we need it, and how much sleep do kids need?
A couple of nights ago I was feeling really, really tired, so I went to bed early. I slept soundly, without even dreaming, until about 5am, when I woke up. It felt like I’d only been sleeping for about 5 minutes! After that, I fell back to sleep but had lots of vivid dreams and when I woke up a couple of hours later, it felt like I’d been asleep for a long time. After all that I still felt well-rested and was ready for the day.
All this made me wonder – what IS sleep? Why is it that some nights we feel like we’ve had a really good nights’ sleep, while other nights we still feel tired when we wake up in the morning? Here’s what I’ve discovered about sleep…




