Volume 4, Issue 1 >> Thursday, 14 April 2016 >> Subscribewww.childfriendlynews.com >> Email childfriendlynews@gmail.com

ASTRONOMY: THE SCIENCE IN OUR STARS

PG 4-5

THE TIGER ROARS BACKTigers have made a little comeback with the total number of

tigers in the world increasing for the first time in 100 years. Anew tiger count has shown that 3890 tigers roam the wild,

which is much higher than the 3200 tigers counted in 2010. The newdata was published in a report prepared by the World Wide Fund forNature (WWF) and Global Tiger Forum (GTF), an organization thatworks for the protection of the tiger. "For the first time after decades of constant decline, tiger numbers areon the rise. This offers usgreat hope and showsthat we can save speciesand their habitats whengovernments, local com-munities and conserva-tionists work together,"said Marco Lambertini,director general of WWFInternational. Where are thesetigers?More than half of theworld’s tigers are foundin India where 2226 outof the 3890 werecounted. After India,comes Russia (433tigers), Indonesia (371),Malaysia (250) and Nepal(198). What is killing tigers?These numbers are tinycompared by the 100,000 tigers that roamed Asia one hundred yearsago. Hunting and loss of jungle areas killed many tigers. After huntingwas banned (not allowed), poaching became a serious problem. Poach-ers are people who kill tigers illegally (without permission)-they killthem for their body parts that are used in Chinese medicine.

More than 1500 tigers have been killed by poachers between 2010 and2014, according to data collected by TRAFFIC, a group that studies illegalwildlife trade. Therefore, in spite of the increase in numbers, tigers re-main an endangered species.Closer to 4000?The number of tigers worldwide may be higher than 3890 and closerto 4000 as Myanmar has yet to announce its numbers. The countryhad 80 tigers in 2010.

What is behind the increase?Greater understanding of the danger to tigers and action againstpoachers may have helped tiger numbers increase. However, it isalso possible that the use of improved technology to count tigershas helped field workers estimate (count) the number of tigersbetter.

TIGER POPULATIONSIndia 2226

433Russia

IndonesiaMalaysia

Nepal

ThailandBangladesh

BhutanChina

VietnamLaos

Source: Global Wild Tiger Status - April 2016

371250198

1891061037

52

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2 FeaturesCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com ‘

The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, themore you want to avoid people.

—Dian Fossey

‘

The world’s largest great ape, the Grauer’sGorilla faces extinction as large numbersof the mammal have been wiped out inAfrica’s Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC). This is the only place in the worldwhere this gorilla is found. A new report published by the WildlifeConservation Society (WCS) and Flora andFauna International shows that the pop-ulation of this gorilla in DRC’s jungles hasdropped from 17,000 in 1995 to 3800 today.That is a huge 77% drop.

Why are the gorillas being wiped out?Gorilla numbers have fallen as they arebeing hunted for meat and also due to lossof their habitat (the natural spaces withinwhich they grow and give birth to young).Hunting has increased as more people areentering DRC’s forests to mine for coltan (a mineral that is used tomake cellphones and other electronics). These miners live in the middleof the jungle and kill the gorillas for their meat. War in neighbouring Rwanda and in DRC itself over the last 20 yearshas resulted in many more people entering DRC. This has resulted ingreater habitat loss as jungles are cleared for settlement or farmingby the new people.

How can we stop this?The report points out that illegal mining (that which is done withoutproper permissions) should be stopped and local people should beencouraged to follow other professions. It also says that the wildlifeparks should be properly guarded and managed and areas where go-rillas live should be named as protected areas. If this is not donequickly, the Grauer’s Gorilla may be wiped out (removed) from Earth.

GIANT GORILLA NEARLY WIPED OUT

A group of scientistsin Australia, some ofwhom are of Indianorigin, have devel-oped clothes that canclean themselveswith light either fromthe Sun or a bulb.The scientists devel-oped a special chemi-cal in which theydipped the clothes.The chemicals cre-ated a layer of tinyparticles over theclothes. These parti-cles are so small thatthey are invisible. When the clothes are placed under a light source,the chemical layer absorbs energy from the light and creates ‘hot elec-trons.’ Electrons are parts of atoms, the tiny bits which make up all ob-jects in the universe. These “hot electrons” release a burst of energythat enables the special layer to clean up food stains and dirt on theclothes. The clean-up happens within minutes. The scientists are now testing their invention on stains such as juiceand tomato sauce that commonly mess up clothes.

A WAY TO ‘LISTEN TO’ PHOTOSFacebook, which runs the so-cial media website of the samename (that helps friends stayin touch with each other), haslaunched an application thatallows people who cannot seeto find out more about photosposted by their friends.Until now, blind people couldhave messages posted byfriends read out to themthrough a feature in Facebooksoftware. But photos could notbe read out…until now. Thenew app can recognize peopleand objects in photos and alsodescribe basic facts about thephotos – such as ‘three peopleon a beach’ (if the friends havebeen tagged or named, it couldcall out their names too) or

‘ten bottles of cola’. Of course, it is not the same as actually seeing the photos but itis an improvement from not knowing anything about photos that have beenposted.More than two billion photos are posted each day on Facebook and other applica-tions owned by the company, so the new feature will be hugely useful.

The text shown next to the image of the loud-speaker is the kind of information that will be spoken aloud by the new app

CLOTHES THAT CLEAN THEMSELVES...NO KIDDING

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3FeaturesCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS

14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com‘

Look deep into nature, and then you will under-stand everything better.

—Albert Einstein

‘

NATURE MATTERS

Nature works in mysterious ways and the ways in which living thingsare connected is not always clear. But when such connections becomevisible (known) to us, we see the magic of nature at work. Here is onesuch example.

An important treeThe Whitebark Pine is a kind of coniferous tree that grows in themountains of the United States and Canada. They are a very importantpart of their habitat (environment) because they are often the first togrow in an area and provide shelter and a good environment for thegrowth of other plants and trees. They also prevent soil erosion whichis the washing away of soil during rain and floods. This tree has another important role-its seeds are rich food for birds,bears and other animals. The Whitebark pinealso has a special rela-tionship with one particular bird-the Clark’s Nut cracker. The bird feedson the seeds of the Whitebark Pine but before it can eat the goodies, ithas to crack open the pine cone. No wonder it has the name it does!

Spreading the magicThe Nutcracker’s habit of breaking open the Whitebark Pine coneshelps the tree to spread across an area. Unlike other pine trees, whosecones crack open on their own to disperse (spread) the seeds, theWhitebark Pine cones do not open on their own. It is the Clark’s Nut-cracker that not only breaks open the cone but also carries them away.The bird has the habit of hiding seeds in small nooks and crannies andoften buries the seeds in the ground. It is estimated that a single Clark’sNutcracker hides nearly 98,000 seeds in a year for eating later whenfood supply is low. Not all are eaten later, but instead they grow intonew pine trees. This is how the Nutcracker helps the Whitebark Pinesurvive and grow in number.The two species-Whitebark Pine and Clark’s Nutcracker depend oneach other. The survival of one depends on the other in a magical pat- tern that shows the how tightly nature’s web connects all creatures.

A BIRD AND A TREE

Check out: National Geographic Kids Magazine!National Geographic Kids magazine comesfrom the same company that publishes theNational Geographic magazine soit a quality publication filled withinformation from cover to cover.It’s a great reading choice for thelong summer holidays. The colourful magazine coverstopics such as wildlife, science,technology and archaeology.Mixed up with the articles arequizzes and puzzles-this makesthe magazine an easy read.

As can be expected from National Geographic,the photographs are stunning and top quality.

The book is an excellent resourcefor school projects so make sureyou file away old copies. In addition to the print edition,you can also buy an online sub-scription and download the mag-azine onto tablets and phoneswith decent size screens. The digi-tal subscription is less expensivetoo. Cost: $30 for one year for the print maga-

zine and US $ 12 for the digital edition.

THE BOOK NOOK

A Clark’s Nutcracker feeds on the Whitebark Pine

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4 Special ReportCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com ‘

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards andleads us from this world to another.

—Plato

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ALL ABOUT ASTRONOMYAstronomy is the study of objects in space such as stars, comets, planets andmoons as well as events that occur in space. Those who study astronomy arecalled astronomers. Astronomy is an old science and ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and even In-dians studied the stars. Long, long ago, stars and other objects in the sky suchas comets were connected with gods and goddesses. Not surprising then thatthe first astronomers were priests who explained these objects and events tocommon people.

DiD you know?• The Babylonians were the first to discover that lunar eclipses (where theEarth comes between the Sun and the Moon and casts a shadow on theMoon) occurred in a pattern• The Greeks were the first to calculate the size of the Sun and the Moon. Theywere also the first to suggest that it was the Sun, not the Earth that was at thecentre of the solar system. • The Andromeda galaxy (a galaxy is a very large group of stars), one the largestgalaxies, was discovered by Persian astronomer Azophi.

ASTRONOMY IN INDIAThe people of the Indus Valley Civilizationalso studied the stars and night sky and theyused this information to build calendars.The golden age of ancient Indian astronomytook place during the time of the Shungaempire. The Shungas ruled a large part ofEastern and central Indian over 2000 yearsago. Their astronomers were able to calcu-late the location and movements of planetsand predict when eclipses would take place.Another famous astronomer was Aryab-hata the mathematician who lived around1500 years ago.

make out mountains and craterson the moon, as well as a ribbon oflight in the sky -- which wouldlater be identified as our MilkyWay galaxy (this is the galaxy thatthe Earth is part of).Since Galileo’s time, telescopeshave become bigger and betterand there are a whole range of in-struments with which as-

tronomers can calculate what stars and other objects in spaceare made out of. If you wanted to look at an object really far away, climbing up toa height would help right? That is the same reason why, in 1990,the space agencies of the United States (US) and Europe launched

Ancient astronomers studied the sky mainly with their eyes. It was only around 400years ago that an Italian astronomer and physicist (someone who studied Physics)named Galileo Galilei became the first person to point a telescope skyward. Al-though that telescope was small and the images not very clear, Galileo was able to

ASTRONOMY: THE SCIENCE IN OUR STARS

For thousands of years we have gazed at the night sky with wonder and fascination. Like jewels on black velvet, the stars remind us that we are only a tiny part of a gigantic universe. Read on to find out more about how we humans have studied the

stars over the years and how you can too.

Image courtesy: Joe and Kimmie Randall

Astronomers in ancient Babylon. Babylon is in West Asia.

The Shunga empire is also referred to asthe Sunga empire

Galileo Galilei

THE ARRIVAL OF TECHNOLOGY

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5Special Report‘Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try tomake sense of what you see, and wonder about whatmakes the universe exist. Be curious.

—Stephen Hawking

‘

A DELHI BOY REACHES FOR THE STARS

SHooting tHe StARSPhotographing the nightsky in the manner shown inthis photo is an art by itself.These kinds of shots aretaken through the ‘long ex-posure’ technique where theshutter of the camera staysopen for 20-30 seconds, sev-eral minutes or even anhour, thus capturing themovement of stars.

Unlike other sciences, astronomy is one in which all of us can participate and help dis-cover asteroids and other objects in space. If you think that’s not possible, read on andfind out what happened to 16 year old Aryan Mishra two years ago. Aryan and his friendwere part of a programme offered by their school — Chinmaya Vidyalaya — where theywere given images taken by powerful telescopes in the US. They would scan (study) theseimages using special software and look for unidentified objects in space. That is how in2014, the two boys discovered an asteroid in the region close to Earth. Once their discov-ery is confirmed by the International Astronomical Union (which is based in Paris,France), the two boys will even get to name the asteroid.

we spoke to Aryan Mishra to under-stand how any one of us can getstarted on astronomy.

Q: How did you get interested in astron-omy?A:In 2011, it all got started when for the firsttime when I saw Saturn and itsringsthrough a telescope. I had only seen Sat-urn in books but when I saw it in real, it wasjust a fantastic experience. So I startedstudying the sky and got a small telescope in2012. I then saw all 5 visible planets and myinterest grew.

Q: How can a young person get startedwith astronomy as a hobby?A: For every child, astronomy is a mystery and the night sky a source of wonder. Youcan use a telescope to look at the sky and identify planets and other bodies. If youdon't have a telescope, no worries, you can still study the sky as there are severalapps which you can download and use to study the sky. These apps work on smart-phones and tablets and some of these apps are Stellarium and Sky maps.You can also buy a Planisphere to see the sky. A Planisphere is a small instrumentthat tells you which stars are above you in the sky at any time and date. There arealso several books which you can buy to learn astronomy.

Q: we know that you need clear skies and complete absence of artificial light(street lamps, tubelights, car lights) to see the maximum number of stars.which are the best places in india to watch the sky?A: There are many places including Nubra Valley (Ladakh), Mandarmani (Kolkata), Coorg (Karnataka), Yercaud (Tamil Nadu) and Kuari Pass (Uttarakhand)

CHILD FRIENDLY NEWS14 April 2016

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make out mountains and craterson the moon, as well as a ribbon oflight in the sky -- which wouldlater be identified as our MilkyWay galaxy (this is the galaxy thatthe Earth is part of).Since Galileo’s time, telescopeshave become bigger and betterand there are a whole range of in-struments with which as-

tronomers can calculate what stars and other objects in spaceare made out of. If you wanted to look at an object really far away, climbing up toa height would help right? That is the same reason why, in 1990,the space agencies of the United States (US) and Europe launched

a telescope that wouldoperate in spacearound 600 kilometresabove the Earth’s sur-face. Since then,theHubble has sent backsome amazing im-ages of stars andspace objects.

Here are some of the Hubble’s most important discoveries:• The Earth is 13.7 billion years old• The Hubble has helped us understand how planets are born • It has also helped us discover that all galaxies in space havemassive black holes (these are points in the space where theforce of gravity is so high that all matter is sucked into them)

ASTRONOMY: THE SCIENCE IN OUR STARS

For thousands of years we have gazed at the night sky with wonder and fascination. Like jewels on black velvet, the stars remind us that we are only a tiny part of a gigantic universe. Read on to find out more about how we humans have studied the

stars over the years and how you can too.

The Hubble telescope can see objects be-yond the dwarf planet Pluto

Aryan Mishra with US astronaut (a per-son who travels to space) SunitaWilliams

The Milky Way isseen in the sky above

the mountains

(Photo courtesy: Joe and kimmie Randall)

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Over 100 people were killed when a fire-works display at a temple in Kerala wentwrong early on Sunday morning. Hundredsof others were injured as the blasts sent ma-terial flying around, causing injuries.

What happened?A festival celebrating the Hindu goddess Kaliwas to end on Saturday night at a temple inParavur in Kerala. The festival usually endswith a fireworks display. Even though per-mission for lighting fire crackers was notgiven by the local government, the templewent ahead with the firework show thatlasted many hours and was still going onduring the early morning hours of Sunday.That’s when tragedy struck. A spark from a

rocket fell on an auto-rickshaw and anearby storeroom where more firecrackerswere stored. This set off a series of explo-sions and a fire broke out. The blasts sentrocks, bricks and big pieces of the buildingitself flying and these flying pieceswounded and killed many. The temple roofalso collapsed.

Why did it happen?The temple was clearly wrong in conduct-ing the firework display without permis-sion. The rule of no fireworks after 10 PMwas also broken. The police are right now in-vestigating (studying) the role of the peoplewho run the temple and those in charge ofthe firework display in causing this tragedy.

6 NewsCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com ‘

There is a lot that happens around the world wecannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, wecannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent allconflict, but when we know where the hungry, thehomeless and the sick exist, then we can help.

—Jan Schakowsky

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INDIA

The temple and its surroundings lay in ruins afterthe fire

On Sunday afternoon around 4 PM, a time when many would be relaxing orsleeping at home on a hot afternoon, an earthquake caused people to runout of their homes in fear in many parts of northern India.The earthquake occurred in Afghanistan and it was of medium intensity-6.8on the Richter scale used to measure quakes. But it was a deep earthquakethat travelled very far, which was why tremors (shaking of the ground) werefelt 1200 kilometres away in New Delhi. Luckily no one was killed or injured inIndia.

What causes Earthquakes?The crust or top of the Earth is not one solidpiece but is made up of several tectonic platesthat are constantly moving against eachother. Earthquakes happen when the platesbump against each other. This happens allthe time but we don’t feel many of thesmaller movements or those that occur deepin the Earth’s crust. It is only the larger movements that are felt astremors. Some earthquakes are so powerful that they can be felt thou-sands of kilometres away.

Afghanistan earthquake felt in DelhiWORLD

Britan’s Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton tried their hand atcricket while on a visit to India this week. India’s cricket star Sachin Ten-dulkar joined them on the cricket pitch in Mumbai where the three playedwith children who are being taken care of by charity organizations inMumbai.The British royals are on a week’s tour of India. In addition to Mumbai, theywill also visit Delhi, the famous Kaziranga National park in Assam to watchsome wildlife as well as the city of Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.

British Royals in IndiaINDIA

A Fireworks display that brought no joy

The British princess plays cricket with children at Mumbai’s OvalMaidan

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7NewsCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS

14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com‘

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to theearth; without rain, there would be no life.

—John Updike

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INDIA

After two years of poor rainfall, weather forecasters (those who pre-dict or tell us in advance about the weather) are saying that India willget normal rainfall in 2016.The country’s main rainy season occurs between June and Septem-ber when the south-west monsoon brings rainfall to India. This rain-fall is crucial for farmers since most crops depend heavily on thesouth-west monsoon. Little water to drinkRainfall also fills up lakes that supply drinking water to millions ofpeople. Two poor monsoons in 2014 and 2015 has resulted in manylakes going dry and the water level in the ground going so low that itcannot be reached through a pump. As a result, in places like Laturin Maharashtra, people have had no water supply to their taps sinceFebruary. El Nino fadingThe Indian government has also said that the weather pattern called‘El Nino’ that affected last year’s monsoon was weakening and thiswould bring good rainfall. During ‘El Nino’ the waters of the Pacific

Ocean become warmer than usual and this affects monsoon rainfallin India. After two bad years, India badly needs a good monsoon in2016. With El Nino going away, that looks set to happen.

A normal monsoon at last?

The water supply situation in Latur, Maharashtra, is so bad that water isbrought by train. This ‘water train’ has huge tanks that carry tens of thou-sands of litres of water for the thirsty people of Latur.

English batsman Kevin Pietersen is often in the news-and not always forthe right reasons. He has had a lot of problems getting along with his teammates and as a result, he has been dropped from the English team. It nowappears that his innings with England is over for Pietersen is speaking ofplaying for South Africa.Pietersen last played a match for England in 2014 after which he wasdropped from the team. He has since been playing in T20 tournaments forclubs. Right now, he is in India playing for the Rising Pune Supergiants inthe Indian Premier League (IPL).Pietersen was born in South Africa but left that country 16 years ago. Hewas allowed to play for England as his mother is English. By 2018, he will beallowed to try out for the South African team. Pietersen recently said thatif he isn’t selected soon for the English cricket team, he may be headed forSouth Africa. Pietersen can be a dangerous batsman and has the ability to win matcheswith his batting. Now, if he would only let his bat do the talking and avoidgetting into trouble, he may be able to make a comeback in internationalcricket.

KP to play for South Africa?SPORTS

Hot on the heels of the World T20 comes the Indian Premier League (IPL). Itis a new look IPL this time with two new teams — Rising Pune Super Gi-ants and Gujarat Lions replacing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and RajasthanRoyals (RR) which have been banned for two years. The first few matches are over, and the new teams from Pune and Rajkot(Gujarat) have both won their first matches defeating Mumbai Indians (MI)and Kings IX Punjab respectively. Two time champs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated the new look DelhiDaredevils (DD) team-the Delhi team has been one of the worst performersin the IPL over the years and things haven’t started well this year too.But there are many matches to go before the finals are played on May 29,2016. And the IPL has a way of coming up with surprising results. So, at themoment, it is hard to say which will be the top teams this time around.May the best team win!

It’s IPL time!SPORTS

Captained by MS Dhoni and packed with stars such as SteveSmith (Australia) and Faf du Plessis (South Africa), Rising PuneSuper Giants is a team to watch!

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8 Owlie’s Fun PageCHILD FRIENDLY NEWS14 April 2016www.childfriendlynews.com

Child Friendly News or CFN is an age appropriate newspaper for children in the age group 7-13. Thenewspaper comes out every fortnight. Every issue is written using language that young readers canunderstand on their own interspersed with pictures and imagery. Quick explanations of difficultwords and terms and boxed elements that explain concepts accompany every article — this is tohelp build vocabulary as well as context understanding. Special reports take up one topic in depth

while regular columns on everyday technology concepts keep children up-to-date with the worldaround them. A subscription costs Rs. 650 for the year.For more details and to subscribe, visit www.childfriendlynews.comChild Friendly News is published from C5/7 FF Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057. Published, printed,edited and owned by Anita Mani. Printed by Printworks, F-25, Okhla Industrial Area, Ph I, New Delhi 110020RNI registration number: DELENG/2013/50870

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SUDOKU TIMETry your hand at thisSudoku. Remember thatnumbers 1 to 6 can appear only once ineach of the six rectan-gles. They can also appear only once ineach row and column ofthe overall square.

UNSCRAMBLE THE WORDSRe-arrange thealphabets to find thewordHint: All clues arelinked to the theme ofastronomy

1. RSTA

2. EESCOTLEP

3. LXYAGA

4. OOMNTSRAER

Answers

1.Star

2.Telescope

3.Galaxy

4.Astronomer

Answer

5 4 6

6 2 3

6

4

6 3 5

4 1 3

h

546

623

6

4

635

413

h

FIND THE HIDDEN PICTURES

Top Reads for Kids and Young Adults

To know more about these books and to buy them, check outwww.toptenbooksoftheweek.com

Can you find the objects given at the bottom of the picture?

1. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare2. The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward3. The Race Against Time: The Third Journey Through Time by Geronimo Stilton 4. Barry Loser Hates Half Term by Jim Smith5. Friends in Wild Places: Birds, Beasts and Other Companions by Ruskin Bond6. The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury7. Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson8. My Autosaurus Will Win by Geronimo Stilton9. The Big Book of World Mythology by Reeja Radhakrishnan10. I am Princess X by Cherie Priest

Star Struck

1 2 3

Answers:1. Ursa Major (or The Great Bear); 2. Leo the lion; 3. Orion the hunter

When some stars are joined by lines, images that suggest thename of the constellation that they are part of, appear. By look-

ing at these images, can you identify the constellation?

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