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Hello there, my name's Emily and you're listening to Newstime.
Hey, Emily.
And hello to Newstime listener legend, Noah.
Hello, my name is Noah and I live in Townsville in the lands of Wulgurukaba and Bindal people.
If you'd like to be a listener legend like Noah, find out how to apply at the end of the podcast.
On today's episode, we'll travel deep into outer space to go chasing a runaway black hole.
Plus, we'll meet expert coders, filmmakers and some gas munching microbes.
Are you ready?
Ready to spaghetti.
Story number five.
Hundreds of collaborators, including heaps of Indigenous Australian children, have worked together to create one big bright, blockbuster.
On most big movies, it takes hundreds of people to work together to create the finished product.
Just think about the long list of names you've seen in the credits at the end of the movies.
You need your actors, you need a director and you need a film crew.
Yep, but for the movie Imagine, the list of people who helped with the film is longer than usual.
That's because it was created by Jack Manning Bancroft, the founder of the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, known as AIM.
AIM works with First Nations kids around the country to connect to culture and dream big.
And when Jack started making this movie, he made sure that he got as many AIM children involved as possible, sharing their ideas on how to make the movie bold, bright and exciting.
I think it would be best if you had lots of different opinions, because then you could have a few options of what type of movie you wanted to make.
And if you just listen to the movie makers' ideas, Like, it'll just be a short movie.
The movie Imagine is an animated film that explores how Indigenous knowledge systems around the world are connected.
So it made sense to get as many Indigenous ideas into the movie as possible.
Now these participants from AIM get to see their ideas represented on the big screen, brought to life by professional artists and famous actors.
I think they feel really excited because it's their idea in the movie.
Everybody will see it.
Congratulations, mini movie makers.
You've obviously had a very bright idea.
That's why it's in the movie, so good job.
Story number four.
You've probably heard that trees are a big help when it comes to protecting our planet.
Because they create homes for all the birds and insects.
They make bad air into good air through their leaves.
And without trees we would have quite the problem.
Yep, well it turns out trees do more than just provide shelter and oxygen.
Scientists from Southern Cross and Monash Universities in Australia have learnt that there are these little tiny creatures on the bark of some trees that are eating harmful greenhouse gases and taking them out of the atmosphere.
Yeah, I read a book about it.
They're gases that trap heat.
Yeah, greenhouse gases can build up in the atmosphere and make the Earth hotter.
It's called global warming, and it's a big problem.
The little creatures on trees are called microbes, and they're super tiny.
You'd only be able to see them using a microscope.
The microbes eat gases like hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane.
And get this, the microbes found on each tree differ depending on where the tree is growing.
I think it's good that they're eating the gases, because then they're stopping them from being released into the environment.
Bob Leung is one of the researchers who worked on the study.
He says that each tree has trillions of microbial cells in their bark, but the role of these microbes had been ignored for years.
Finally, scientists are taking a closer look and starting to better understand just how much work trees do to keep the environment healthy.
I think they should try to find...
If it is super bad for it and if it dies, it lets out the gases and stuff like that.
Well, more research is being done and the scientists think that this discovery could help us make smarter choices when deciding what sorts of plants to grow in particular places. spacesuits on new sleuths because for this story, we're heading into the belly of a black hole.
They suck things in.
Like if something or someone gets into it, they can never come out.
I heard that they turn you into spaghetti, but not exactly the spaghetti you eat.
Yep, black holes are big dead here on planet Earth.
They're just a fun, interesting thing to learn about and a good reminder that there's always something strange and spectacular waiting to be discovered in outer space.
Story number two.
Websites and apps are built using a special language that computers can understand called code.
There's lots of different languages in code, and being able to write or read these languages is called coding.
Coding used to be something that was mostly done by professionals in big tech companies.
But now more and more kids are learning to code.
I think it'll be fun to build websites, because then a lot of people will use it and you'll give good information to them.
Sometimes
Ness Dharmasiri first learned to code when he was 11 years old.
He learnt a computer language called Python. and loved using it to solve problems and build things.
Now, Neff is 17 years old and he's still coding.
He's also writing his own brand new coding language.
Maybe he thinks it's a really interesting skill.
Neff thinks that being able to code is a really important skill and he wants more kids around Australia and the world to have the opportunity to learn how it all works, just like he did.
Neff and his friend Chinmay started a program that teaches coding to beginners.
They launched it in the country, Sri Lanka, where many kids don't have access to high tech or fast wifi.
They wanted their program to be available to kids in rural and remote areas too.
Neff believes that even if a child has slow or no internet, they should still get the opportunity to learn to code.
If you could code an app or a website, What would you build?
I would like to make like a dictionary maybe, or something that helps people learn about stuff, or like a name generator.
I'll probably make a gaming station like thing where you learn how to play games with particular controls.
Great ideas.
Maybe we could code a news time video game.
Imagine that.
And now it's time for... Wow, that was so weird.
This story made me go, wow, because I didn't know flowers could do that to bees.
Scientists looking at flowers, birds and bees have discovered a trait they're describing as magic.
Can you guess what a magic flower might be like?
Maybe it means that they can rebloom or something like that.
If it like, had powers that like made stuff float in the air.
That colour might be like swirlings, like the petals moving around the flower.
A flower that could make stuff float?
Oh, I wish.
This magic is a little more ordinary.
A bit of everyday magic.
Scientists have discovered that flowers can use colour to invite different pollinators to come visit them.
Pollinators are animals and insects that take pollen from a flower and, as they move or fly around, sprinkle that pollen onto another flower so that the plant can bloom or make fruit.
It sounds very clever.
I like that.
Pollinating is a really important job, but not every pollinator is right for every plant.
Some pollen might be too heavy for bees to carry, so those jobs are better left to birds.
And some pollen is light and little, making it perfectly suited to hitch a ride on a buzzing bee.
Maybe because one of them might be more gentle with the flower.
Like they pollinate in a different way.
Exactly.
If you spend time in nature, you'll notice that certain pollinators prefer certain flowers.
And scientists have known this for a long time too.
What they weren't sure about was how some flowers made themselves practically invisible to bees and made themselves very attractive to birds.
Yeah, I think the birds are more attracted to the red ones.
You're right.
Birds do prefer red flowers.
But it's not just any red flowers.
Flowers that prefer birds to visit them reflect less UV light.
It's not something we notice with our human eyes, but that little change makes them seem dull and boring to bees, but extra bright and inviting for birds.
I think it would be like sparkly.
Next time you see a big red flower out in nature, if you think to yourself gee, what a beauty you might be having the same thoughts as a hungry bird.
If you want to learn more about this topic, check out the Gardening Australia Junior podcast.
There's an episode called How Do Plants Get Their Colours and another one called Why Are Flowers Different Shapes?
And it's quiz time.
Let's see how much you remember.
Question one.
What's the name of the movie that the children helped shape?
Hmm.
It's Imagine.
Question two.
What's the word starting with M for the little things on trees that are eating harmful gases?
Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue.
Oh.
They're microbes.
Question three.
What is a runaway black hole?
A black hole that travels through space.
Question four.
What's the thing, starting with the letter C, that Neth is teaching people to do?
Oh, that's a tricky one.
It's coding.
Question five.
What colour are these mostly magic flowers?
They're red.
Well, that's us done and dusted.
And if you'd like to be a Newstime listener legend, Ask your grown-ups to head to the News Time page on the ABC Kids Listen website.
Thanks, Emily.
Bye, Emily.
I'm about to go code that News Time video game.
Catch you next time.
News Time is an ABC Kids Listen podcast.
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