Hello, i'm bex and welcome to the week junior show.
Today i'm joined by two of the team from the week junior, the magazine making sense of the world for 8 to 14 year olds.
We've got associate editor laura and writer k, so lots to cover.
In this week's episode we're going to be talking about london's new super sewer that's not a superhero, don't worry uh the secrets of polar bear, greece and a disabled astronaut making history.
We'll also be having a big debate about whether heathrow airport should be expanded.
But there's a well-being feature that caught my eye in this week's magazine about making healthy choices and eating the right food.
So that got me thinking, what is your favorite healthy food?
Now, I like fruit.
I'm going to say, though, I do like vegetables a little bit more, maybe.
So this week I've been eating asparagus and salmon and spinach.
And salmon might be my favorite food ever.
But spinach, I think it's amazing.
The only problem with it is you cook it and it immediately wilts so much you can barely see what you put in the pan.
But apart from that, I think this week I'm going to go with spinach as my favourite, which is weird, I know.
Laura, how about you?
Not interesting.
I love spinach because at first you panic, don't you, when you put it in a pan, because it's like there's so much of it and you think, oh my God, it's just going everywhere.
Well, what I do anyway, I sort of shove it in and it goes everywhere.
And then, yeah, it just melts away to nothing.
There's nothing there, yeah.
Yeah.
But my, well, I've got two.
So one of them is actually pictured on our wellbeing page this week and it's cherry tomatoes.
Just love them.
I just eat them like sweets.
But my other one, which is a lifelong love of sweet corn.
I can literally just eat it straight out of the tin.
I just absolutely love it.
You know what?
I do like sweet corn and cucumber diced together.
Like that is, I've got to say, that is a delicious snack that I've always appreciated.
So I'm with you on the sweet corn.
I can appreciate that.
Kay, how about you?
I love yoghurt, like either plain or flavoured yoghurt.
There's this really nice one called Skir, and you can get it in baked apple flavour, which is really nice.
That sounds so good that it's not healthy at all.
Probably not, but I'm gonna have to trust you on the process with that one um.
Okay, so between us, we've made a healthy feast there.
I think we've got salmon spinach tomatoes, some sweet corn, some yogurt for dessert delicious, I think we're pretty healthy people.
Um, now let's talk about this week's issue uh, of the magazine Laura, what can you tell me about what is going on in the cover?
So our cover this week is a really cool um photo.
Um, and it's two people um, in sort of orange high-vis jackets and they're standing in this crazy looking swirly tunnel um, and yeah, it's actually a sewer.
Um, it's our story on our uk news page this week.
Um, and it's all about the super sewer um, which we featured a couple of years ago actually um, we did an all about sewers um, and it was linked to this um but, and it's called the thames tideway tunnel um, or london's new super sewer, And it's just opened, basically.
So you can find out more about it on our UK news page.
And there's loads of really fun stats there.
But yeah, basically it's a huge tunnel and it will be carrying all the sewage waste away from the River Thames in London.
So obviously sewage is wastewater.
So it's poo and it's wee.
But it's also kind of all our water that comes from our showers and our sinks.
And it's needed because basically, London Sewer Network was built in Victorian times, kind of mid 19th century um, at which time that London had about two million um people, um population um, and that's kind of moved on quite a lot since then.
So there's now nearly nine million people living in London um, which is obviously a lot of waste um, and our sewers were not coping so um, often um waste was overflowing into the River Thames um, which got a lot worse when it rained and things like that, because there was just too much water for the system, basically.
So this new super sewer is aiming to clean up the river by carrying all this extra sewage away.
Yeah, and it's.
It carries 600 olympic swimming, olympic sized swimming pools of liquid, and it is 16 miles long, and it's been being built since 2016.
And so, yeah, it's pretty cool.
It's a sewer, but it's very interesting.
And I would urge you to read those stats and read more about it.
That is really fascinating because I know that London has needed this for a while.
But yeah, from 2016.
So it's literally been in the pipeline for quite a long time.
Right, it has, yeah.
So yeah, underneath London, for some time they've been um, they've been creating this, this long tunnel and um yeah, the picture on the front cover is is very cool.
Actually, I would love to go down there.
Well, not now if it's um, if it's full of um of waste, but before beforehand.
It looks quite cool to explore.
Very well lit.
To be honest, it looks very fun, doesn't it?
Um, what a great story.
Thank you very much.
Is time for Real or Rubbish?
This is the bit of the show where I hear a story.
I have to guess if it's true or false and Kay, I believe it is your turn today.
So it turns out that making a perfectly cooked boiled egg isn't as simple as you might have already thought.
Scientists at the University of Naples in Italy say you have to transfer the egg between hot and cold water for exactly 32 minutes, and this will ensure that you get the egg white perfectly cooked and also a really nice creamy yolk.
And so they say that you need to keep the temperature of the egg between 35 degrees celsius and 100 degrees celsius, and this means that the yolk stays at 67 degrees celsius.
And one researcher who was involved in the study said if you try the periodic egg, which is what this technique is called, you will never go back.
So is this story real or are we egging you on?
Excellent.
Excellent.
Come on now.
32 minutes, did you say, between hot and cold water?
Yep.
Who's got the time for a boiled egg?
Well, I had a boiled egg yesterday and I was thinking maybe I should try it for also 32 minutes.
No.
No, absolutely not.
It's been about three minutes cooking, you know.
I've got to say, I am one person who I like it maybe a little runnier, a little less well-cooked.
I know some people have very different ways of cooking boiled eggs between three minutes to eight minutes, depending on what you want.
I also know, for example, some chefs say you start off in cold water and you then boil it with the egg still in the cold water.
Some people say you boil the water immediately, put the egg in.
I say that one because I am impatient.
I've got to say, why, Naples, come on, man, why are you doing this?
You've got better things to think about, right, Kay?
Well, actually, I was reading about it, and one of the scientists involved doesn't even like eggs.
What?
Why would you decide this to study, then?
I have no idea.
I was wondering that yesterday.
Maybe she is really trying to like them, so she wants to perfect the technique.
Maybe she wants everybody to hate them as much as she does because they're wasting their time cooking these eggs.
And they'll be like, you know what?
Eggs are such a faff.
I'm not going to cook them anymore.
32 minutes is a long time for anything to be cooked, in my humble opinion.
And I'm going to put it out there.
Nobody's going to do this.
Like, yes, it's well and good if this is true, of course.
It's well and good making this experiment and finding out.
But nobody's going to change their opinion of eggs on the basis of it.
Are they?
Kate know, i'm kind of on the fence.
I want to give it a go now.
Is it literally just transferring it hot to cold?
Hot to cold for 30 minutes?
I think so, but i don't really know how you do that without breaking it, or you'd have to get a slotted spoon, i suppose and uh, lift it up and out.
Um, laura's nodding in agreement there.
I appreciate that.
Thank you, laura.
Um i, i mean who's?
First of all?
Who's got the time?
Secondly, we've perfected the egg already.
It's been around for years and years and years and years and years.
Why would you think it needs to be changed?
Why would you decide, you know what we've got to do is cook an egg differently and make it harder?
Absolutely not.
I mean, if this is true, I'm furious about it, to be honest.
But while I think about it, Let's check in with our Book of the Week, which is The Great Theatre Rescue by Judith Eagle.
It's set in 1930s London and it's all about Charlie's mission to rescue her dad's theatre, The Wren.
I've read this book.
I love this book.
I think it's so much fun.
And it's ideal for readers who love an uplifting adventure.
We've got a message here from Judith, the author herself.
Hi there, listeners of The Week Junior Show.
My name is Judith Eagle, author of The Great Theatre Rescue, which has been selected as Book of the Week in the current issue of the magazine.
I'm here to answer a very important question.
Who was my favourite children's author growing up?
That's very hard because I had a lot of favourite authors, but there is one who really stands out.
Joan Aitken.
Her books sparkle with all my favourite ingredients.
Food, clothes, orphans, villains, place, plot and humour.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is my favourite and Black Hearts of Battersea comes a close second.
All right, that's Joan Aitken.
We've never had her being picked before, so thank you to Judith.
Now, of course, we love hearing from our authors, but we also love hearing from our readers as well.
So tell me, Laura, what has caught your eye in the Week Junior inbox?
Well, this week we had a message from Amber and Jasmine, and they sent us a picture as well.
So the picture is of them standing very proudly with some certificates and rosettes.
And they said, for the last month, we've been raising money for charity.
We raised £80 for the World Horse Welfare Charity and we hope this will inspire other children to do the same.
And of course, we had our How to Fundraise feature recently in the magazine, so congratulations.
Yeah, hopefully they were inspired by that.
Oh, lovely, getting some top tips there.
And congratulations, Amber and Jasmine.
Thank you so much for that.
Now, Kay, what have you seen this week?
Eight-year-old Anna has sent a message to say this is me with my bowl and cup I made using Old Week Juniors.
Yeah, she's created these really nice pieces of kind of bowls, bowls and cups with newspaper.
It is very impressive.
I'm kind of tempted to see if I could pop in my salmon and spinach creation, see if it would hold that.
Laura, how do you fancy these?
Would you make them yourself?
Oh, they're really cool.
Yeah, I don't think I would put salmon in them, but I think, I don't know.
Yeah, I mean they definitely look like they could.
They'd be really good for storing, like pens and pencils and things like that maybe jewellery.
They're also quite a good way of using up old week juniors.
If you've got a few.
I know a lot of our listeners and your readers have loads of them lying around at home.
So if you're looking for something to do with them, this is the way forward, clearly.
We've also been sent a voice note from Addy.
So let's give it a listen.
Hello, my name is Addy and I am seven years old and I have set some goals.
Here they are.
Build a car tower.
Learn how to say hello in Greek.
Learn how to make sausage pasta on my own.
I'd learn how to get fully dressed on my own.
Bye.
OK, we love to hear all of Addy's resolutions.
Laura, what are you thinking about them?
Oh, brilliant.
Yeah, there's so many varied resolutions there.
I think I know how to say good morning in Greek, actually.
Kalimera?
Kalimera?
But I don't know.
I think that's good morning rather than hello.
And I would also love to learn how to make sausage pasta.
So that's a good one.
Yeah, the sausage pasta talk is making me quite peckish, I won't lie.
Kay, what are your thoughts on the resolutions?
Any that you would add for yourself?
Yeah, I really like that they're quite kind of small and easy to achieve.
I would love to try sausage pasta as well and say hello in Greek.
I also want to see a car tower in action.
That'd be quite fun.
Addy, if you get to do any of those things, please send us pictures of what happened.
Now, of course, like Addy, we love to hear your voice notes.
So drop us a line at funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior and record your voice.
Or if you want to send us a picture or an email, all you got to do is email hello at theweekjuniorcouk.
So let's dive back in to this week's issue of the magazine.
Laura, what's your favourite story this week?
Oh, my favourite story this week is, as ever, on the Animals and Environment page.
But it's related to humans as well, my reason for loving it.
So it was a study done.
Polar bears and polar bears, of course live in the Arctic, where temperatures can drop below minus 30 and when it's at its coldest and but although it's very cold, their fur usually appears to be very free from ice, and basically these scientists wanted to find out the secret to their ice-free fur, which obviously helps to keep them snuggly and warm.
And so a team of scientists studied and the hairs from six polar bears that had been living in the wild, and So they got some hair samples, and the hairs were covered in this grease, which is known as sebum.
And so the team washed some of the samples so that they could test whether the ice would stick to the washed non-greasy fur samples.
And they also tested some greasy human hair.
So this is what I love about this.
So one of the scientists this is commitment didn't wash his hair for six days and he shaved it off and handed it over for investigation.
Um, this is just so good.
And then basically, so they, they tested all these um, these different samples, and after all their tests, they found that the ice didn't really stick to the unwashed polar bear hair obviously um however, it stuck very easily to the polar bear hair that had been washed and the greasy human hair um so, to understand why there was such a difference, they analyzed the um polar bear sebum um, and they found that it's a mixture of cholesterol, which is a kind of waxy fatty substance, and fatty acids um, but it didn't include something called squalene or squalene.
I'm not actually sure how you say that.
I'm going to say squalene um, but anyway, squalene is an ingredient which you get in in the grease of human hair and on the fur of some animals and um, but yes, not in polar bear hair um, so it's quite interesting.
So obviously, polar polar bear grease is slightly different to other animal grease.
And they're hoping that they can use these results to help them make a coating which they could put on things like food packaging or clothing, and it would help it repel ice.
So this experiment could actually end up helping humans in the future.
But I just love the fact that this guy just shaved his hair off.
Yeah, and obviously enjoyed not washing his hair for six days.
Clearly he was just like, any excuse?
Yes, please.
It didn't occur to me that ice doesn't hang to the fur, but of course it doesn't.
Yeah, that's a really interesting experiment and quite useful, like you say, for the future.
Yeah, I mean, it's another one of those things, isn't it, where you watch something and you think hang on, though.
Why is that happening?
And you investigate why.
Yeah.
And there's a really cute picture on the page as well of two polar bears rolling around in the ice.
It's quite cute.
And of course, yeah, they just they live on the ice all the time.
So, you know, they sleep on it and they're completely ice proof.
So it's quite impressive.
Ice proof.
I love it.
Kay, what's been your pick of the week?
My favourite story is about this guy called John McFall.
He's from the UK and he's the first disabled astronaut born.
And he's just been approved to go to the International Space Station.
He had his leg amputated when he was 19.
And since then, he's done some really, really cool things.
Like he won a bronze medal at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.
And he's also a surgeon.
And so to be able to go to space, he had to go through this process of doing loads and loads of tests, and this is just to see how his prosthetic artificial leg will respond to space conditions.
And yeah, he's been successful.
And he said he's hugely proud and this is something that has not been done before.
And so the next part is that the scientists are going to test out what sort of scientific work he can do in space and if any extra design changes need to be made to his prosthetic leg.
Wow, that's an incredible story.
Thank you so much, Kate.
That's amazing.
Now it's time for this week's big debate.
And we are talking about Heathrow Airport in London.
So here's what you got to know.
Heathrow Airport in London is the largest and busiest airport in the UK.
Around 1,300 flights take off or land every day.
The airport has been open since 1946 and it was originally built with six runways, but now it has two longer runways.
Flights taking off and landing can be noisy for people living nearby.
In 2024, 1,385 people contacted Heathrow about noise.
The UK government announced last month that it supports a plan to build a third runway at Heathrow.
So the question for this week's big debate, should Heathrow be expanded?
Now we've got Laura up first saying yes, please.
So as usual, Laura, you know the drill by now.
We've got one minute on the clock.
Let me just get my timer up there.
Excellent.
So whenever you're ready, Laura, take it away.
So the government says a third runway at Heathrow is a good thing.
So lots of people obviously think it's a bad thing because it's claims create carbon, which is bad for the environment.
However, a third runway at Heathrow could create 100,000 jobs.
And at the moment, the economy in the UK is kind of struggling slightly.
So I think that could be a really, really good thing.
Also, the government is going to introduce a plan to have a more sustainable aviation industry aviation fuel um, that's less harmful to the planet.
So, by the time this runway is built, which should be about 2035 um, you know, jet fuel might not be as unenvironmentally friendly as it is now um also, there would be thousands more flights every year, which means that the uk will be better connected to other parts of the world, which is good for business and good for the economy.
And, let's face it, if we don't build it, somebody else will.
Oh, you promised it would be under a minute and it was.
And also you had an excellent tagline at the end there.
You're right, if we don't build it, somebody else will.
So Kay, it's up to you now to tell us why you disagree with Laura whenever you're ready to take it away.
So planes are really noisy.
So when they fly over people's homes, they just are really disruptive.
And a new flight path will like make, another 300,000 people's homes under the flight path.
And this will also influence wildlife.
So it will be really disruptive to animals in the area.
And then yeah, as Laura said, planes burn fuel and this just leads to more carbon dioxide gas and leads further to climate change.
And also actually to build the runway.
Some people might lose their homes because they have to knock down loads of areas to make room for this new runway.
So yeah, this is just really upsetting for people that have lived in the area for so long.
All right.
So we're talking about displacing people and animals versus if we don't build it, someone else will.
So interesting points of view here.
And of course, we want to know what you're thinking right now.
So if you've got an opinion on this week's big debate about Heathrow Airport, tell us right now.
Go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls to vote and tell us what you reckon.
Of course, you can also comment your opinion wherever it is you're listening to the podcast or...
Record a voice note.
We love to hear your voice.
Just hit that big red button at funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
In last week's Big Debate, Eve and Vanessa discussed whether it's time to ditch Valentine's Day.
Kay, what were the results?
77 felt that there was nothing wrong with Valentine's Day and that it's nice to tell someone you love them.
Quite a high percentage there.
All right.
Laura, any opinions about this one?
Oh, yes, lots.
Yes.
Well, it seems that our readers... just love, love.
So somebody wrote in and said Valentine's Day is a time when you can go crazy and say how much you love your family.
You don't need a gift.
Words are enough, which I thought was very sweet and very true.
And somebody else said, there's nothing wrong with having a day full of love.
It is special and getting rid of it would just be mean to couples, which is a good point.
But somebody else pointed out that it can be very expensive and that people can feel pressurized to buy expensive gifts, which is also a good point.
So thank you for those comments.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Like I said earlier, if you want to get in touch with our big Heathrow debate this week, just go to theweekjuniorcouk slash polls.
Now before we go, it's time to reveal the truth about this week's real or rubbish.
Kay, can you remind me what it is, please?
So this is the story that to get the perfectly cooked boiled egg, you need to use this periodically, periodic egg technique and spend 32 minutes boiling it.
I just feel like we've already perfected the egg between Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver, every chef out there.
We are extraordinary in our egg cooking skills and I just, I just don't think we need this.
But the other problem is, That's never stopped scientists in the past who've done it anyway.
I think it's a waste of time, both in the research of it and also in the cooking.
I'm not making an egg for 32 minutes.
Absolutely not.
No, thank you.
I've got it.
This story has to be rubbish.
It has to be rubbish.
That's what I'm going to do.
Should we do a drum roll?
Yeah.
It's real.
What?
You know, the perfect egg is really important.
If I want a perfect egg, I'll buy a chocolate one in their shops.
A 32 minute cooked boiled egg is not a perfect egg.
That's the least perfect egg because it takes 32 minutes to cook.
There is no one listening right now who is like, you know what I need in my life?
An egg that takes longer to cook for no reason at all.
I'm furious.
Good things come to those who wait.
Yeah, but they can come if you're not even like 32 minutes.
It takes three minutes in my house.
I mean, don't I think three minutes is a little less than it should be.
So let's say five on average.
But I cannot believe people have wasted their time researching that.
I can't believe people are going to no one's going to do.
Are you are you guys going to change your egg cooking habits on the back of this?
Probably not.
No, I mean, I'm quite impatient anyway, so I don't think I'd be able to handle that.
Or I would just completely forget about it and it would end up boiling for like two hours or something.
Can you imagine how big the egg timer you would need to do this would be?
If you're cooking an egg, turning it upside down, getting the sands of time going through there, it would be an absolute disaster.
So I refuse to believe that is a useful experiment, even though it's true, and I'm annoyed about that as well, because I failed.
Anyway...
It's time to say goodbye and thank you to the Week Junior team, Laura and Kay.
Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe or follow us wherever it is you get your podcasts.
And tune in to next week's episode, where we'll be joined by some more members of the team for some stories, debates and chat.
See you then.
Bye or three issues of The Week Junior Science and Nature for £5 by heading to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash podcast offer.
