63. Why do mushrooms & toadstools not like light? Why is it hot in Australia when it’s cold in England? Where do the Northern Lights come from? Ft special guest expert Lee Davies from Kew Gardens

Full Episode description

In this week’s show we answer questions from Orla, Emilia, Zac, Ambrose and Portia with help from special guest expert Lee Davies from Kew Gardens in London. 

Lee is curator of fungi at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Lee tells us all about mushrooms and toadstools and why they like the dark. Plus we uncover the biggest living thing in the world, which happens to be an enormous mushroom! 

We find out about how the movement of the earth and the sun creates different seasons around the world as well as what happens at the equator in the tropics. 

Find out all about the Northern Lights and what the similar lights in Australia are called as well as why the fire brigade was called when the Northern Lights made it to England! 

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Twitter: @everythinguts

Facebook: @everythingunderthesunbyMollyOldfield

Website: www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

Find out how to submit an answer on our website.

Molly Oldfield studied History at Oxford before becoming a QI elf, writing and researching questions for the BBC quiz show for twelve years. She has written three books. They are The Secret Museum, a book about all the things that are in museums that rarely, if ever, go on display; Wonders of the World’s Museums filled with things you can see, and Natural Wonders of the World about all kinds of creatures and places on our beautiful planet we call home. 

This podcast will also be published as Everything Under the Sun – A Year of Curious Questions in September 2021 by Ladybird at Penguin Random House. Waterstones link is here – https://www.waterstones.com/book/everything-under-the-sun/molly-oldfield/9780241433461

Lee Davies  – https://www.kew.org/science/our-science/people/lee-davies

With thanks to Tyler Simmons Dale, Ash Gardner, Audio Networks. 

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