Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2015 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

No Really, I’m a Caterpillar! Deep in the Amazonian rain forest a tiny baby bird waits for its dinner. Bright orange downy feathers tipped with white cover its body. It wags its head slowly back and forth. Soon Mama returns with a tasty bug. The drab gray parent flies off for another treat, and the baby returns to wagging its head. What’s going on? Scientists don’t know much about these shy birds, called cinereous mourners. But they think the chicks are born looking—and acting—like the poisonous orange caterpillars of the flannel moth. This disguise might trick predators into leaving the chicks alone. When it’s ready to fly, the baby will shed its festive feathers and grow a dull gray set. You can tell the difference between bird and caterpillar, but…

Just like humans, within any species, some individuals are more picky than others. Clark’s nutcrackers mostly eat pine nuts, but some are happy to try a bug or frog once in awhile. Others are more cautious and stick to nuts. Even among raccoons, some are more choosy about their trash. This range of eating styles is good for the species. Picky eaters are less likely to eat something dangerous, keeping the species safe. But their adventurous brothers and sisters just might discover something delicious everyone can share.…

There are plenty of picky eaters in the animal kingdom—and plenty of adventurous ones too! So how do animals choose what to eat? For a mouse wandering around the forest, dinner might be seeds, or berries, or mushrooms, or beetles—whatever it can find on the forest floor. Eating a mix of food is a good strategy. It makes it easier to get all the protein and energy and vitamins an animal needs. And if an animal is willing to eat different things, it’s less likely to go hungry. No berries today? Try a nice root! Still, there are some things a mouse won’t eat. Wood, crocodiles, and poisonous mushrooms are never on a mouse’s menu. Most animals, like the mouse, aren’t too picky or too adventurous. They eat different things,…

You know that feeling you get when you’ve eaten a huge meal and you need a little lie down? Now imagine how you would feel if that meal weighed as much as you do (or more!) There’s no way you could eat something that big, but pythons regularly do. Snakes are creatures of extremes. Most of the time, when they’re not hunting, they’re pretty lazy. Snakes are cold-blooded, so they don’t need to use energy to heat their bodies. A snake resting in the warm sun can slow down it’s breathing and heartbeat so it uses almost no energy at all. That means that snakes don’t need to eat very often—a large snake like a python may eat only a few times a year. One big meal gives it enough…

Dear Ask, Hello! How do video games affect your brain? I like reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in bed. Is it possible to sleep for only 3 hours a day? How much does Whatson read? Sincerely, Akash M., age 9, New Jersey Dear Akash, I think video games mostly get a bad rap because they steal time away from other fun things like digging holes. But not getting enough sleep would definitely mess with your brain—brains need plenty of sleep to work properly. Though sometimes it is very hard to put my book down! Whatson Dear Bone Pony, Don’t you LOVE fact books? They are the absolute best source of knowledge. If you sent me a choice of a car or 100 facts books I would choose…

Tape together the two short ends of a long strip to form a loop. You can see that the loop has an inside and an outside and two edges. Nothing weird here. Try it again with another strip, but this time flip one of the ends over before taping the ends together. You end up with a twisty loop. Use your finger to follow the edge. You find that you keep on going and going. This loop seems to have just one edge! Now, use a pencil to draw a line down the middle of the strip—like a line that divides a road into two lanes. You end up going and going until you run into the line again where you started. The loop seems to have just one side!…

Vultures are picky eaters in a strange way: they don’t care what they eat, as long as it’s been dead awhile. Vultures are scavengers, animals that like to eat what other animals leave behind. They play an important role in cleaning up nature’s messes. Vultures are well adapted to their decaying diet. Ever smelled a dead animal? It stinks! Those smelly gases guide vultures right to the carcass. A curved beak helps them tear in to get at the meat inside, and a bald head helps them keep clean. Rotten meat is crawling with germs that would make most animals sick. But a vulture’s stomach is full of super-strong juices that kill nasty germs. And their intestines host microbes that knock out any germs that survive the acid.…

It’s lunch time for pandas at the San Diego Zoo. A group of black-and-white bears crunch eagerly on heaps of tasty bamboo, a tall grass with long green leaves. Pandas love to eat bamboo. But one bear has something different. He’s munching on…a hunk of bread? Gao Gao is an old man by panda standards. His teeth are bad, so he has trouble chewing tough bamboo stalks. When he started to lose weight, zoo scientists decided they needed to help. Their solution? Grind up the tough bamboo to make a special healthy bread just for pandas—panda bread! Dr. Jennifer Parsons is a nutritionist at the San Diego Zoo. It’s her job to make sure that the animals at the zoo eat right. We went to talk to her about Gao…

You may not know when your pet’s birthday is, but that’s no reason not to have a birthday party! For this month’s contest, design a magnificent birthday cake just for your special friend or favorite wild animal, full of their (not your) very favorite things to eat. Keep the chocolate for yourself, and think, what would Fido really like? Send us a picture of the lucky birthday animal with his or her special treat, and we’ll host a big party for them in an upcoming issue of Ask. Contest Rules: 1. Your contest entry must be your very own work. Ideas and words should not be copied. 2. Be sure to include your name, age, and full address on your entry. 3. Only one entry per person, please. 4. If…