Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

Feel-Good Footwork You might feel silly doing the chicken dance, but scientists have discovered that it could be doing your brain a lot of good. In Brazil, scientists studying the brain taught dance moves to high-school students. Then they divided the kids into groups. Some groups danced in sync, doing the same moves at the same time. In other groups, scientists told the kids to dance separately and do their own thing. Later, when researchers squeezed the students’ arms with a blood-pressure cuff, kids who did the same moves as their group reported less pain. The group dancers also reported feeling closer to the other people in Pluto’s Peanut Moon Even though Pluto isn’t an official planet, it has its own moons. Five of them: Charon, Styx, Nix, Hydra, and…

Dear Whatson, I really like big books. Do you? What is the biggest book ever made? I like to read like you. Yours, Leo U., New Mexico P.S. I typed this letter myself. Dear Leo, There’s a stone book in Myanmar that is carved on 729 stones set around a field. That’s the biggest book I ever heard of. But of big books that can still fit on my lap, I think Moby Dick is my favorite. It is not the biggest, but it’s certainly too long to type. Thar she blows! Whatson Dear Puck, Do you have a face or is your shell your whole body? I have a conch shell just like it. Puck, you’re so cool! ASK is my favorite magazine. I just get so excited every…

So what is a cloud, exactly? Clouds Are Floating Water Clouds are made of water. But they aren’t vapor, individual molecules of water flying around as a gas. Clouds are made of itsy-bitsy water droplets. Each droplet is made of many water molecules stuck together around a tiny speck of dust or salt. How small are cloud droplets? If you filled a shoebox with cloud, you would have more than 100 billion cloud drops. Clouds Recycle Where do clouds come from? As the sun warms the Earth, water evaporates from lakes, rivers, oceans, and the leaves of plants—and from you, when you get sweaty. When water evaporates it makes vapor, individual molecules floating around. Air carries the water vapor around. As warm air rises, it takes water vapor from the…

Artists have always loved to paint pictures of clouds. But Berndnaut Smilde is a cloud artist of a different kind. He makes real clouds, inside rooms. Smilde’s cloud sculptures only last about 10 seconds, then—poofthey’re gone. When he makes a cloud for an audience, it’s a fleeting moment they all share. Then all that’s left is a photograph. He calls his indoor clouds “temporary sculptures of almost nothing.” To make his clouds, Smilde first covers air vents so that the air is still and cool. Then he makes the air very damp by spritzing it with water from an ordinary spray bottle. Then it’s showtime. He triggers a puff of smoke from a fog machine like the kind used in theaters. This sends out a burst of fine smoke particles.…

high clouds Cirrus High, wispy streaks of cloud, full of tiny ice crystals Cirrocumulus Rows of cotton fluff very high up Cirrostratus Thin, gauzy veil of cloud, sometimes forming a halo around the sun middle clouds Nimbostratus Gray skies with a steady rain or snow, but no thunderstorm Altocumulus Little white clouds scattered over the whole sky like sheep on a meadow Altostratus Hazy sheet of cloud through which the sun can be seen low clouds Stratus A low, flat bank of cloud—the lingering cloud of a gray day Cumulus A fluffy cotton-ball cloud with a flat bottom Stratocumulus Clumpy clouds that join up into a sheet…

What you’ll need Wide glass jar with a lid Very hot water Ice cubes ADULT HELPER with a match VERY IMPORTANT! Only adults handle matches!!!! What to do 1. Turn the jar lid upside down and fill it with ice. (Or fill a plastic bag with ice to cover the jar opening.) 2. Fill the jar about half an inch with very hot water, or heat jar and water in a microwave until hot. Handle with care! 3. HAVE AN ADULT light a match, hold it over the jar briefly, then blow it out and drop it into the jar. (You want smoke from the match to go into the jar.) 4. Put the ice-filled lid or bag on top of the jar, completely covering the opening. Now watch swirls…