Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2017 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

Dinosaur Feathers Millions of years ago, bugs and other things got stuck in oozing tree sap. This tree sap fossilized to form golden stones called amber. Scientists have found all kinds of ancient treasures in pieces of amber. And now they’ve found something new: a piece of a feathered dinosaur’s tail. The chunk of amber came from Myanmar. Inside it, scientists found a bit of tail with thin feathers, probably from a small dinosaur called a coelurosaur, which lived about 99 million years ago and walked on two legs. Scientists think lots of dinosaurs had feathers. But fossils are usually just bones, so actual feathers are a very lucky find. The feathers probably adorned a small dinosaur that looked like this. No Naps for Dolphins Spinner dolphins are named for…

Dear Ask, What type of matter is sand when it turns into glass? Thanks, Ilona B., Virginia Dear Ilona, That’s such an interesting question, we had to make a whole magazine about it. Hope you like it! We learned a lot! Whatson Dear Avery, Sometimes I collect acorn-ish things from across the street. You’d be surprised how many there are. Would you let Nelly live with you? She behaves really well. Sarah F., age 7, California Dear Sarah, Anything resembling an acorn can only be good. Happy collecting! Nelly looks very nice—she’s welcome to visit any time. Though in my experience, cats are not always happy in trees. But give her my regards, and an acorn. Your pal, Avery Dear Bot and Bone Pony, Sometimes I tell myself that I…

How does melting sand turn it into glass? Inside, at the tiny scale of atoms, silica is made up of silicon and oxygen atoms arranged in a regular pattern called a crystal. Sand grains are tiny chunks of these crystals. When silica melts, the pattern breaks apart and silicon-oxygen clumps flow around freely. That’s liquid rock. If this liquid cools very slowly, the crystal will form again. For such an amazing material, glass is pretty simple at heart. Its main ingredient is silica (quartz), the most common mineral on Earth. Sand is mostly tiny grains of quartz. Add a little sodium carbonate to help it melt and limestone to keep out water, heat it to 2,500º F (1,400º C), and it softens into a thick, clear blob ready for shaping—glass.…

Nearby cases are filled with life-like jellyfish, sea worms, sponges, and corals—all crafted out of glass more than 150 years ago. There is even some glass seaweed. Who made all these creatures? And why? The story of the glass octopus begins in 1822, when Leopold Blaschka was born to a family of glassmakers in what is now the Czech Republic. The Blaschka family had been making glass for 300 years. They specialized in glass eyes—the best in Europe. Leopold, too, became a master glassmaker. Then he took a trip to America. On the long sea voyage, Leopold marveled at the delicate jellyfish and Portuguese men-o-war he could see in the water. They looked like living glass. He itched to see if he could capture their beauty in a more permanent…

Have you ever rubbed a wet finger around the rim of a glass of water? If you do it just right, it makes a pure, loud tone, like a bell, or a ghost. In 1759, on a visit to London, Ben Franklin went to an unusual concert of music played on water glasses. He loved the sound! And it gave him an idea for a new instrument. He had a glass-maker make a set of glass bowls of different sizes, with a hole in the middle of each. Then he stacked the bowls with some cork in between, and ran a metal pole through the center holes. Next he set the stack sideways in a tray of water, to keep the glass wet. A foot petal turned a wheel to…

20,000 BCE Volcano Glass Obsidian is natural glass that forms when hot lava melts quartz rock. Ancient humans collected obsidian to make extra-sharp tools. 1500 BCE Fake Gems Egyptians learned how to color glass by adding powdered metals. A little copper dust made red glass. Cobalt made blue, and tin made white. Colored glass made great fake gems for jewelry and tombs. 3000 BCE? Glaze to Glass Glassmaking may have started near Iraq about 5,000 years ago—as glaze for pots. Some potter may have decorated a clay pot with crushed quartz or sand. When the pot was baked, the rock melted into a glassy coating—glaze. Then maybe someone tried melting a batch of glaze by itself. 1350 BCE Dribble Glass Ancient Egyptians made glass jars by dribbling molten glass around…

Most creatures in the ocean build their shells and skeletons out of hard calcium—the same mineral that’s in our own bones. But the delicate glass sponges are different. These simple animals build their skeletons out of silica—the stuff of glass. To make its skeleton, a glass sponge pulls tiny bits of silica out of the water. The sponge assembles the silica into glassy spines, called spicules, which it fuses together into a skeleton. Up close, the skeleton looks a bit like a net woven of thin glassy fibers. This makes a scaffold that gives shape to the living tissue, similar to our own bones. Though skeletons made of glass might sound fragile, they are strong enough to help these sponges keep their shape in the crushing pressure of the deep…

The Greedy Glass How many pennies can you add to a completely full glass of water? Ask your friends how many pennies they think you can put into a full glass before it overflows. Do they guess 2, or 5? But you know better. What you’ll need A big drinking glass Water A bunch of pennies Sheet of paper What to do Fill the glass with water completely to the top, so it looks like it’s just about to overflow. Put the glass on the paper. Now to drop your pennies: Hold each penny by its edge and release it into the water. Don’t hold it too far up (you don’t want to make waves), and try not to touch the water with your fingertips. Now drop another, and another,…