Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

A SUNNY-SIDE-UP FOSSIL This fossil from China is a brand-new species. It’s a small bird that lived about 110 million years ago. But that’s not the only reason scientists are excited about the discovery. It’s also the first fossilized bird ever found with an egg still inside its body. Now the egg looks like a squashed blob. But it tells us some interesting things about this ancient bird. The egg’s shell had multiple layers. In birds, eggs get their shell coatings as they travel along on the way to being laid. But many layers of shell likely means that the egg got stuck inside. This problem is called “egg binding.” It can happen to today’s birds too. A stuck egg may even have been what killed this bird millions of…

What You’ll Need • A piece of cardboard, a bit bigger than you want your weaving to be. A drink coaster is a good size to start with. • Some yarn or ribbon, several colors if you want to make patterns or stripes • Pipe cleaners (or paper clips, or a big plastic needle) • Ruler, Scissors, Tape What to Do 1. Using the ruler, draw a straight line across the top and bottom of the cardboard, about a half inch from the top. Put little dots every quarter-inch along the line. With a scissors, make small cuts from the edge to the line, at each quarter-inch mark. Cut only as far as the line. Do this on the top and bottom. 2. Now, take some yarn. Tape the end to the back. Thread it through…

Charging Shirt Solar panels can make electricity—and so can this shirt. Ordinary cotton or wool is treated with a coating that converts light energy into electricity. Wires send the charge to a port or pocket. NEW Wiggle Energy This cloth gets a charge from running around. As you move, the fabric stretches and squishes. Thin wires in the fabric turn the motion into electrical energy. That flows to a plug to charge a device, or light up the buttons. Touch Sleeve The sleeve of this jacket is also a touch-screen! A computer the size of a button can read taps on a grid of thin wires in the cloth. Tap your sleeve to answer your phone, listen to a song, or move in a video game. Chameleon Cloth Tired of…

My grandmother used to tell a story about when she was a little girl, in the 1930s. One day she was walking when she tripped and her skirt flew up, showing her underwear. Across her seat, large letters said “Southern Best Flour Company.” Imagine her embarrassment! “When I was a maiden fair, Mama made our underwear; Monograms and fancy stitches Did not adorn our Sunday britches. No lace or ruffles to enhance, Just ‘Jockey Oats’ on my pants…”~Anonymous poem, 1930s Better than Barrels But if truth be told, Grandma probably wasn’t the only one wearing a flour label. How did that come to be? Long ago, chicken feed, flour, and other dry food used to come in big wooden barrels. Barrels were heavy and leaked. Then in 1846, someone invented…

Long ago, weavers learned to make cloth from cotton, flax, and wool. And soon dyers started experimenting with ways to color it. Most early dyes came from plants, shells, and rocks. Some of these dyes are still used today. Early dyers did a lot of experimenting. They learned to dry, crush, and cook plants to make colored powders and pastes. They mixed in other ingredients to bring out the color. Then they added the color to boiling water. The cloth went in. After hours of boiling, the cloth turned the color of the dye. To make colors last, dyers learned to use salt, pee, or ashes to help dye stick to cloth. These dye-helpers are called “mordants.” Before the cloth is dyed, it goes into a bath of hot water…

Send your letters to Ask Mail, 70 East Lake St., Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60601, or have your parent/guardian email us at ask@cricketmedia.com. Dear Ask, Do you know which are more poisonous, centipedes or millipedes? If you know, please inform me. Sincerely, Nina H., New Jersey Dear Nina, I hope you are writing from general entomological curiosity, and not because one is crawling up your leg. Centipedes are the ones to watch. They have one leg per body segment and hunt other insects, and they have venom. Millipedes are smaller and eat leaves. They aren’t venomous, though they can ooze a stinging juice if squished. I always find that the best policy when faced with many-legged creatures is to use my two legs to back away slowly. Regards, Avery Dear…

Super Strong Styles NEW Self-Repairing Suit Are you sick of holes in your clothes? This new fabric repairs itself! If this cloth gets a hole, just rub the spot briskly. Heat from the rubbing will coax the fibers to link up again, sealing the hole. Hole? What hole? Kevlar to the Rescue A classic! Since it was invented in 1965, Kevlar and its cousin Nomex have been keeping firefighters and rescue workers safe. The special formula makes long, stretchy threads that don’t burn and are hard to cut. Many layers make cloth that can stop a bullet. NEW Spider Threads Spider silk makes super strong cloth, if you can get enough of it. But spiders are tricky to farm. So scientists are using goats instead. They give goats a spider…

Where Did My Clothes Come From? by Chris Butterworth If you want to know even more about cloth, this colorful and friendly book shows you just how plants turn into jeans, where wool comes from, and even how to make some rubber boots. I always like books where the pictures do most of the explaining. Also good to share with your little brother! The Enchanted Tapestry by Robert D. San Souci This lovely book retells an old Chinese folk-tale about a silk weaver who weaves a tapestry so beautiful that the fairies send a wind to come and steal it away. Will her sons be able to find it and bring it back? The story is full of surprises. There are many versions—look around for one you like. But I…