Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

BUBBLE GARDENING Bees do an important job. As they fly from flower to flower, they gather and spread pollen. This helps plants make fruit and seeds. But what if there aren’t enough bees? Researchers have found a new tool that could help: soap bubbles. The scientists collected pollen from plants and mixed it into bubble liquid. They loaded the liquid into a toy bubble-blowing gun and blew bubbles at pear trees in an orchard. When a bubble hit a flower, it burst, releasing the pollen to pollinate the tree. The scientists also tried attaching the bubble gun to a drone, a small flying robot. This could fly over many trees, spreading bubbles. Bubbles are not as efficient as bees—for one thing, bees collect the pollen themselves. Bees also seek out…

BIG SLEEPERS Koala Koalas are marsupials (mammals with a pouch, like kangaroos) that live in Australia. They eat only the leaves of eucalyptus trees. These leaves are hard to digest and don’t give much energy. So to save their strength, koalas spend most of the day (and night) napping and digesting. They may sleep 18 to 22 hours a day, waking up for short periods to eat leaves. YAWN. Enough talking. Time to sleep! Lion Predators, such as lions and wolves, tend to sleep more than their prey. They also spend more time dreaming, although scientists don’t know why. When not hunting, a lion mostly lazes about, plays, and sleeps. Even asleep on the ground, a lion can feel safe. After all, who is going to pester a sleeping lion?…

It’s mostly warmblooded animals that hibernate, but some non-mammals do it too. A queen bumblebee spends the winter underground. Northern garter snakes sleep together in caves, in big piles of hundreds or thousands of snakes. Toads dig burrows. And a microscopic creature called a tardigrade can dry up and hibernate for years at a time, then wake up ready to go.…

Sleep has puzzled people for a long time.Why do we lie down and zone out for hours every night? Isn’t sleep just a giant waste of time? Could we learn to do without it? Now scientists are beginning to answer some of those questions. They’ve discovered that brains and bodies don’t just shut down at night. Quite the contrary! At night, your body repairs itself and grows strong. Your brain is busy making memories and learning. Sleep is so useful that all animals do it. And without it, waking life would be impossible. All Through the Night What happens when you go to sleep each night? The sun goes down. You take a bath and read a book. Your eyelids start to droop. Time for bed! After lying down, most…

Sunday night . . . OK, I should not have watched Blood-Sucking Vampire Eels from Space right before bed. I just woke everyone up screaming, convinced that giant fanged space eels were crawling up all over my bed. Since my brother’s up anyway, I made him check under the bed and in the closet. He told me to stop being silly, it was just a dream. But I made him look. Maybe they’re under HIS bed… In the morning I’m going to get Mom to make me some Anti-Nightmare Spray. I know it’s just vanilla water, but hey, maybe it will fool the Vampire Eels. They don’t look very bright. Monday night . . . AAAaaaa! The eels are back again. I shouted at them to Go Back to Your…

When is bedtime? If you don’t have a phone or watch, don’t worry. Inside every living thing is a clock that follows the sun. Is It Light? For a long time, people assumed that daylight told animals when to go to sleep or wake up. See light, wake. See dark, sleep. (Or the reverse, if you’re a hamster.) Then, in 1729, a French scientist named Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan did an experiment with a mimosa, a plant that folds up its leaves at night. He put some of the plants in a cupboard and kept them in constant darkness. From time to time, he peeked inside. To his surprise, the leaves continued to open and close each day as usual, even in total darkness. And he noticed something else. Each…

Ancient Egyptians slept under linen sheets on carved wood bed frames. The pillow was made of wood, too. It was more like a padded stand that held the back of the head. These wood pillows kept the head away from crawling insects, and didn’t mess up fancy hairdos. In Europe during the Middle Ages, a real bed was an expensive luxury. Most people slept on bags of straw. The straw was often infested with biting bugs and other critters looking for a warm place to hide. In northern China, it was traditional for families to sleep together on raised platforms called kangs. The whole bed was warmed from below by a small heater. In the day, the sleeping mats were rolled up and the kang could be used as a…

In a wintry forest, snow lies thick on the ground. The trees are bare. There’s little to eat. But under the snow, a tiny dormouse is curled up in a ball in its nest. Its fluffy tail is wrapped around its body like a blanket. If you peek in, it won’t run away. It won’t even move. And it will stay that way until spring. The Long Winter Nap When cold weather comes to northern forests, it’s hard for animals to find enough food. Some leave for warmer places. Some store food or learn to eat bark and lichen. And some, like the dormouse, have another solution. They tuck themselves away, slow their heartbeat and breathing, and drop their body temperature way below normal. They don’t eat or drink. They…

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