Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

A Prickly Nest Birds nesting on city buildings can make a mess. That’s why some buildings put up long, pointy wires on ledges and windowsills. These anti-bird spikes stick out to keep birds from perching there. But some birds have turned the tables. In Belgium, bird watchers recently spotted an unusual nest. Instead of twigs, this nest bristled with sharp metal bits. A pair of Eurasian magpies had pulled anti-birds spikes off a nearby hospital—and used them to build their nest. Other magpies and crows in Belgium have been seen adding spikes to their nests, too. Scientists think the birds like the spikes for the same reason people do—they keep other, egg-stealing birds out. They also make a strong support for the nest. FISHY FAKEOUT Trumpetfish are long, thin fish…

Let’s start with a simpler map. On a sheet of paper, draw lots of long, straight lines. They can go any direction, but must go all the way across. How many colors do you need so that no neighboring spaces are the same? Just two! Now suppose your simple map has three areas surrounding a fourth. How many colors do you need now? This map needs four colors. You would also need four if the central region were surrounded by five, seven, or any odd number of areas. It turns out you need four colors for a map of the U.S. too. You could almost do it with three, but Kentucky and Nevada are both surrounded by an odd number of neighboring states. What about South America? Bolivia has five…

How Is Paint Made? Basic paint has two ingredients: a pigment, or colored powder, and a sticky liquid to hold it together (called a binder). Early artists made pigments by grinding up rocks or dried plants into a powder. They blended the powders with spit, oil, eggs, glue, water, or old milk. Mixing good paint colors took practice and skill. The great Leonardo da Vinci spent so much time preparing his paints, his customers often worried that he’d never get around to painting. In the late 1700s, professionals called colormen took over the job of making pigments and paints. Some colormen devoted themselves to finding ways to make colors brighter and more permanent. They experimented with different mixes of chemicals and binders. Today, most colors are made in laboratories. Chemistry…

One day in the early 1660s, Isaac Newton spent a rare few hours outside, at the annual market near his college in Cambridge, England. He bought a toy—a prism, a piece of glass cut at precise angles. Though he had next to no money, the prism was so cool he bought another one. He was not yet Isaac Newton the greatest scientist ever. He was merely an unpopular, solitary, brilliant college student. Then an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in England, as happened every so often. The only way to avoid catching it was to avoid other people—not a problem for the unsociable Newton. In 1666, at age 24, Newton left college to wait out the plague in his mother’s farmhouse, with his prisms and other science toys. While…

Suddenly it moves, morphing into a huge, round shape. Faster than you can blink, an octopus emerges, its body flashing white with an enormous fake eyespot, its eight arms spread. Then, in a cloud of ink, it swims away. Artists of Deception Octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish–all members of a group of animals called cephalopods—are the fastest quick-change artists on the planet. They don’t just wear camouflage suits. They constantly change color and even shape to blend in with everything from coral reefs to kelp forests to sandy seafloors. “Cephalopods are the only animals we know that can move anywhere on the reef, sand plain, or mud plain and camouflage themselves,” says Roger Hanlon, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Hanlon studies cephalopods in their natural…

Send your letters to Ask, 1 East Erie Street, Suite 525, PMB4136, Chicago, IL 60611, or have your parent/guardian email us at ask@cricketmedia.com. Dear Elvis,It is fun to read the magazine at the library. I wrote this acrostic poem 2 days ago. I hope you like it. Balloons Balloons Balloons everywhere Lots of hearts on the balloons Up they go high in the sky Everywhere you see them fly.Avyaan, age 7 Dear Avyaan,Always be looking up, View on view on view Yonder you may see A cloud, a hawk, aurora, all Astonishingly New.Dream on! Elvis Dear Whatson,What is your favorite series? Mine is a series called Warrior Cats. My favorite animal is cats. What is yours?Sarah B., age 9,Maryland Dear Sarah,There are so many great series, and animals! Personally, I…