Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

Edgar Degas is a beloved 19th-century impressionist painter from France. But one of his paintings, Portrait of a Woman, doesn’t look so great. As the oil paint has faded over the decades, a dark cloud has appeared on the woman’s face. It’s the shadow of an earlier painting that Degas covered up. Finally, we can see what the hidden painting looks like. Researchers brought Portrait of a Woman to a particle accelerator called a synchrotron. The device generates a narrow, intense X-ray beam. The team used this beam to scan the artwork and map out the chemical elements in the hidden painting. Knowing those elements allowed them to guess what paint colors are hiding on each part of the canvas. Zinc probably came from white paint, for example. Mercury was…

Meet Valerie L. Buxton, park ranger turned frog wrangler. Buxton began her biology career as a kid collecting caterpillars and chasing butterflies. In time, she graduated to birds of prey, shorebirds, and salamanders. Recently Buxton has been kneeling in the dirt, building artificial ponds in the forests of Indiana and then decorating them with sticks and leaves to make them attractive to frogs. She sets up audio equipment near the ponds to record and serenade the frogs. Here she shares tips on how to make a recording of a Cope’s gray treefrog calling—and how to use it for conservation. WHAT’S A COPE’S GRAY TREEFROG LIKE? They’re fairly lightweight with coarse or grainy skin and sticky toe pads. They are likely to jump right out of your hand if you don’t…

While cars zoom across the Newport Bridge and boats sail beneath it, divers scour the seafloor. In murky water off the coast of Rose Island, they flip over rocks, canvass inside cracks, and scan the sand, but they can’t find what they’re looking for. So they check other sites in the bay. Finally, in much deeper water, they spot the subject of their search—tiny lobsters. The beady-eyed creatures creep along the cobbled bottom, twitching their antennae. Logging Lobsters The divers were working with Richard Wahle, a scientist and professor at the School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine. Back in 1990, Wahle conducted a survey of juvenile American lobsters in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Now, more than two decades later, Wahle wanted to know how climate change had affected New…

You hop in the car to ride to soccer practice. What do you expect to happen on the way? You might have to waste time stuck in traffic or sit through awful music on the radio. But the trip will almost certainly go smoothly, as usual. You might even make great time and get to hear your favorite song. Yet you buckle your seat belt anyway. Why do you do that? Because every time you get in a car, there is a very small chance that you might get in an accident that could hurt or even kill you. Arguing that we shouldn’t do anything to prepare for climate change because disaster is unlikely is like arguing that you shouldn’t wear a seat belt because you probably won’t get into…

NEW CONTEST Ode of an Activist Use music or poetry to show us what you’re passionate about! Write us some lyrics or a poem about protecting the environment like climate-change activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. CONTEST RULES 1. Your contest entry must be your very own original work. Ideas and words should not be copied. 2. Be sure to include your name, age, and full address on your entry. 3. Only one entry per person, please. 4. If you want your work returned, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. 5. All entries must be signed by a parent or legal guardian, saying that this is your own work and no help was given and granting permission to publish. For detailed information about our compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, visit the…

MEETING MINUTES, FEBRUARY 1, 2017 Call to order. No one is here. REPORTS FROM MEMBERS: Brianna: The catbox doesn’t really need cleaning. Lucy: I haven’t studied, but I’m going to ace the algebra test. Sam: Yesterday my parents said I can’t have a hoverboard, but tomorrow they’ll say yes. Fiona: My phone isn’t really lost. Bob: Winter will never, ever end. PROJECT REPORTS: Mascot Committee: All agree on the ostrich-with-head-in-sand idea. Everybody also thinks it will be easy to make a whole bunch of mascot costumes so the entire club can march in parades (and do synchronized dances) as ostriches. Fundraising Committee: Several members suggest we hold bake sales every Friday next month in order to meet our goal of raising $100,000. Other members suggest one bake sale with really…

Imagine getting a lecture from your parents before you’ve even left the womb. Well, one little feathered friend knows what it’s like to have parents chirping orders before birth. In 2016, researchers at Deakin University in Australia found that Australian zebra finches prep their chicks for a warming world by giving them a lesson before they’ve hatched. Scientists discovered the songbirds make special calls when alone with their eggs. Turns out these calls happen when it’s hot outside, specifically when temperatures rise above 78.8° Fahrenheit (26° Celsius). But chicks don’t feel temperature changes before they hatch. Parents keep the internal egg temperature at a consistent 99.9°F (37°C). So researchers decided to experiment. They played the recorded “it’s hot outside” call to incubating eggs, while a control group didn’t get any…

In the hot and hazy days of summer, New Englanders flock to the shore to cool off and to indulge in favorite foods. Lobster has long been a part of New England’s culture and history. This iconic crustacean is often cooked whole; diners crack the shell and dip the tender meat in butter. Lobster rolls—buttered buns filled with lobster salad—are so popular that, across New England and in upstate New York, even McDonalds sells them. The ten-legged creatures have long been plentiful in the region. Native Americans used them as fertilizer and fish bait. In the 1600s and 1700s, colonists fed the meat to servants and prisoners. Today, the green-tinged animals (bright red after steaming) are considered gourmet fare. In most of New England, you can order lobsters at restaurants…

AS YOU KNOW IF YOU’VE ever dropped your smartphone on your face while lying in bed, most electronic devices are hard. The buttons and trackpads we use to operate them are stiff too. But what if they were soft and stretchy instead? Researchers are working on a new kind of electronic touchpad that’s exactly that. They built the pad from a soft, see-through material called a hydrogel. It’s extremely flexible—it can stretch to 10 times its original size without breaking. In a demonstration video, the clear pad was wrapped around a person’s forearm. The person tapped on it like a keyboard to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Someday this technology could let you type or play games on all kinds of soft surfaces—or at least make your late-night text messaging…

FROM THE outside, a human brain looks like one solid blob of crinkly, gray tissue. But different areas of that blob do very different jobs. Researchers recently created the most detailed map ever of those brain areas. The scientists studied the cortex, or outermost brain region, of 210 adults. They looked at brain scans called magnetic resonance images (MRIs). Based on the structure of the brain and what the scans revealed about brain activity, the scientists decided where to draw lines between different brain regions. They ended up with a map showing 180 unique areas. Compared to early maps, 97 of those areas are brand new. Doctors and scientists may be able to use the new map to better navigate this mysterious organ.…

Let’s start out with a simple experiment. Go to your kitchen sink and put about half an inch of hot water in a liquid measuring cup or a glass. Then get a single ice cube, drop it in, and see what happens. Everyone who tries this is will have varying water temperatures, naturally, so cubes will melt at different speeds. The result will be the same, though: eventually, you’ll end up with no ice and a higher water level. Ice in warm water melts even faster than ice left out in a warm room. Now imagine that on a larger scale—in fact, we want you to imagine that on a worldwide scale—and you have a rough idea of what’s happening in the Earth’s oceans. THE OCEAN TODAY Ice once stored…

Xiuhtezcatl (pronounced SHU-tez-caat) Martinez is a 16-year-old with big hopes for the Earth’s future. Since he was 6, he has dedicated his life to the fight for global environmental health. By age 13, he had received a presidential award for his work and was selected as one of the leading youth changemakers by the Campaign for a Presidential Youth Council. Xiuhtezcatl, whose name means “Turquoise Mirror,” has brought together youth from around the world to act as warriors defending our planet. As the youth director for the Earth Guardians, an international organization of activists who work to create a sustainable future, Xiuhtezcatl leads kids and teens to take action and protect the Earth. In his work, Xiuhtezcatl has spoken to world leaders at United Nations assemblies around the globe, encouraging…

ADDRESSING EARTH’S climate won’t be just for tomorrow’s climate scientists. It’s going to be every scientist’s job, calling on every discipline, and often in ways you might not expect. And since new careers in science and technology are just emerging, the real question is, what fresh ideas and inventions will help solve the challenges of a changing climate—and how will you be a part of it? AEROSPACE ENGINEER ○ MY CHOICE They design aircraft, right? And today’s airplanes use fossil fuels, whose carbon emissions affect the climate. Flying on less carbon will be a pressing need. Are you good at math? Do you like to design things? Have you ever won a paper-airplane race? YES! ○ NO THANKS ○ COMPUTER SCIENTIST ○ MY CHOICE They develop hardware and software. Smarter…