Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2018 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

There’s bad news for anyone who was hoping to meet a yeti someday. When scientists analyzed pieces of “evidence” for these creatures, they found that all had ordinary explanations. The yeti is a mythical beast similar to Bigfoot. It supposedly roams the snowy Himalaya Mountains in Asia. Some people have collected clues that yetis exist. These clues include bits of bone, fur, teeth, and even poop. Researchers studied the DNA in nine of these samples. They found that eight had actually come from bears. The ninth came from a dog. It wasn’t all about debunking yetis, though. The study also taught scientists more about the genes of bears that live in the area. One of these stories is FALSE. Can you spot which one? The answer is on page 44.…

ANYONE WHO’S sent a text message has made a mistake. When you’re poking tiny letters on your phone with your big thumbs, it’s easy to mess up. That’s why smartphones have “auto-correct,” a tool to fix your errors as you go. If you type “Srt yiu sppm,” your phone will understand that you meant “See you soon!” and send the right message to your friend. Now there’s an app that does the same thing for speech. It autocorrects your grammar while you talk on the phone. The new app is called Speakwell. Developers are still perfecting the technology so it works with all different voices and many languages. When you use the app, the person on the other end of the phone will hear your words after a very short…

Most of these corrections appeared in print or online news media. But watch out: two of the corrections are fictitious. Read them all and then decide for yourself—which are real corrections and which are fake? 1 This sentence originally misstated that Philip is Mr. Slate’s sloth. Philip is his turtle. ○ REAL ○ FAKE 2 Editor’s note: the divination method used to locate ground water is called dowsing, not drowning. We regret the error. ○ REAL ○ FAKE 3 An obituary on Sept. 20 about Hiroshi Yamauchi, the longtime president of Nintendo, included a quotation from a 1988 New York Times article that inaccurately described the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. 2. The brothers Mario and Luigi, who appear in this and other Nintendo games, are plumbers, not janitors.…

January 9, 2007. San Francisco, California. Steve Jobs walked onto the stage in front of a cheering crowd. Wearing his signature black turtleneck and jeans, he waited for quiet. The crowd held its breath. “We’re going to make some history together today,” he said. Then he introduced the iPhone. Two Sides to the Story Steve Jobs was a hero of the tech world. But it wasn’t always this way. Jobs, the designer of some of the world’s most popular products, made serious mistakes too. Jobs’ career spanned three decades. He changed the way people do business and connect with family and friends. But he also hurt people close to him. He cofounded Apple. It’s responsible for iPhones plus iPods, iMacs, MacBooks, and iPads. But he also lived the nightmare of…

Spectacular Slip-ups In science—and in life—you can’t be afraid to make mistakes. In fact, making mistakes can sometimes lead to surprising discoveries, useful lessons, or even cool inventions. In 200 words or fewer, tell us about a real or fictional mistake that turned out to be a good thing after all. (Please tell us whether your story is fiction or nonfiction!) 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…

EXERCISE CAN change the shape of our bodies as it strengthens our muscles. Think about the difference between a lanky marathon runner and a bulky weightlifter. Exercise also shapes our bones, though it’s harder to see. The stress on our bones from pushing, pulling, and pounding can change them over time. Researchers looked at these effects in the skeletons of ancient women—and found that they were seriously strong. The scientists studied shin and arm bones from women throughout history. The oldest ones lived more than 7,000 years ago, in the Stone Age. The youngest skeletons came from the Middle Ages in Europe, around the year 800. Scientists compared the shape and stiffness of their bones to the bones of living women. Ancient women’s leg bones looked similar to those of…

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION looks pretty different from a house on Earth. It doesn’t have normal chairs or beds or doors, and everything that isn’t tied down floats. But the space station does resemble a person’s home if you look very, very, very closely. Astronauts used swabs to sample 15 surfaces around the space station. These included keyboards, air vents, telephones, a handrail, and the controller for a robotic arm. Then they sent the swabs back to Earth. Scientists analyzed the DNA in each sample to find out what microbes were there. The researchers found a surprisingly diverse group of bacteria onboard the space station. But these life forms aren’t aliens. They traveled to space from Earth by hitching a ride on astronauts or their stuff. The bacterial community looks…

One of these images shows a REAL painting by artist Johannes Vermeer. The other shows a FAKE Vermeer. Can you tell which is which? Han van Meegeren was a painter with a problem. He tried to sell artwork under his own name, but the critics of the 1920s weren’t keen on it. They were excited by newer, abstract forms of art, like cubism or surrealism. Van Meegeren, on the other hand, painted in a very traditional, realistic style. The Dutch artist decided to trick the art world. He wanted to prove that he could paint just as well as any of the famous old masters. Van Meegeren became an art forger. A forger creates art but claims a famous artist made it. He or she may sell this fake work…

First off, I would like to let you know that I am Greek and Italian, and I am a TOTAL “Potterhead” (Harry Potter nerd). My name is Athena, and did you know that’s the name of a Greek goddess? Athena is the goddess of wisdom and military victory and is the patron of the city of Athens. I would like it if you could do an issue on at least one of the following four topics: Greece and its culture; Italy and its culture; Harry Potter books/movies; or a breathing disorder called vocal cord dysfunction that I have. Just a fair warning . . . if you don’t publish my letter, I WILL send a LOT of turquoise and white bunnies with Greek-key designs, along with my (almost) 100-pound German…

TICKS ARE tiny bugs that latch onto the skin of people or animals and suck their blood. Some ticks can carry diseases. Now researchers think these pests bugged dinosaurs too. Scientists found ticks inside ancient pieces of amber from Myanmar. Amber is fossilized tree goo. Pieces of amber may hold perfectly preserved remains of things that got stuck in the goo millions of years ago. These amber chunks held two kinds of ticks. The bugs probably lived about 99 million years ago, during the Cretaceous era. One of the preserved ticks was clinging to a dinosaur feather. Another tick was stuffed full of blood. Researchers think the ancient pests feasted on dinos just like they do on animals today.…

Q: Will humans evolve in the future? —Audrey, age 11, California A: “There’s no doubt in my mind,” says Chris Tyler-Smith, a geneticist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom (UK). Human evolution happens through a process called natural selection. That means people with a particular trait have more babies than people without that trait, and those babies survive to have more babies themselves. As long as some people die before they have children, “natural selection will be influencing who survives and reproduces,” says Tyler-Smith. Human evolution usually takes a while—like, millions of years—before clear changes become apparent. But sometimes it can happen in just a few thousand years, especially when people move into challenging new environments. For example, people living in the Himalayas in Tibet and in…

Han van Meegeren was a good painter, with ample skills to copy Vermeer’s technique. But he also had to make his paintings seem 300 years old. How did he do that? USE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT First, van Meegeren bought cheap paintings from the 1600s and scraped down the old paints. Now he had canvases from the correct time period. He created paintbrushes out of badger hair, since that’s what Vermeer used. He tracked down old formulas and made his pigments out of raw materials like lapis lazuli, white lead, indigo, and cinnabar—just like Vermeer. GET IT OLD—FAST Vermeer had mixed his pigments with oil to make oil paint. Oil paint, though, takes decades to properly dry. In van Meegeren’s day, the main way to test whether a painting was old…

Cold fusion today is a confusing heap of hype mixed with a dash of real science. But hot fusion continues to plod forward, slowly but surely inching towards success. In hot fusion devices, giant magnets or lasers heat and compress fuel until it forms a plasma. With enough heat and pressure, the fuel begins to fuse, generating energy. Hot fusion works, but it takes a lot of energy to inflict so much heat and pressure. All of today’s fusion devices use up more energy than they produce. But many researchers are working on different methods that promise to turn fusion into a reliable source of energy. In France, a coalition of countries is working together to build a massive fusion machine called ITER. It will use powerful magnets to heat…

The letters a, b, and c show up in several different places in number theory. You may have seen the equation a2 + b2 = c2 , also called the Pythagorean theorem. In this instance, a and b represent the lengths of the two short sides, or legs, of a right triangle, and c is the long side, also called the hypotenuse. The lengths a, b, and c don’t have to be whole numbers, but some whole numbers fulfill the equation. The smallest example is (3,4,5). If you square all three of them, you find that 32 + 42 = 52 , or 9 + 16 = 25. A triple of whole numbers that satisfies the equation a2 + b2 = c2 is called a Pythagorean triple. In 1637, a…

DAY 1: Oh yeah, baby. Time to ROCK THIS. Totally going to make gum that does not get stuck in hair. Today, I shall combine solution A with solution B. Results: That was a really loud explosion. DAY 2: OK, right. I got this. Today: seemingly ordinary dish soap shall be mixed with solution A. Results: Whoa. Truly did not think the whole room could fill up with so many bubbles. (And who knew bubbles could explode?) DAY 3: No worries. NOW I’ve got it. Solution B with finely chopped cabbage. Results: Guess what? This stuff does not get stuck in hair! But also: it is absolutely unchewable!!!! :( DAY 4: Gonna be honest. Totally lost. What is gum? Why is hair. Okayyy. I shall mix super finely chopped cabbage…