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

THOUSANDS OF computers around the world are working together to hunt for prime numbers. At the end of 2017, a computer in Tennessee found a new one. This prime number is the longest ever discovered: it has more than 23 million digits. A prime number can only be divided by itself and 1. The number 11 is prime. So is 13. But the new prime number is a special kind called a Mersenne prime. You get a Mersenne prime by multiplying 2 by itself a certain number of times, then subtracting 1. For example, 7 is a Mersenne prime: you multiply 2 x 2 x 2 to get 8, then subtract 1 to get 7. To get the new number, you multiply 2 by itself 77,232,917 times, then subtract 1.…

HUMANS WEREN’T the only ancient cave painters. That’s what scientists say after calculating the age of artwork in three Spanish caves. All three sites are at least 64,000 years old, they found. But humans didn’t spread into Europe from Africa until 20,000 years later. That means the early cave painters must have been our cousins—Neandertals. The finding is a surprise to researchers. Ancient humans left behind lots of cave artwork. But scientists thought Neandertals, a separate species, didn’t make art. The Neandertal paintings in Spain include a hand outline, a rectangle, and a rocky formation painted red. That’s the news! Go to page 43 to see if you spotted the false story.…

Linda Bartoshuk made an incredible discovery in the 1990s, while she was at Yale Medical School. She was fascinated by the way different people perceive tastes. Using a new measurement technique that she and her students developed, she tested hundreds of people to discover how sweet or salty or sour or bitter various solutions were to them. She discovered a large range of taste perceptions. One person might find grapefruit juice unbearably bitter, and another might find it mildly bitter, while another may find it not bitter at all. Bartoshuk calls those who experience tastes most intensely “supertasters.” These are people with many more than the average number of taste buds on their tongues. They rate sweets as sweeter and salts as saltier. They tend to avoid foods like broccoli,…

The three pictures above were taken on the same airplane ride. What do you notice? I took the first picture just outside Kathmandu, Nepal. The air is thick with dust. The second picture has a view of the Himalayas, the mountain range including the tallest peak in the world, Everest. The air is clear, and you can see the blue sky. In the third picture, outside Delhi, India, pollution fills the air. How does the air look outside your window today? The Chemistry of Air Air is useful, especially if you like breathing. Air contains the oxygen (O2 ) we need. However, air is only 21 percent oxygen. Much of the rest of air—78 percent—is nitrogen (N2 ). Most nitrogen remains in the air. A small amount changes to different forms and…

You’ll need: Four-sided cookie sheet Parchment paper Butter knife 2-pound block white or clear glycerin with suspension formula (Find it at the craft store or online.) Microwave-safe bowl Fork 2 teaspoons honey (Raw is best, but any kind will work.) 1/4 cup ground oatmeal (Let an adult whir the flakes in a coffee grinder or blender until powdery.) 1/4 cup used coffee grounds—brewed with hot water and dried completely (This step is important. If you drop fresh grounds into hot glycerin, the coffee will brew in the batch and make a huge mess!) 1/4 cup oatmeal flakes Cookie cutters Cardboard box (A large shoebox will do.) Waxed paper Plain brown paper…

Flour comes from grinding up grains of wheat into a powder. A grain of wheat is the seed that grows on a wheat plant. It’s made of three parts: the bran is the shell that covers the grain; the germ is the embryo that can sprout into a plant; and the endosperm is the biggest part, mostly made of starch. White flour is made only from the endosperm. It makes for lighter and whiter bread. But it’s less nutritious. Whole-wheat flour, on the other hand, is made from grinding up the entire grain. The bran and germ contain a lot of fiber and nutrients, making wholewheat breads, pastas, and other foods healthier. But some people say white bread tastes better. Whole-wheat bread can be bitter. Recently, chemists at the Ohio…

For people with celiac disease or a wheat allergy, a tiny grain of flour may cause serious health problems. It’s great for these people to have gluten-free options. But not everyone who makes gluten-free foods is careful enough. “Flour is lighter than air,” explains Nicole Hunn. For this reason, she doesn’t allow any gluten-containing ingredients or foods into her home. It’s too difficult to avoid contamination. When baking something gluten free for a friend or family member, keep in mind that it’s important to avoid gluten in the kitchen space and cooking tools as well as in the ingredients.…

Healers have used willow bark to treat pain and fever since the time of the ancient Egyptians, if not earlier. In 1763, Reverend Edward Stone first “properly” tested it. First, he took it for his own fever. When it worked, he pulverized a pound of the stuff and over the course of several years, gave it to about 50 other people with fevers. He checked that willow bark was safe and that it knocked out their fevers. Later, scientist Friedrich Kolbe identified and manufactured salicylic acid, the bark’s pain-reducing ingredient. But people who used it often felt queasy. In 1897, Felix Hoffman, kind son and scientist, noticed that the medicine hurt his dad’s stomach. Hoffman made salicylic acid gentler and called it “Aspirin.” In 1971, Nobel Prize–winning chemist John Vane…

WHEN A 14-year-old in Pennsylvania discovered that his skin had taken on a purplish hue, no matter how much he showered, doctors were stumped at first. But they eventually found the culprit: a serious love of potatoes. Between French fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, tater tots, and other favorites, the boy was eating at least a pound a day of potatoes. That made a molecule from the potatoes build up in his skin. In sunlight, this molecule turns purple. Since the vegetables grow underground, potato flesh stays white. But the young potato fan spent lots of time playing sports outdoors. Instead of getting tan, he got lavender. Doctors say the condition isn’t dangerous, but it’s always a good idea to mix up your diet.…

Do you ever wonder what makes some packaged foods and drinks taste great? Well, a chemist such as Uma Parasar might be the one to thank. Parasar is a senior research fellow with the research and development flavors team at International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc. (IFF). You can taste flavors her lab has created in all kinds of things—juices, yogurts, candy, potato chips, and chocolate. Specifically, as a toxicologist, Parasar is responsible for making sure the flavors her company makes are safe to eat and drink. WHY DO YOU LIKE CHEMISTRY? We humans are made up of chemicals and so is the natural world, as well as the materials-based world. Embracing chemistry helps us appreciate our amazing world and not fear it. I wanted to be a chemist to solve…

Q: If the Earth is always pulling stuff towards it, why doesn’t the atmosphere collapse? —Jasper, 9, Vermont A: When it comes to the atmosphere, there are two important forces at work, says Elizabeth Barnes, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. Gravity, the force that pulls all sorts of stuff toward the Earth, is just one of them. But it’s an important one. In fact, gravity is the reason our planet has an atmosphere in the first place. It’s the force that keeps the molecules of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases close to the surface of the Earth where we can breathe them. “Gravity is winning, at first,” Barnes says. “It’s pulling all of the air closer and closer to the Earth.” The constant tug of gravity means there…

Ingredients Cooking oil spray 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed well 2 eggs (100 g, weighed out of shell), at room temperature 1/4 cup (56 g) neutral oil like grapeseed, canola, or vegetable 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee (can use decaf) 3/4 cup (60 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-processed) 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 3/4 cup (164 g) packed light brown sugar 3 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (optional) Directions 1. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Spray the paper with cooking oil, and set the pan aside. 2. In a blender or food processor, place the drained and rinsed beans, eggs, oil, vanilla and coffee, and blend until…

When he was a kid, Arthur Benjamin liked to show off. Now he’s a math professor at Harvey Mudd College—and a professional magician. Unlike some other magicians, Benjamin doesn’t pull rabbits out of hats. Instead, he amazes audiences by multiplying large numbers in his head super fast. Benjamin says that anyone—young or old—can learn to do the same feats of mental arithmetic. All it takes is a memory for numbers and the trick of calculating from left to right. Suppose you want to multiply 37 by 6. Starting from the left, you would multiply 30 by 6 to get 180. Then, 7 times 6 equals 42. Add 42 to 180 to get 222. How would you multiply 359 by 7? Multiply 300 by 7 to get 2,100. In the next…

Your genes determined whether you were born with a male or female body. But that’s not true for all animals. In sea turtles, like many other reptiles, being male or female depends on temperature. Mother sea turtles bury their eggs in the sand. If the sand is warm, more of those eggs will develop into female turtles. If it’s cooler, more will be male when they hatch. Now global climate change is tipping the balance. Researchers compared two groups of green sea turtles, an endangered species. One group hatches from nests near the northern end of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. That end is closer to the equator. The other turtles hatch near the southern end of the reef, where it’s cooler. You can’t tell whether a baby sea turtle is…

Everything we can touch, taste, or smell is made of chemicals. Chemicals come in the form of atoms or molecules. Atoms are the basic building blocks of all the stuff around us. They bind together to make molecules. Molecules are much too small to see, but everything that takes up space is made of molecules—including our own bodies! What isn’t a chemical? A daydream isn’t a chemical. Light and electricity aren’t chemicals. Love is more than a chemical (though sometimes when people fall in love they say it’s chemistry!). Anything made of atoms is a chemical. Most things in our world are mixtures of chemicals. And that includes us.…

People have been baking and eating bread for at least 30,000 years. But even today, bakers, farmers, and scientists are still working together to make even better bread. Stephen Jones and others at the Bread Lab at Washington State University are developing different kinds of wheat—just like there are different kinds of apples. The scientists are working with farmers and bakers to grow wheat that’s more delicious and nutritious. They’re also working on developing better wheat for specific purposes, like for cookies or cakes. But it’s not just about making better-tasting food. Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world. The grain provides 20 percent of all calories that every person on the planet eats. There are now 7.6 billion people on Earth. By 2050, there will…

The stench of dirty sweat socks filled the air. But no one had been to the gym. The awful smell emanated from Nicole Hunn’s oven. She was baking a cake. And it contained flour made from garbanzo beans. “When you bake with bean flours, they stink!” she says. But she wasn’t upset about the smell. “I was so stupid and happy,” she says. Crummy Cupcakes She was happy because she was making something that her son could eat. He has celiac disease. People with this disease get very sick if they eat anything containing gluten. Gluten is a mixture of two proteins found in many grains. These include wheat, barley, and rye. Wheat is in all-purpose baking flour. The ingredient finds its way into all sorts of foods. Cakes, cookies,…

Imagine coming home from school with a raging fever. Yesterday you cut your finger on a piece of dirty glass, and now it’s all red and swollen. It’s infected. You feel awful. Fortunately, your doctor prescribes some pills that you must take twice a day, every day, for two weeks. Soon you’re feeling great again. What if no medicine existed for infections? Long, long ago, your local wise person might brew herb or flower potions to try to help. Or you might get better anyway because of your body’s fantastic ability to fight germs. But there is a risk that without modern medicine, you might never recover. Today making medicines is a scientific process—and a big business—with strict rules. What Makes Us Sick? Scientists and doctors study the things that…

“I say study chemistry wherever you can.”—Carolyn Bertozzi Human bodies are like complex chemical factories that usually work very well. But sometimes, things go wrong. How does that happen? To figure out how chemicals in our bodies work—or, sometimes, how they don’t—one person to turn to is Carolyn Bertozzi. She is a medical researcher and professor at Stanford University in California. Bertozzi combines her knowledge of biology and chemistry to better understand health and sickness. At the Bertozzi Research Group at Stanford, she works with other scientists and students to study what our bodies’ many chemicals are doing. The components of chemicals are called molecules. According to Bertozzi, “Molecules are where the action takes place.” WE READ YOU ONCE PLAYED IN A BAND AND CONSIDERED MAJORING IN MUSIC. WHEN DID…