Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

Why can scientists use radar to look through miles of ice—but not very far into bedrock? Radio glaciologist Dustin Schroeder says it all comes down to wavelengths. Light with different wavelengths interacts with the world in different ways. We can see certain wavelengths as the colors of the rainbow. Other wavelengths can pass right through us—x-rays at the dentist’s or doctor’s office, for example. Another example is your microwave. It generates waves with a specific wavelength that interact with liquid water. The waves transfer energy to the molecules of water in food. Those molecules start to vibrate, which warms up the water and thus the food. But what happens when you place a mug full of ice cubes in the microwave? Even though the ice is still water, the solid…

You’re in the Arctic, a region around the North Pole. The temperature is around -20° F (-29° C). Want to go out and play? How would you survive? The best way to live well in the Arctic would be to watch people who are already here. If you want to catch a fish, ask a fisherman, right? In this case, you might ask someone whose people have lived in the Arctic for some 5,000 years. Long ago there were no supermarkets, phones, or cars. Times have changed for most Native or Indigenous Arctic peoples. Modern life has arrived, but their wisdom remains. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE Traditionally, Native Arctic peoples relied on hunting, fishing, herding, and gathering wild plants. Indigenous groups in these regions include the Iñupiat, Nenet, and Sámi. They live…

BACTERIA Poop Transplants Make Koalas Less Picky It’s hard to be a koala. These Australian animals are running out of places to live as humans cut down forests to build up their cities. Koalas are also in danger from diseases and cars. On top of that, the animals are picky eaters. They only eat the leaves of trees called eucalyptus. And some only eat certain kinds of eucalyptus. Their gut bacteria might be to blame. Bacteria living in koalas’ intestines help break down their food. (Bacteria in the guts of humans and other animals do the same thing.) Some of these microbes come out in an animal’s feces. Researchers studied the poop of 200 koalas around Australia. They found that most of the koalas ate just one type of eucalyptus…

Glaciers are made of snow that has been smooshed into very large ice masses. How large? To be officially called a glacier, it must cover an area greater than 25 acres, which is about 19 football fields put together. In addition to snow, they can contain ice, rock, dirt, and water. Glaciers form anyplace where snow builds up and doesn’t entirely melt during the summer. The largest glacier in the world is the Lambert-Fisher Glacier in Antarctica. It’s 250 miles (about 400 km) long and 60 miles (about 100 km) wide. Currently, glacial ice covers 10 percent of all land on Earth. This ice contains approximately 70 percent of the world’s freshwater!…

It’s a place where you can get close to space and still be on the ground. The Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole in Antarctica has a small but powerful telescope. The telescope is detecting the tiny wavelengths of radiation that were created when the universe was new. Scientists call this radiation the cosmic microwave background. One goal of using the telescope, says Esra Bulbul, is to measure fundamental properties of the universe. Bulbul works alongside many other scientists at the South Pole Telescope. She is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Astrophysicists use the laws of physics and chemistry to study objects in the universe. The telescope scans the sky for signs of the cosmic microwave background passing through clusters of galaxies. “As a result, it detects…

If you are passionate about both art and science, the answer is YES. One of the most important things you can do to practice is carry a sketchbook and capture your everyday experiences by drawing and writing down what you observe. The pages can be a very messy and unfinished, or they might have a perfect drawing or an answered question. Often, it isn’t what ends up on the page that matters. It’s the discoveries made through the process. A sketchbook is your personal encyclopedia. Try this: sit down, take three deep breaths, and set a timer for 60 seconds. During that time, do nothing but observe your surroundings using your eyes, ears, and nose. Then, on a blank page describe everything you perceived—what colors did you see? Did anything…

If you’ve got questions about being in extreme cold, then Stephen Sau-Shing Cheung—also known as Dr. Freeze—is the person to talk to. He’s a professor of kinesiology (the study of body movement) and a researcher at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. He figures out how to survive in very hot and very cold places and how to work and play there comfortably. YOU’RE IN A FIELD CALLED ENVIRONMENTAL ERGONOMICS. WHAT IS THAT? It’s the study of how hot and cold temperatures affect our bodies. We figure out how to make visiting places like tall mountains or space safer. Same with activities like scuba diving. SO REALLY COLD WEATHER IS FASCINATING TO YOU. It’s always amazing seeing how much the body can adapt to extreme environments. I hate living in the…

Jay Nadeau has studied biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and physics. She uses her skills to look for microbial life on other planets and icy moons, like those of Jupiter and Saturn. While most researchers are currently searching for life indirectly by looking for chemical and molecular signatures, Nadeau wants proof in pictures. She’s working on designing microscopes that could someday travel on an unmanned rocket to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, or other far reaches of our solar system. Then the spacecraft could send microbial pictures back to Earth. Nadeau spends much of her time looking at microbes either at her lab in Portland, Oregon, or on the ice in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, which offers great testing grounds for what life-providing conditions might be like on other icy planets.…

Life at the Earth’s poles is brutally cold. Yet animals still make their homes there. How do they survive? “For us, really cold temperatures and ice and snow present challenging conditions, but for the animals that live there that’s exactly what they have evolved to live in,” says Elisabeth Kruger, senior program officer for arctic wildlife at the World Wildlife Fund. Animals that don’t migrate to warmer regions or sleep the coldest months away find other ways to deal with harsh weather. Read on to see what adaptations have enabled animals to thrive in the coldest environments on Earth. POLAR BEARS WEAR DOUBLE-DUTY FUR COATS Polar bears are doubly protected from the cold by two layers of fur. A dense undercoat keeps them warm while an oily, water-repellent layer of…

Ever wondered why people have no fur to keep us warm? As a species, humans first developed in Africa, where our ancestors lived in tropical forests. Climate change that occurred more than five million years ago likely forced humans to adapt to living in grasslands. That new environment required significant changes. Dark skin and eye colors protected early humans from sunburns and blindness. A reduction in body fur, combined with sweat glands, allowed them to keep cool. And walking upright enabled them to carry things and watch for predators. Other early body features included long arms and legs that exposed plenty of skin for sweating and staying cool. That’s how the first humans survived for several million years. Around two million years ago, some early humans left Africa and moved…

Extreme Sketching In “Drawing Under Ice,” science illustrator Kirsten Carlson explored the mysterious world of life in the Southern Ocean. Her illustrations showed us creatures that thrive in those dark, freezing waters. Send us a drawing of a life form that lives in extreme conditions—real or imaginary! Take a page from Carlson’s (sketch)book and write down your observations: make sure you label your drawing clearly and tell us where this life form lives. 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…