Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

Old Cats, Old Friends My name is Izzy and I love horses, reading, writing, and Muse. I especially loved the invention issue (February 2019) because it inspired me to invent. I have always wanted a coat of fur, and the issue on survival in freezing climates (January 2019), explained why we humans don’t have fur. I think you should do an article about the growing demand for cats in nursing homes. —IZZY G. / Maryland Ad Psychology I wish I could say I am the queen (ruler, commander, etcetera) of something, like nearly everyone else does. But all I can claim is that I am 10-year-old girl who really likes Muse. I am wondering if you could write an issue about the psychology of advertising, and the different strategies employed.…

Do you ever feel really afraid of failing? Do you think you have to be perfect all the time? If you do, someone like Sheila Josephs, a psychologist, may be able to help. She’s an expert at helping perfectionists, especially kids, not be so hard on themselves. Josephs initially became interested in helping people overcome their anxieties while she was a camp counselor. “I helped a girl who had completely stopped speaking overcome her fears. Seeing her ultimately give a speech to the whole camp was amazing. Through that experience I learned that I could make a big difference in kids’ lives through providing caring, empathy, and support,” says Josephs. WHAT IS UNHEALTHY PERFECTIONISM? Perfectionism in any shape or form is unhealthy! It is a way of thinking that says…

UP IN SPACE Hello, and Goodbye, to a Mini-Moon IN FEBRUARY, ASTRONOMERS MADE A SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT: EARTH HAD TWO MOONS, NOT ONE. The first was the big moon we all know and love. The second moon was tiny in comparison, only about as big as a car. It likely started as an asteroid flying through space, then got caught in Earth’s gravity and started circling our planet instead. Astronomers named the mini-moon 2020 CD3. They calculated that it may already have been orbiting Earth for a few years. But the friendship between Earth and our new rocky pal didn’t last long. By mid-March, 2020 CD3 had spun away, pulled by the sun’s stronger gravity. Now it’s orbiting the sun—just like we are. HOT TAKE Quick: What’s This Picture? DO YOU…

1 Close your eyes and imagine what you want to draw. Create a story behind it to help give personality to your character. 2 Think of a shape that will fit the character you’ve envisioned (i.e., circle, rectangle, oval, triangle). Use the golden spiral as a guide and lightly sketch the outline of the head and body. 3 Draw the details of the face, including the eyes, ears, and nose. 4 Add a gesture. Lightly sketch the arms and hands in a way that suggests movement, such as eating. 5 Draw your character’s legs and feet. They might be straight or bent to show motion. Break up your proportions, or avoid the ladder, by drawing the feet near the end of the spiral. 6 Include any additional features. In this…

I am a game developer. When my coworkers and I talk about “perfection” in games—whether video or board games, war games or roleplaying games—we don’t mean it in the way you might expect. That’s because no game is the “best,” and experts can’t agree on what that would look like anyway. Take even the most beloved game and you’ll find someone who doesn’t like it. For example, you might find a game too easy, while I find it too difficult. Or you might prefer multiplayer battles, but I want my games to be single player and story focused. Instead, when game developers use the word perfect, they’re talking about games being “perfected.” And for the people making these games, it’s usually a bad thing if that happens. But to explore…

Q: Why is a group of crows called a “murder?” —Laura M., Alabama A: Poor crows. They can’t help it that they’re such a Halloween-y looking bird, and on top of that we saddled them with a word like “murder.” But they’re actually not the only animal with an unusual group name. These words for groups of animals are called terms of venery. “Venery” is an old word for “hunting.” During the Medieval period in England, the rich and powerful developed their own kind of hunting language—hundreds of specialized words for animals, equipment, and people. Coming up with clever or poetic terms of venery was a way of showing off how educated and intelligent you were. You might have heard some famous terms of venery that came from this, like…

LET’S BLOW SOME BUBBLES! How long has it been since you spent an afternoon creating and watching these delicate globes as they float and float and float and . . . pop! Bubbles are not just fun, they’re terrific for doing tricks and for scientific experimentation. Bubbles are models of scientific principles, following precise laws of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. What Is a Bubble? A bubble is soap film wrapped around a pocket of air. The soap film is made of three layers, much like a sandwich. The outside and inside layers (the slices of bread) are made of soap. The layer in between (the filling) is made of water. Bubbles form because water molecules are attracted to one another. They cling together. This is called surface tension. But if…

EVER THOUGHT YOUR LIFE MIGHT BE PERFECT IF ONLY . . . ? Ever wondered how close to perfect one person is able to be? You may never fully answer all those questions, but you can take a closer look at them with this Perfect Experiment. It is going to ask you to be perfect, but really, the goal is to have fun. You can try this on your own, or you can get a couple of people together and lead them through this experiment. The results are especially interesting with other people! Whether you are attempting this life experiment solo or with others, but sure to think through or talk about the reflection questions on the facing page. Perfect Experiment: Level One If you’re in a group, take turns…

Meet Rodney Mullen, unstoppable freestyle skateboarding champion. He is known as the “godfather of modern street skating” for inventing most of today’s tricks. Mullen brought us the flat ground ollie, the kickflip, heelflip, and 360-flip, as well as dozens of more advanced tricks from his freestyle days, including kickflipunderflips and dark-slides. His hours of practice reimagining what he could do with a skateboard resulted in not just technical perfection, but mesmerizing grace. He left studies in chemical engineering to co-found a successful skateboarding company. And no one knows better that to solidly master a trick, a skateboarder must fall and then get up again. Over and over. Your mindset during these experiences can rob you of your love for the sport—or provide a lifetime of joy. Mullen’s creative genius in…

“No better known fossil perhaps exists than the ammonite,” wrote Sir Theodore A. Cook in his 1914 book on perfect geometry in nature. Famed for its beautiful spiral shape, the ammonite has captured the imaginations of artists, mathematicians, and storytellers for centuries. As a symbol of perfection, this fossil remains a source of awe and superstition even today. WHAT IS AN AMMONITE? Ammonites were marine mollusks that flourished at the same time as the dinosaurs. Closely related to the octopus and cuttlefish, they look much like the modern-day nautilus. During their successful 335-million-year existence, they inhabited practically every corner of the ocean. Though they died out around 66 million years ago, as a result of the same asteroid collision that doomed the dinosaurs, ammonite fossils are still found all across…