Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2021 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

In July 1997, a devastating flash flood hit part of Fort Collins, Colorado. Within 31 hours, a storm dumped over a foot of rain in a small area of the city near Spring Creek. Meanwhile, the rest of city had little rain. The local weather station, located just a handful of miles away from the Spring Creek area, measured only 2 inches (5 cm) of rain. Weather prediction maps and official observations didn’t detect the huge amount of precipitation falling on this neighborhood in time. Because experts didn’t have any information about the rainfall, they were slow to warn residents living near Spring Creek. The heavy rainfall caused the creek to spill over its banks. The floodwaters created a raging path of destruction. A train was washed off its tracks.…

At around 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, 1925, a tornado formed above the woods in southern Missouri. A small but strong swirling funnel touched the ground, uprooting trees and sending them hurling through the air. As the tornado sped northeast, it grew in size and speed and demolished the small town of Annapolis, leveling 78 houses. Next it slammed into the town of Biehle. There, a school with 25 students and their teacher was lifted up into the air and carried the length of several soccer fields. As the building splintered in midair, the kids and teacher were flung back to Earth. Somehow, each one of them survived. The tornado grew darker, louder, bigger. People observed not a slender, fluffy white spiral but an enormous, near mile-wide black cloud.…

CLOUDS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. Some clouds are fluffy, some are stretchy, and some are feathery. Clouds are named based on how they look and how high they are in the sky. Did you know that NASA studies clouds? Scientists use satellites to study clouds. But satellites don’t always see the details we can see with our eyes. So NASA asks people all around the world to help observe clouds. Here is how you can help NASA. First, ask an adult to help you download the GLOBE Observer* app. When you are ready to make your observation using the app, be sure to follow your local guidelines and be safe. And remember to never look directly at the sun! To make your observation, select the “Clouds” portion of…

Let’s zoom in on Isaac Cline, chief meteorologist in Galveston, Texas, an island town bordering the Gulf of Mexico. The year is 1900. It’s September. Hurricane season. Watching and Waiting On September 4th, Cline receives a telegraph about a tropical storm moving northward over Cuba from the weather bureau’s Washington, DC office. Would it hit Galveston? has thermometers, an anemometer to measure wind speed, and wind vanes, for measuring wind direction. He has a hygrometer to measure moisture in the air. He’s got a rain gauge. He has barometers, which measure air pressure. A rapidly falling barometer would mean there was a strong or fast-moving storm nearby. He watches the clouds and the sea. “Meteorologists then had to really keep their eyes on the sky to collect information,” says John…

Q: Why is it harder to sleep in different places than where you normally sleep? —Brandon H. A: Your family drove ten hours to your aunt’s house, and you’re ready to collapse on the cot in the guest room and get some sleep. But even though you’re so tired, sleep just doesn’t come. You toss and turn all night—first too hot, then too cold. And finally, when you do drift off, you jerk back awake just an hour later. It’s so easy to sleep in your own bed. So why can’t you nod off here? Brain scientist Martha Hotz Vitaterna, deputy director at Northwestern University’s Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology, knows all about this problem. “In some sleep research circles, this is referred to as the ‘first night effect,’”…

#1: Rocket mail In 1959, the US Postmaster General, Arthur Summerfield, predicted that guided missiles would become the usual method for delivering mail before a human reached the moon. We have email now, but still no rocket mail. #2: Nuclear vacuums In 1955, Alex Lewyt, the president of a vacuum cleaner company, predicted that within 10 years nuclear power would run vacuums. What did he think people would do with the radioactive waste? #3: Ape workers Who needs robots when you could have monkeys? Glenn T. Seaborg, a Nobel prize–winning chemist, predicted in 1951 that by 2020, we’d breed apes that could drive cars and perform other tasks for us. #4: Meals in a pill In 1894, the chemist Marcellin Berthelot predicted that people of the future would get all…

Delver of the Deep My name’s Jack, I’m 11, and I live in the biggest city in the United States (in square miles). Also, I’m a human. I’ve only gotten four Muse magazines and I already LOVE Muse. I’ll sit down and read them for hours! They have new interesting information every month, and at the beginning of every month, I find myself at the mailbox hoping my new Muse is here. I love to study marine animals, especially whales and giant squids, so I was EXTREMELY EXCITED when I got “Mysteries of the Deep” [January 2020] and read about the giant squid. Did you know that sperm whales have been found with scratches on the inside of their stomach because of the giant squids that they swallowed alive? Giant…

Have you ever noticed it raining on your side of the street while the other side stays sunny and dry? Believe it or not, the rainfall outside your home can differ from how much rain falls at your friend’s place down the street. Even with all the high-tech weather instruments used to measure precipitation, meteorologists rely on citizen scientists to report the weather in their small corners of the world. You can help by measuring the precipitation in your own backyard or balcony. Add to the fun by challenging your friends and family to a precipitation prediction contest! The more you estimate and check your predictions, the better you will hone your weather predicting skills. CoCoRaHS founder Nolan Doesken shares how he and his son enjoyed backyard weather watching in…

What are statistics? Why do we need them? A prehistoric human crouches on the African savannah. Something moves in the corner of her eye. A lion? She freezes and readies her spear. But the breeze blows, the grass shifts, and she sees the “lion” was only a trick of the light. Humans see patterns and connections everywhere. This makes sense when you realize that for most of our history, a person who thought they saw a lion got startled, while a person who didn’t see a lion got eaten. Better to err on the side of caution and interpret every unusual movement as a lion, even if most of the time no lion is really there. So how can we find out if a pattern or connection is meaningful or…

Before its launch in 2007, most experts agreed the iPhone was doomed. It wouldn’t sell. It will “crash in flames,” “fail badly,” and “fade into history,” technology journalists wrote. Instead, like a fastball through glass, the iPhone shattered predictions and sailed on to become one of the most successful products ever. In 2020, over 100 million Americans used an iPhone. If you can’t trust an expert to make a good prediction, who can you trust? Try a crowd. Under the right conditions, crowds can make better predictions than the individuals in them—a crowd can even beat a single expert. Predictions are educated guesses about the unknown. A cow, an election, and a jar of jellybeans show how crowds can get predictions right and what goes wrong when they fail. The…

FORTUNE TELLERS CLAIM THAT THEY CAN READ YOUR SECRETS IN ZODIAC SIGNS, the lines on your palm, the numbers in your birthday, tarot cards, tea leaves, and so much more. None of these things have any real influence on your life or your future. They are all random patterns. Yet random patterns can lead to fortunes that feel very real. What’s going on? The real secret is that we humans are expert story tellers with active imaginations. Here, let me tell your fortune: “Someone you care about is very excited about a new project or hobby. They wish you would pay more attention to what they’re working on. If you can find a way to participate in this project with them, they’ll be very happy.” That fortune is vague enough…

Our planet quakes thousands of times a year, but we still can’t predict exactly when and where earthquakes will strike. What if animals’ odd behavior could warn us? Ancient Greeks told a story about how mice, weasels, snakes, and centipedes ran off days before a terrible earthquake. And people still claim that animals act weird before earthquakes hit. Dogs keep on barking. Cows stop making milk. Toads jump out of ponds. From 2009 to 2012, scientists videoed ants living in an active earthquake area. They found the ants were more active at night instead of during the day in the hours before an earthquake. Researchers have reviewed hundreds of reports like this, but most were just anecdotes—single observations that cannot be tested or repeated. Where’s the Proof? San Francisco geologist…

TECH DESK Snagging Space Junk IMAGINE YOU COULD TAKE A ROCKET INTO OUTER SPACE AND SEE THE BEAUTIFUL VIEW: Earth’s surface far below you. The stars, brighter than ever. Thousands and thousands of pieces of trash.OK, maybe it wouldn’t all be beautiful. A swarm of space junk orbits our planet. Some pieces of junk are broken-down satellites. Equipment from rocket launches stays in space too. There are about 23,000 pieces of junk circling our planet today. If any of that trash collides with another object, such as an important satellite, it could create a big problem. That’s why the European Space Agency is taking a step toward a solution. It’s working with a company on a mission called ClearSpace-1. In 2025, the ClearSpace-1 spacecraft will launch. It will fly to…

Ashton Robinson Cook always knows when a tornado, hurricane, or winter storm is coming. It’s his job to know. As a meteorologist, he analyzes weather data to figure out where and when storms are likely to hit. Typical weather forecasting tools can look only up to a week ahead. But Cook has developed software called WeatherDeep that can make predictions up to two months in advance. Cook was the first African American man to earn a PhD in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and also earned the 2017 American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) Dissertation Award for his research on tornadoes. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JOB? I forecast tornadoes for a living. I tell people where tornadoes are going to be in a few days so they can…

Have you heard the old folktale of the six blind men and the elephant? There are many versions of this tale. Here’s one version that shows the power of combining different sources of information: Six blind men approach an elephant. They don’t know what an elephant is, but they want to find out. The first man feels the elephant’s side. “An elephant is broad like a wall,” he says. The second man touches the elephant’s tusk. He says, “An elephant is smooth and pointy like a spear.” The third man reaches out to the elephant’s trunk. “An elephant is like a snake,” he says. The fourth man feels the elephant’s sturdy foot. He says, “An elephant is like a tree.” The fifth man touches the elephant’s ear. He says, “The…

Within the field of meteorology there are some weather forecasters called “incident meteorologists.” They are forecasters who understand how the weather affects wildfires and vice-versa. They study and predict fire weather. Incident meteorologists work with a team of people who are suppressing, controlling, or managing a wildfire. Sometimes they help manage a controlled burn, a practice that to keeps forests healthy. Incident meteorologists do many different kinds of tasks. They produce important information, such as fire weather forecasts, which are predictions of when and where wildfires may happen. They also help firefighters during a wildfire. “Incident meteorologists bring a weather kit with them to a fire incident to take measurements onsite,” explains Robyn Heffernan. “They can also use large, automated weather stations placed around the fire for continuous monitoring of…

NEW CONTEST Magic Eight Paul Have you ever asked a certain spherical toy a question and waited for the mysterious blue triangle to answer? We can’t vouch for the accuracy of Magic 8-Ball advice or fortunes, but we do predict some creative responses to this issue’s contest! Please send us a very short story (200 words or fewer) that includes the words magic, eight, and Paul in whatever order and arrangement you choose. Will we enjoy reading your micro-stories? It is decidedly so. 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…

THE EDITORS OF MUSE ASKED IF I COULD WRITE A FEW WORDS ABOUT GEOENGINEERING, and I said, A few WORDS?? Are you kidding?! I could write a few BOOKS!! Geoengineers* are so clever, so “with it”—I mean, they truly understand how interesting I am. You know? A lot of people don’t realize that I’m trying for some pretty cool stuff up here. I mean, yeah, sometimes I do an elephant or giraffe, but most of the time I’m way beyond that. Like yesterday? I was morphing from pancake spatula to Mount Rushmore to a frieze of the final scene from Phantom of the Opera. In basically one minute. I know!! AWEsome. So. Geoengineering. Also quite awesome! Why? Well, unlike primatologists and entomologists and ichthyologists (heavens, the list goes on and…