Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

Vaquita Variations I am writing to inform you about an endangered species called the vaquita. Many people don’t know about them because they only live in one place: the Gulf of California, Mexico. Vaquitas are tiny porpoises that get to be about five feet (a meter and a half) long. They have dark rings around their eyes and lips. Vaquitas’ dorsal fins, pectoral fins, and flukes are also dark gray. The animals themselves are a light gray. If you don’t put this in the magazine, I won’t send an army of vaquitas to Muse HQ, because there are less than 20 in the WORLD! The reason there are so few of them is that people leave their fishing nets in vaquitas’ homes. The fi hers don’t always know that vaquitas…

HUMPBACK WHALES ARE ESPECIALLY ACROBATIC, JUMPING OUT OF THE WATER, OR BREACHING, DESPITE THEIR MASSIVE SIZE. ENGINEERS HAVE STUDIED THEIR FLIPPERS TO CREATE MORE EFFICIENT WIND TURBINES. NARWHALS CAN SURVIVE WINTERS IN AREAS WITH MOSTLY ICE AND LESS THAN 5% OPEN WATER. A CUVIER’S BEAKED WHALE HAS BEEN RECORDED TO HAVE DIVED 1.9 MILES DOWN (2,992 M). IT CAN HOLD ITS BREATH FOR MORE THAN THREE HOURS. WHALES AND DOLPHINS USUALLY HAVE THREE OR FOUR STOMACH CHAMBERS. THE BAIRD’S BEAKED WHALE CAN HAVE 13 STOMACHS. BLUE WHALES ARE THE LARGEST CREATURES EVER TO HAVE LIVED ON EARTH. THEY CAN GROW TO A LENGTH OF 100 FEET (30 M) AND WEIGH 330,000 POUNDS (150,000 KG), LARGER THAN ANY DINOSAUR. SPERM WHALES ARE THE LOUDEST ANIMALS ON EARTH. ITS MASSIVE SOUND-PRODUCING NOSE…

Underneath the waves, the ocean is awash with sound. Humpback whales sing to seek out mates. Snapping shrimp make clicks and pops to stun prey and ward off predators. Dolphins whistle to one another. Midshipman fish make booming noises All ocean animals that have a backbone can hear, Darlene Ketten says. She studies hearing in humans and many other animals at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. You depend on your ears to communicate with others. You also rely on sound to know what’s around you, as when you walk down a dark hallway or when you realize that someone is sneaking up behind you. Ocean creatures have to rely on their ears even more, since light doesn’t penetrate very far into water, and the deep ocean is very dark.…

As sea levels rise and wildfires blaze, we know we must curb climate change. That will require dramatically cutting the carbon dioxide, or CO2, we’re putting into the atmosphere from our cars, planes, factories, homes, and more. We also need to remove and trap, or sequester, some of what is already up there. The largest animals on Earth, hidden beneath the waves, may seem like unlikely recruits in this effort. But they could be great allies. Giant Climate Warriors Carbon cycles through Earth’s atmosphere and food web in various forms. Animals (including humans) take in carbon when they eat food. They release much of it into the environment as they breathe or pass gas, but some stays in their bodies as they grow. Because whales are enormous and can live…

You may have heard the one about Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who jumped out of the tub and ran naked through the streets shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!” Legend has it he had suddenly realized how to tell a wreath made of pure gold from one made of a mixture of gold and silver. First, put a weight of pure gold equal to the wreath’s weight into a bowl and fill the bowl with water. Then, take out the weight and put the wreath in the bowl; if the wreath contained the lighter and bulkier element silver, the bowl would overflow. That story probably isn’t true. Archimedes made many far more important discoveries during his lifetime—discoveries that would have excited him a good deal more than water spilled out of a tub.…

PHYSIOLOGY Toddler Power Our bodies use energy all day long. We need energy not just to run and jump, but to breathe and eat and use our brains. But we don’t burn the same amount of energy throughout our lives. The biggest energy users are actually some of the tiniest people. Scientists studied how much energy humans burn in a day, from newborns to people in their nineties. They found that around age one, people use the most energy of their lives. Babies this age burn about 50 percent more energy per day, compared to their body size, than adults do. After the toddler years, energy use gradually slows down until it reaches its adult level at age 20 or so. That means older kids also need plenty of energy…

A team of marine biologists bobs up and down in a little boat at the mouth of a bay. Shielding their eyes against the sea-spray, they point excitedly across the water at a spout erupting from the waves. The scientists recognize the tell-tale shape of the whales’ spout and stubby dorsal fins sliding above the water. These eager humans have sighted a pod of humpback whales! Slowly coming closer, the scientists begin to scribble observations in their notepads: the whales’ species, how many are in the pod. “There’s number 352,” one of them says, pointing at a big humpback diving under the water. Wait—this marine biologist can’t easily see 352’s face or body underwater. How can she say with confidence that she knows which whale it is? The answer lies…

Just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, in the Mexican state of Sonora, sits a region of breathtaking natural beauty. It’s a world where the desert meets the sea. Off any coastal highway lies the seemingly endless Sonoran Desert, punctuated by giant saguaro cactus. On the other side of the road are the warm waters of the Gulf of California, home to a dizzying array of marine life. Legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau dubbed these waters “The World’s Aquarium.” But all is not well in this marine paradise. One of the Gulf’s most beloved residents is teetering on the brink of extinction. The vaquita, which in Spanish means “little cow,” is the world’s smallest cetacean. It’s also the most endangered marine mammal on Earth. Known to science only since 1958, the…

A couple walking along a beach in western South Australia in 2006 spotted something unusual. A huge, solid, grayish glob was lying in the sand. At first they thought it was a tree stump or a rock, but the crusty, waxy lump was something much better: whale vomit. Think you’d be unhappy to stumble across a big pile of desiccated whale puke? The couple who found it was thrilled—not because they’re big vomit fans, but because such a find can actually be quite valuable. Sweet Ambergris The nicer-sounding name for whale vomit is ambergris. It comes from the French term ambre gris, meaning “gray amber.” Specifically, it is vomit from a sperm whale. Ambergris is made of all the things that sperm whales can’t digest, including the beaks of squid…

NEW CONTEST Conversations with Cetaceans If you could say something to a whale, dolphin, or porpoise, or ask them a question, what would it be? Might it be something about them or us, or climate change? What do you think we humans could learn if we could talk to these species? Send us your message in written form, and we’ll pick our favorites for our very own message bottle: this page! 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…

Wildlife experts have held different opinions on whether human interaction with lost or injured wild animals is helpful or hurtful. Some caution that interfering in nature can leave animals dependent on people, so that they lose the ability to survive on their own and can never return to the wild. Others insist it is our responsibility to reach out and attempt to help other creatures in dire circumstances. An orca brought experts from both sides of the table together for an ambitious animal rescue off North America’s Pacific Coast. In January 2002, off the shores of Seattle, Washington, a two-year-old orca named Springer, whose officia name is A73, was found swimming alone around a ferry dock. Orcas, also known as killer whales, are not classified as whales but considered the…

Whales today include the largest animal ever on the planet—the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). At 300,000 pounds (136,000 kg), a blue whale can rival the weight of about 40 adult female African elephants! Because of their insulating blubber, whales can survive freezing temperatures as they swim long distances and take deep dives. But whales were not always so superbly adapted to open ocean life. Walking Whales? If you examine their bodies, there’s evidence that whales came from terrestrial ancestors—animals that lived on land. Whales have five fingered hand bones inside their flippers. As embryos, whales have tiny back legs, which go away before birth. And whales, like humans and other land mammals, breath air with lungs and nurse their young. So, where did whales come from? To answer that question,…

Michelle Fournet is a scientist who studies marine mammals and their sounds. She conducts research for the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Fournet is featured in the recent Apple+ documentary Fathom, which shows her collecting and examining humpback whale vocalizations. She began by telling us: “My job means that I get to listen to the voices of whales, and seals, and also fish in order to understand how they’re talking to each other, what they may be saying, and how human activity changed the way that animals underwater communicate with each other.” I WAS EXPECTING THE WHALES AND THE SEALS, BUT I WAS NOT EXPECTING THE FISH! That’s very common! I think that there is a misconception that fish don’t make…

Q: Why do most of us only feel comfortable singing in the shower? —Zoë O A: If you think your singing sounds better in the shower than elsewhere, you’re right. The shower gives your singing extra oomph, both physically and psychologically. Lee Morgan, who has taught voice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, shared your question with a group of voice professionals and students. Contralto Karen Mercedes explains, “Moist air plus brilliant bathroom acoustics equals extreme ease in singing.” (Acoustics means sound quality.) Bathrooms are typically small with many hard, smooth surfaces. When the sound waves bounce back and forth within that space, they echo, stretch, and strengthen. All the extra activity evens out the tone and boosts the lower notes. Your voice also benefits from the inside. “The steam heat relaxes…

CLICKCLICK…CLICK. KKKKKKKKK. CLICK CLICK CLICK. If you were a sperm whale, those sounds might mean something to you. Sperm whales communicate with each other in clicks, chatters, and creaks. Is it a language? It certainly seems like it could be. From many decades of observation, scientists have learned that groups of sperm whales have clicking styles, similar to dialects. And each whale has its own unique click pattern, like a name. Baby whales even babble-click until they learn to use the same click patterns as their families. In the past, scientists thought that only human cultures used complex languages with grammar and vocabulary. Many experts today think we’re not so special. To prove it, though, we need to translate an animal language. Scientists have figured out the meanings behind some…