Dear David,
When I was a kitten, I used to keep track of my growth. Every now and then, I’d make a little pencil mark on the wall right above my ears.
Read More ...Dear Tammy,
No matter if you are a cat, a person, or a snowball, we have one thing in common: We are all made up of matter. Most everything that we see in our world is made of matter.
Read More ...Dear Jarrett,
Animals can get through winter in all kinds of ways. Us cats like to curl up on a cozy couch. Some penguins huddle in groups to create heat. A lot of birds fly south to warmer weather. Perhaps you put on mittens and a coat.
Read More ...Dear Annelise,
The other day I was out ice skating when I started thinking about your question. Water strider bugs skitter across ponds almost as if they were skating on ice.
Read More ...Dear Jacob,
The quick, little sting of a vaccine shot can provide us with some big protection from germs that cause disease.
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Read More ...Dear Mira,
Just the other night, I grabbed my binoculars and looked up to the starry sky. At first the stars looked white, but when I looked closer I noticed some appeared more blue and red.
Read More ...Dear Abi and Megha,
All around the world, animals are eating all kinds of different foods. Our foods might be different, but one thing is true for all of us: We have to digest.
Read More ...[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/298672830" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Dear Danny,
The answer to your question takes us out into our solar system and deep below the surfaces of other moons and planets.
Read More ...What kinds of trees are in your backyard? Do they have pinecones? Colorful leaves? Pods with seeds? Tell us more or send a picture to Dr.Universe@wsu.edu.
Dear Jessy,
As I was hiking through the bristlecone pine forests of the Sierra Nevada recently, I stumbled upon a tree barely six inches tall.
Read More ...Dear Bree,
Curiosity can lead us cats to some pretty great heights. We like to climb trees and sneak along tall bookshelves. Sometimes we might have a bumpy landing, but more often our amazing cat reflexes help us land on our feet.
Read More ...Dear Jack,
While our fears might be different, we all get scared sometimes. Vacuums, dogs, and even cucumbers make my hair stand on end. Perhaps for you it’s spiders, the dark, or the thought of monsters under your bed.
My friend Michael Delahoyde is really curious about what freaks us out. As an English professor at Washington State University, he’s even taught a course about monsters.
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Dear Aidan,
Our brains have an incredible ability to help us remember all kinds of stuff. Of course, memory isn’t perfect. Sometimes we forget our homework or where we left our favorite cat toy.
Read More ...Spiders can do some amazing things with their sticky, stretchy, and super-strong silk. Us cats are pretty curious about these little silk-spinning machines, too. Besides chasing spiders around, I’ve watched them use silk to build webs, catch bugs, and protect their young spiderlings.
You are onto something. Quick, to the bat-lab! That’s where I met up with my friend Christine Portfors, a scientist at Washington State University who studies fruit bats.
Dear Morven, Judith, and Mara:
No matter how still we stand, or if we’re in Scotland, Malaysia, or the United States, we are always spinning. Our Earth spins at a constant, very fast speed as we make a trip around the sun.
Read More ...Dear Johnny,
Spiders can do some amazing things with their sticky, stretchy, and super-strong silk. Us cats are pretty curious about these little silk-spinning machines, too.
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Dear Lucy,
Ever since I was a kitten, I’ve loved picking up big maple leaves in the fall. I’d take them home, put them under a piece of paper, and rub the side of a crayon over the top. It makes a great print of the leaf.
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Dear Ravin,
No matter how much you flap your arms or I flap my paws, gravity keeps us pulled to Earth. But when birds use their strong muscles to start flapping their wings, something amazing happens.
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Dear Emily,
Just the other day I was biting into a crunchy, delicious red apple when I was reminded of your question. I started wondering why apples are red, too.
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Dear Shanyu,
Cheetahs are in really good shape. Not only are they good runners, but the actual shape of their body helps them move at incredible speeds.
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Dear Steve,
Whenever us cats go to the beach, we tend to keep a safe distance from the water and like to explore the shore. I once stumbled upon a big, beautiful pink and white seashell.
Read More ...Dear Kera,
Try as we might, it can be hard to hold back tears while chopping up onions.
Read More ...Dear Sara,
Pain is unpleasant, but we need it for survival. Just the other day I was out exploring when I stubbed my paw and let out a big meow. My nervous system was doing its job.
Read More ...Dear Loretta,
Each volcano’s life is a little different. Many of them are born when big chunks of the Earth’s crust, or tectonic plates, collide or move away from each other. The moving plates force hot, liquid rock, or magma, to rise up from deep within the Earth.
Read More ...Dear Mark,
Cheese is delicious. At least, that’s this cat’s professional opinion. For the more scientific answer, I visited the cheese makers here at Washington State University.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=_34991Wdq4s
Dear Elijah,
That’s a great observation. For as much time as plants spend outside in the sun, we really don’t see too many with a sunburn.
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Dear Kristen,
Our sun is really one big star. And there are billions and billions of stars in our universe.
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Dear Andrew,
The human eye can see millions and millions of colors. But believe it or not, some colors exist in our world that the human eye can’t see.
Read More ...Dear Israel,
It just so happens that July is National Ice Cream Month. To celebrate, I decided to whip up some homemade ice cream. You can try it at home, too.
Read More ...Dear Laurenz,
When I saw your question, I set out to explore with my bug net and a magnifying glass. I was searching all around for tiny insects when I ran into my friend Laura Lavine, a Washington State University scientist who studies bugs.
She said there are nearly a million different kinds of insects on Earth. The smallest of all the known ones are called fairyflies.
Read More ...Dear Pedro,
When I got your question, I started to imagine what it would be like to drive a rover on the moon. As we bounced along craters, we could kick up moon dust and stop to gather samples of moon rock.
Read More ...Dear Lawrence,
Deep underwater, not too far from Guam, lies a crescent-shaped canyon called the Mariana Trench. It is home to the deepest known spot in the ocean: The Challenger Deep.
Read More ...Dear Allison,
My ears perked right up when I got your question. Like you, I’ve heard the sounds crispy rice cereal makes. But the truth is, I wasn’t entirely sure why it happens. There was only one way to find out.
Read More ...Dear Elena,
The animal kingdom is full of amazing eyes. And yes, there are actually creatures on our planet that have just one.
Read More ...Dear Gordon,
The other day, I wandered into a Washington State University greenhouse and ran into my friend Mechthild Tegeder, a professor and expert on plants.
She gently dug a small plant out of a pot so we could take a closer look. When she lifted it up, I pawed at the clumpy soil hanging from the bottom to reveal some stringy roots.
Read More ...Dear Lanie,
Just the other day I looked up and wondered the very same thing. The sky is certainly blue, I thought. But on second thought, it isn’t always blue. Sunsets burst in pink and orange. The night sky is black.
Read More ...Dear Emily,
If you’ve ever had flat soda, you know a sip isn’t the same without some fizzy bubbles. We can hear them pop and feel them burst on our tongue.
Read More ...Dear Zaara,
You might say the Kuiper Belt is the frozen frontier of our solar system. Out beyond Neptune’s chilly orbit, this saucer-shaped region is home to Pluto, billions of comets, and other icy worlds.
“The Kuiper Belt is really the edge of knowledge,” said my friend and astronomy professor Guy Worthey when we met up in the Washington State University planetarium.
“Out there it’s a little dim,” Worthey said. “We are pretty far from the Sun.”
In fact, it’s about 3 billion miles away. Even at the speed of a jet airplane, it would take more than 680 years to travel from Earth … » More …
Read More ...Dear Phillip,
Iron is found in buildings and skyscrapers. It makes up most of the Earth’s core. It’s even found in the Sun and stars. And yes, it’s also in a bowl of cereal.
Read More ...Dear Alysin,
At first, I thought the answer to your question might take us deep into the ocean. But it turns out the source of our salty seas is actually on land.
Read More ...Dear Sophia,
Yes. The water on our Earth today is the same water that’s been here for nearly 5 billion years. Only a tiny bit of it has escaped out into space. As far as we know, new water hasn’t formed either.
Read More ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as4TWgC4xxA
Dear David,
The other day I was scratching my ears when I noticed some yellowish-brown gunk on my claw. It was pretty gross, but it also made me very curious.
Read More ...Dear Garrett,
You know, your question reminds me of a couple other science questions from curious readers. Evangeline, age 7, wants to know why her hair is black. Sureya, age 8, wants to know why some people have curly hair.
It just so happens that one of my favorite science projects explores our questions about what makes us unique. It has to do with our DNA, or the blueprint for life.
Read More ...Dear Hannah,
You’re enjoying some ice cream, when suddenly you feel a pain in your head that hurts a whole lot. It’s like it came out of nowhere, and in a matter of seconds, it’s gone.
Read More ...Dear Logan,
It’s usually later in life that we see the more dramatic signs of aging, like gray hair, wrinkles, and lots of birthday candles on our cake. But we really start growing older from the time we are born.
Read More ...Dear Curious Readers,
It’s almost March 14. You know what that means: Pi Day, as in 3/14, or 3.14159265359 and so on.
I met up with my friend Nathan Hamlin, a mathematician and instructor here at Washington State University, to explore your question about this never-ending number.
We calculated Pi with some of my favorite items: yarn and a tuna can. You can try it at home, too.
Read More ...Dear Grace,
Hang on tight because the human brain keeps you on a 24-hour roller coaster.
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What exactly is a booger and is it harmful to eat? -Concerned grandpa
Dear curious readers,
When I went to visit my friend Susan Perkins, an instructor of nursing at Washington State University, she shined a tiny light in my nose. Sure enough, she found some crusty little boogies.
Read More ...Dear Anish,
There’s nothing like taking a little catnap by the fireplace, feeling the heat, watching the flames, and listening to crackling sounds. But until you asked, I wasn’t entirely sure what this mesmerizing thing was or how it works.
Read More ...Dear Oscar,
A couple months before you were born, your skeleton was soft and bendy. It was made out of cartilage, the same material that’s in your nose and ears now. But when certain cells in your body called osteoblasts and osteoclasts began to work together, new bone started to form.
Read More ...Dear Aaryan,
We cats have a reputation for being lazy. We sleep a lot. But the truth is when I got your question, I didn’t know much about laziness. So, I decided to talk about it with a couple of psychologists here at Washington State University.
My first stop was the Psychology of Physical Activity Lab. That’s where I met up with my friend, Professor Anne E. Cox.
Read More ...
Dear Francesco,
Last fall, my friend Lee Kalcsits and I went exploring in the apple orchards of Wenatchee. The apples were ripe and the leaves were changing from green to gold. We plucked a few leaves and took them back to his lab.
Read More ...Dear Jasmine and Marie,
There’s something about a chameleon’s darting eyes, long tongue, curled tail, and ability to climb that makes it a fascinating animal to watch. Especially when it’s changing colors.
And the latest research on your question suggests that how a chameleon changes has more to do with light than scientists once thought.
Read More ...Dear curious reader,
Your question reminds me of an experiment: You put a ringing alarm clock in a jar and use a hose to slowly suck out all the air. As the air escapes, the ringing gets quieter until there’s no sound at all.
The inside of the jar becomes what scientists call a vacuum. It’s empty. Just like space.
Read More ...Dear Isabella,
If you want to find out what color eggs a chicken will lay, you might just want to take a look at its earlobes. You read that right. Chickens have earlobes.
Read More ...Dear Amy,
My claws can come in quite handy when I need to scratch my ears or climb trees. I bet you’ve found that your own fingernails can be useful tools, too. Perhaps you’ve used them to pick up a penny or peel an orange.
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