Dear Jake,
Right now, Washington state uses water through dams to make most of our electricity. But we’re also working hard on another kind of renewable energy: solar.
I asked my friend Allie Higginbotham about solar panels. She’s a scientist who works with the Energy Program at Washington State University.
She told me that a solar panel is a device that uses the sun to make electricity.
“A solar panel is made of smaller units called photovoltaic cells, or solar cells,” Higginbotham said. “They’re arranged in a grid on a solar panel—like you see on rooftops. A bunch of panels strung together is a … » More …
Read More ...Dear Kenton,
When I think about the Arctic, I picture frigid waters filled with narwhals, polar bears and icebergs.
I asked my friend Von Walden how those icebergs got there. He’s a polar scientist at Washington State University.
He told me a glacier is a huge mass of ice on land. But glaciers don’t just sit there. They move. A glacier is like a slow-moving river of ice. It’s made of heavy, compacted snow. It flows over the land because of its own weight.
An iceberg is a broken-off piece of a glacier.
To be an iceberg, that broken-off chunk must be … » More …
Read More ...Dear Bobo,
There’s nothing more magical than sparkly flakes gently falling on a fluffy blanket of snow. But it’s a temporary kind of magic. When it warms up, the snow disappears.
I asked my friend Jennifer Adam what’s going on. She’s a water scientist at Washington State University.
She told me snow is frozen water. When temperatures rise, it melts. The solid frozen water turns back into liquid water.
That melted-snow water works just like rain water. It soaks into the ground. It fills up the spaces between bits of underground soil and rock. That’s the water that plants slurp up with their … » More …
Read More ...Dear Jacob,
I love vaccines. They keep us safe from germs that can make us sick. But I don’t love how much shots hurt. Sometimes I feel anxious before I visit the veterinarian for a vaccine.
I talked about that with my friend Roland Chen. He’s an engineer at Washington State University.
He’s working on brand-new needles that could make shots painless. They’re called microneedle arrays.
“You feel pain because the needle reaches the pain receptor,” Chen said. “Microneedles are much shorter than typical needles. They’re about one-third to half the size.”
Most vaccines are intramuscular injections. A trained healthcare provider gently slides … » More …
Read More ...Dear 1st graders,
I love bright, snowy days. That’s when you’ll find me building snowcats, throwing snowballs and watching the sun sparkle on the freshly fallen snow.
I asked my friend Von Walden why that sparkle happens. He’s an atmospheric scientist at Washington State University. Some of his research takes place near the North Pole and the South Pole.
He told me that snow sparkles because of the way snowflakes interact with the sun.
It turns out snowflakes are ice crystals. On Earth, snowflakes are hexagonal. That means they’re crystals with six sides.
Read More ...Dear Oliver,
I just scarfed down tuna with a side of kibble. That’s how I get the energy I need to investigate your questions.
To do that, I talked with Ming Luo. He’s a robotics scientist at Washington State University.
He told me that robots don’t eat like we do.
“A human has a digestive system,” Luo said. “That’s how food can be converted to energy. But a robot can’t do that. The robot can just take in energy directly.”
Read More ...Dear Angel,
I’ve never sat on a power line. I like to keep my paws firmly on the ground. But birds love resting there, especially in winter. Power lines give off a little heat, so it’s a good spot for birds to snuggle together and stay warm.
I talked about how they do that safely with my friend Javier Guerrero. He’s a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Washington State University.
He told me birds do get electrocuted on power lines sometimes. But that won’t happen if the bird touches just the power line—and doesn’t touch other lines or the pole at the same time.
Read More ...Dear Luke,
The next time you’re in the bathtub, turn a cup upside down on the water. Push down on it as hard as you can. See if you can get it to sink below the water.
It’ll be difficult to do! The air inside the cup makes it lighter than the water. But what happens if you turn the cup on its side, allowing water to rush in? You’ll see it’s easier to push underwater.
Those same basic forces make a submarine work.
That’s what I learned from Ian Richardson, an engineer at Washington State University. He is very curious about how liquids and solids interact. He has even helped NASA work on a submarine to someday go to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
Read More ...Dear Odin,
When the wind blows, it can do all kinds of things. It can help pick up tiny seeds and carry them away, so plants and flowers can grow in new places. It can push a big sailboat across an ocean. We can even harness the wind to make clean energy to power our homes and schools.
That’s what I found out from my friend Gordon Taub, an engineer at Washington State University. He is very curious about wind energy and told me more about why the wind blows.
Read More ...Dear Dakota,
Our big, strong, stretchy muscles can help us run, jump, and play. But sometimes these muscles stretch a little too far and it can really hurt.
Read More ...Dear Ammon,
Everything our computers do, they do because we program them to do it. Maybe you want to design a game or an app that’s brand new. To create that game or app, you have to help your computer understand what to do.
Read More ...Dear Nina,
Our world is full of slime makers. Slugs and snails leave behind gooey trails. Bacteria can create layers of slippery slime in water pipes. Even your body makes its own kind of slime. In our joints, we have slime that helps protect our bones.
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 Aditya,
When bees make hexagons in their hives, the six-sided shapes fit together perfectly. In fact, we’ve actually never seen bees make any other shape. That’s what I found out when I visited my friend Sue Cobey, a bee researcher at Washington State University.
Cobey showed me some honeycombs where the female bees live and work. Hexagons are useful shapes. They can hold the queen bee’s eggs and store the pollen and honey the worker bees bring to the hive.
When you think about it, making circles wouldn’t work too well. It would leave gaps in the honeycomb. The worker bees could use triangles or squares for storage. Those wouldn’t leave gaps. But the hexagon is the strongest, most useful shape.
Read More ...Dear Jordan,
As a cat, car rides can sometimes make me feisty. But as a scientist, it’s fascinating to learn about the mechanics, engineering, and chemistry fueling the cars humans drive every day.
Read More ...
Dear Andrea,
When I saw your question, I headed straight for the Magnetics Lab and met up with my friend John McCloy. I found out the word “magnet” comes from a Greek word for the region of modern-day Turkey we once called Magnesia. That’s where people found magnets in nature.
Read More ...Dear Freya,
Whether it’s a model rocket you build in the backyard or one that launches a space shuttle, there are lots of materials you could use. So, when I saw your question I grabbed my lab coat and safety goggles, and zoomed over to my friend Jake Leachman’s lab. He’s a rocket scientist and engineer at Washington State University.
Read More ...Dear Brook,
Microchips are smaller than your fingernail and packed with itty-bitty electronic parts. These parts are hundreds of times thinner than the hairs on your head, but sometimes you’ve got to think small to think big.
Read More ...Dear Xitan,
Look up to the twinkly stars and you’ll witness starlight traveling from deep space to your eyeballs. That twinkling you see is the light taking lots and lots of detours.
Read More ...Dear Zoe,
Scientists could see and feel electricity in nature long before they discovered how to make it. Maybe you’ve seen it during a powerful electrical storm or felt a little shock from static electricity.
It happens because of tiny parts of atoms. They’re called electrons and they are everywhere.
Read More ...