Dear Isana,
My belly button is a subtle scar on my tummy. It’s covered by fluffy cat fur—and it’s not easy to see. But humans have obvious belly buttons. They come in different sizes and shapes.
I asked my friend Cindy Brigham-Althoff about that. She’s a nurse midwife and professor at Washington State University. She teaches student nurses about birth.
She told me the scientific name for a belly button is umbilicus. It’s what’s left of your umbilical cord.
Before you were born, a temporary organ called the placenta grew next to you. A cord connected the placenta to a spot in the … » More …
Read More ...Dear Ines,
I have gray fur. But sometimes I think it’s getting grayer—like my human friends’ hair does as they get older.
I asked my friend Jiyue Zhu about that. He’s a biochemist at Washington State University.
He told me it’s a mystery.
“We still don’t completely comprehend this,” Zhu said. “It’s an active area of research.”
Aging seems to be related to the way cells duplicate.
DNA is a set of instructions for making your body. You keep a copy of your DNA folded up inside each of your cells.
All those cells have different life spans. Some, like your skin cells, … » More …
Read More ...Dear Annabelle,
I love a peanut butter and tuna sandwich. But when I was a kitten, my school outlawed peanuts. My classmate was super allergic to them. So, we had a rule to keep our friend safe. I packed plain tuna fish instead.
I talked about that with my friend Travis T. Denton. He studies medicinal chemistry and neuroscience at Washington State University.
He told me that epinephrine is the medicine people use for a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. It comes in an auto-injector, or EpiPen.
» More …
Dear Dru,
When it comes to intestines, it sure seems like two are better than one.
I asked my friend Franck Carbonero why that is. He’s a microbiologist at Washington State University. He studies the bacteria that live inside the human gut.
He told me that the small intestine and the large intestine do different jobs.
Let’s say you sink your teeth into some pizza. You chew it up and swallow it. All those chewed up bits land in your stomach. They mix with digestive juices and start to break down. The broken-down food and digestive juices together are called chyme. After … » More …
Read More ...Dear William,
There are lots of unpleasant things about being sick. Leaking slimy green snot is near the top of my yuck list.
I talked about it with my friend Linda Eddy. She’s a nurse for kids. She runs the nursing program on the Vancouver campus of Washington State University.
She told me that snot is normally clear. It turns yellow or green when our bodies fight germs that can make us sick.
Snot is also called mucus. It’s a thin, slippery liquid that covers many of the surfaces inside our bodies. You can find mucus in your nose, mouth and eyes. It … » More …
Read More ...Dear Prisha,
I got glasses as a kitten. I put on my new spectacles and was floored by the crisp details. I had no idea you could see individual leaves on trees. I thought everyone saw a green blur.
I talked about that with my friend Dr. Rachna Narula. She’s an eye doctor—called an optometrist—at Washington State University.
She told me that glasses help direct light to the correct spot in the eye so we can see.
“If someone's eyeball is too short or too long, glasses help focus the image on the retina because that’s where the person can see,” Narula said.
Read More ...Dear Avery,
I think it’s really cool when a clear pill has teeny tiny balls of medication inside it. My paws itch to bat it around—but I know medicine isn’t a toy, so I sharpen my claws on my desk and then get back to answering your questions.
I asked my friend Damianne Brand-Eubanks what happens after you swallow one of those capsules. She teaches in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Washington State University. She’s an expert on medication.
She told me that the outside of a pill capsule is usually made of gelatin. That’s the same stuff that’s in jello or gummy candy.
“Just like with food, you swallow the pill, and it goes down the esophagus into the stomach, where there's a whole bunch of acid,” Brand-Eubanks said. “That acid breaks down the gelatin capsule.”
Read More ...Dear Jack,
When I go to the veterinarian for a checkup, one of the first things they do is listen to my heart. They want to make sure it’s healthy because it pumps blood to my whole body.
I asked my friend Zhaokang Cheng about heart attacks. He’s a scientist at Washington State University. He works on new medicines to help people who have heart attacks or heart disease.
He told me that a heart attack happens when a big blood vessel that delivers blood to the heart gets blocked. Those blood vessels are called coronary arteries.
They get blocked when fatty gunk and other stuff build up on the walls of the arteries. Over time, the buildup can get thicker and harder. It can make the space inside the artery very narrow, so there isn’t much room for blood to get through. Or it can block the artery completely.
Read More ...Dear Joseph,
As an early-rising science cat, I always lap up a bowl of coffee in the morning. After that, I drink fresh water from a cat fountain I keep near my desk.
But what if I drink too much of that thirst-quenching liquid?
I asked my friend Karen Anders if that can happen. She teaches nursing at Washington State University.
She told me that drinking too much water can cause a rare condition called water intoxication.
It’s rare because it doesn’t happen very often. Even if you guzzle lots of water, your kidneys can probably process it. You might feel sloshy and waterlogged. You might throw up, but then you’d just pee the excess water out of your body.
Read More ...Dear Austin,
I love a predictable schedule. Knowing when to eat, sleep and answer your questions keeps me chill.
That how the cells that make up our bodies work, too. They grow and die on a predictable schedule. Our bodies constantly make new cells to replace the ones that die. They grow for a set time and then die, too.
But sometimes cells grow out of control. They may grow faster or for a longer time than normal cells. They ignore the signals that tell a cell it’s time to die. They can even spread to other parts of the body and start growing there. That’s cancer.
Read More ...Dear Jeff,
The worst thing about being an anthropomorphic cat is that I have to scoop my own litter box. It’s a real drag.
I asked my friend Henry Mroch why we need to pee in the first place. He’s a doctor at Washington State University. He teaches medical students about the organs that make urine—called kidneys.
He told me that most people have two kidneys. Each one is about the size of your fist. They sit near your back, right under your ribcage.
Each kidney attaches to a tube called a ureter. Those tubes take urine to a storage pouch—called the bladder. When you pee, another tube called the urethra moves the urine from the bladder out of your body.
Read More ...Dear Lydia,
Ear infections aren’t fun. They can make your ears hot, itchy or painful. They can cause lots of pressure or make it harder to hear. Sometimes fluid leaks out of your ear.
I asked my friend Bevan Briggs why that happens. He’s a nurse practitioner and professor at Washington State University.
He told me people usually get outer ear or middle ear infections.
Your outer ear includes the flappy part attached to your head—called the auricle or pinna. It also includes the ear canal. That’s the tunnel that goes into your head. At the end of the ear canal, there’s a thin, flexible barrier of tissue called the eardrum. That’s the boundary between your outer ear and your middle ear.
Read More ...Dear Claire,
I’ve been allergic to fleas ever since I was a kitten. Flea bites give me an itchy, red rash.
I talked about why that happens with my friend Bevan Briggs. He’s a nurse practitioner and professor at Washington State University. Nurse practitioners are nurses with advanced training. They diagnose illnesses, order tests and prescribe medicine.
Briggs told me that often rashes happen when the immune system gets turned on. The immune system is the body’s defense system.
“It's the way our body tries to protect us from germs and poisons,” he said. “Rashes happen because your immune system identifies something as foreign—either an infective agent or some kind of toxin.”
Read More ...Dear Joaquin,
I love curling up under a pile of blankets at bedtime and waking up refreshed in the morning. You might be surprised to hear that scientists aren’t sure why sleep makes us feel that way.
I talked about how sleep works with my friend Marcos Frank. He’s a brain scientist who works in the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University.
“Without sleep, we do poorly on a lot of tasks, and our brains and bodies don't work as well,” Frank said. “But why is not entirely clear.”
Read More ...Dear Joey,
Whether we call them pimples, spots or zits, acne is something most people experience. As many as 95% of people have some acne sometime. That’s nearly everybody.
I talked about acne with my friend Sarah Fincham. She has a clinical doctorate in nursing. She’s a nurse and a professor in the College of Nursing at Washington State University.
If you look at your skin, you’ll see tiny openings called pores. These pores connect to oil-producing glands under our skin. They’re called sebaceous glands, and the oil they make is called sebum.
Read More ...Dear Samantha,
Viruses are strange things. They’re not alive like you or me. But they behave somewhat that way—spreading, growing, appearing in new forms. How can this be?
There’s a lot scientists don’t know yet about the new coronavirus. But they do know a lot about how viruses work and make people sick.
To learn more, I talked to Sylvia Omulo, a scientist specializing in infectious diseases at Washington State University.
Read More ...Dear Daniel,
Our brains work hard to help us move, talk and think. They also help us sleep. When we rest, some parts of our brain are active. When we are up and moving around, parts of our brain are actually at rest.
Read More ...Dear Sophia,
There are quite a few foods that are sweet and good to eat. A lot of them are fruit, said my friend Pablo Monsivais. He’s an associate professor at the Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.
Read More ...Dear Zack,
You aren’t alone if you’ve ever heard someone at the dinner table say, “you’ve got to eat your broccoli.” Broccoli is one of nature’s superfoods, so it’s no wonder we are often encouraged to eat those little green trees.
Read More ...Dear Sarah,
At this very moment, several quarts of blood are circulating through your body at nearly 4 mph. But as you’ve pointed out, not everyone’s blood is the same.
Your question made me wonder exactly what we mean when we talk about blood types. I decided to ask my friend Amber Fyfe-Johnson, a researcher at Washington State University who studies cardiovascular diseases--diseases of the blood vessels-- in kids.
Read More ...Dear Norelle,
Our bodies have many living parts, like skin, muscle, brain and bones. Blood helps keep these parts alive and healthy. The system that moves our blood around the body is sort of like a city’s postal service, said my friend Astrid Suchy-Dicey.
Read More ...The chirps of birds. The squeaks of mice. The barks of dogs. In a world full of different sounds, our ears take in almost everything. But it takes more than just our ears to hear.
Read More ...-
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 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 ...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 ...
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 Grant,
When I got your question, I met up with my friend Hans Van Dongen, a scientist at Washington State University in Spokane. He works in a research lab where they study sleep. As a cat who appreciates naps, it’s one of my favorite places to visit.
Read More ...Dear Autumn,
Stomachaches happen for lots of reasons, but they can often be traced back to tiny invaders in the human body: germs.
Read More ...Dear Prahlad,
After a quick catnap and a stretch, I went to visit my friend Marcos Frank, a scientist at Washington State University who studies animal sleep.
Read More ...Dear Diedrich,
Like most cats, I enjoy curling up for a quick snooze by my sunny office window. But I know that some people don’t love sleeping. They want to go go go without a break.
I talked about that with my friend Greg Belenky. He runs the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University’s Spokane campus.
He told me that we need to sleep. Without it, we can’t do basic or complex things.
“All you have to do is look at behavior,” he said. “Somebody who’s sleep deprived for 84 hours can hardly do anything. They’re docile and easily led. They … » More …
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