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What was the largest dinosaur? – Carlos, California

Dear Carlos,

Your question almost stumped me. I don’t really have dinosaur scientist pals. So, I turned to an expert on finding answers.

My friend Emily Cukier is a science librarian at Washington State University. She helps students and scientists find information. I asked her what dinosaur is the largest—and how she figures that out.

Cukier told me that I should think hard about my question. Are we looking for the tallest dino? The longest? The heaviest? Those might be different answers.

Then it’s time to ask the internet.

“I’m a librarian, but the first thing I would do is put it into … » More …

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Why does milk cure the spicy feeling in your mouth after you eat something spicy but water doesn't? – Eloise, 10, Minnesota

Dear Eloise,

My work as a science cat has introduced me to human foods—like chips and salsa. I love the spicy taste of salsa, but I always keep a saucer of milk handy.

I talked about why milk calms the spicy feeling with my friend Emily Cukier. She’s a chemistry librarian at Washington State University.

She told me that the spicy feeling comes from something called capsaicin. The amount of capsaicin in a pepper determines how hot it is.

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Why do we have to go to sleep at night, but the other side of the world is having morning? – Braelyn, 12, Ohio

Dear Braelyn,

If I drew a straight line through the Earth to the opposite side of the planet from me, I’d hit a place called Port-aux-Français. That’s an island near Antarctica. Mostly scientists live there.

Right now, it’s 12 PM, or noon, on Friday for me. But those scientists are probably snoozing in their beds. For them, it’s after 12 AM, or midnight, on Saturday. They’re already living in my tomorrow. Weird!

I talked about why that is with my friend David Luftig. He’s a science librarian at Washington State University. Science librarians are experts in two things: science and helping people find information for research and learning.

He told me it’s all because of Earth’s rotation. As the Earth rotates, or spins, the sun shines on one part of the Earth at a time.

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Who invented books? – Nicole, 6, Washington

Dear Nicole,

Some people only like paper books. But I love the library app on my phone. It’s like having stacks of library books in my pocket.

To learn more about books, I talked with my friend Greg Matthews. He’s the rare books librarian at Washington State University. “The short answer would probably be the Romans,” Matthews said. “But Rome was a really vast empire. So, it could have been a Roman in North Spain. It could have been a Roman in Egypt.”

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How do I make a diary?  -Nimra, Kitchener, Ontario

Dear Diary,

Oh, I mean...Dear Nimra,

Making a diary is like creating your own top-secret book. So, I headed straight for a Washington State University library where there are more than a million books.

My friend Linnea Nelson was working with some of the books from the special collections when I went to visit her in the lab. She is a conservator, so part of her job is to repair and re-build old books. It preserves their history.

Some of the books had an old smell that wafted up into my little nose. The smell comes from different chemical compounds that escape into the air, including one similar to vanilla. The compounds are in the ink, paper, and other materials used to keep the pages together. And one way to keep the pages together is to bind them with thread. 

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What was the largest dinosaur? – Carlos, California

Dear Carlos,

Your question almost stumped me. I don’t really have dinosaur scientist pals. So, I turned to an expert on finding answers.

My friend Emily Cukier is a science librarian at Washington State University. She helps students and scientists find information. I asked her what dinosaur is the largest—and how she figures that out.

Cukier told me that I should think hard about my question. Are we looking for the tallest dino? The longest? The heaviest? Those might be different answers.

Then it’s time to ask the internet.

“I’m a librarian, but the first thing I would do is put it into … » More …

Read More ...