Dear Conner,

When objects like spacecraft pass through Earth’s atmosphere, things can really heat up.

To investigate the answer to your question, I talked to my friend Von Walden. He’s a professor and researcher with Washington State University’s Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.

First, he said it helps to know a bit about the differences between Earth’s atmosphere and space.

Dear Kaden,

There are a lot of steps that go into making a baseball. As we investigate this question, we’ll focus on the ones made for Major League Baseball.

My friend Lloyd Smith, a mechanical engineer and director of the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington State University, told me all about it.

A while back, he had a chance to visit a facility in Costa Rica where they make MLB baseballs. Smith said it begins with a small sphere called a pill, which has a cork center and a couple of rubber layers.

Dear Kolton,

A lot of researchers around the world are investigating this very question. While we don’t know everything about how the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects household pets, there are some things we do know.

My friend Dr. Raelynn Farnsworth, a veterinarian at Washington State University, told me all about it.

The risk of household pets spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus to humans currently seems to be very low, she said. But a human who has the virus could potentially spread it to an animal, like a cat or dog, if they’ve been in close contact.

Dear Ava,

One of the most eye-catching hot springs in Yellowstone National Park is the bright and colorful Grand Prismatic Spring. It’s blue in the middle with bands of colors ranging from green and yellow to orange and reddish-brown.

My friend Peter Larson is a geologist at Washington State University who is very curious about hot springs. He spent much of his research career in Yellowstone National Park.

Dear Beau,

Before humans even knew how to predict solar eclipses, they were fascinated with the phenomenon. To figure out how to predict an eclipse, astronomers asked lots of questions and made observations about the motion of our moon, sun and Earth.

Dear Austin,

There are all kinds of tiny pathogens, including bacteria and viruses, in our world. Some of them are helpful and do things like keep the human gut healthy—but there are others that can make us quite sick.

I talked to my friend Alan Goodman about it. He’s an associate professor at Washington State University who knows a lot about the pathogens that can cause illness in people and other animals.

Dear Wyatt,

When humans want to look into the past, they often dig into the ground. Under the soil, archeologists can find all kinds of things that help us learn about life long ago.

That’s what I found out from my friend Rachel Horowitz, an archaeologist at Washington State University who is very curious about the lives of our human ancestors.

Dear Dorothy,

You’re right—different animals can hear different types of sounds. To find out more about it, I talked to my friend Dr. Vishal Murthy, a veterinarian at Washington State University.

Murthy reminded me sound comes from vibrations that travel through the air. For instance, when you feed your pet, the kibbles that fall into the bowl send out vibrations to your pet’s ears.

Some animals, like cats, dogs, elephants and humans, have ears that stick out and can help funnel these vibrations into the inner ear.

Dear Kaitlyn and Aiden,

You’re right, each year during the fall, we often see a lot of trees dropping their leaves. To find out exactly what happens when leaves fall, I talked to my friend Henry Adams, a researcher at Washington State University.

Dear Fatima,

A few different things happen when a bee stings you, and a few things happen to the bee, too.

When I got your question, I called up my friend Brandon Hopkins, who works as a honeybee researcher at Washington State University.

Dear Jacob,

You have a heart that beats every single day—even when you aren’t thinking about it. It likely beats about 60 to 100 times per minute. That adds up to more than a billion beats in a lifetime.

To find out how exactly how it all works, I talked to my friend Garry Smith, a researcher at Washington State University.

Dear Asia,

You may have noticed ice cream and popsicles will melt when they are out of the freezer for too long. To find out exactly why this happens, I headed to the Washington State University Creamery.

My friend John Haugen, the creamery manager, was happy to help with your question. He said a big part of the answer has to do with something called matter. All things in our universe are made up of matter—even ice cream and popsicles.

Dear Sabrina,

There are all kinds of different things to think about, along with a few challenges, when it comes to growing organic food.

My friend Lynne Carpenter-Boggs is a soil scientist at Washington State University who works with many different farmers and knows a lot about what it takes to produce food that is organic.

Dear Zane,

When you walk around on land, you are walking on top of Earth’s rocky crust. Below the crust is another thick layer of rock. These layers form Earth’s tectonic plates and when those plates collide with each other, they often form mountains.

[caption id="attachment_6257" align="alignright" width="198"] Julie Menard[/caption]

To find out more about how mountains form, I visited my friend Julie Menard, a professor at Washington State University who is very curious about geology.

Dear Nolan,

If you’ve ever been outside on a cold day, you may have noticed how your arm hairs stood up and you felt some goosebumps.

Humans get goosebumps for different reasons and one of those reasons has to do with temperature.

My friend Ryan Driskell, an assistant professor at Washington State University, is really curious about the innerworkings of skin.

Dear Zinnia,

That’s a great observation. When you breathe out, you let a couple of different things into the air.

Not only do you breathe out carbon dioxide, but you also breathe out teeny tiny droplets of water. These water droplets are so small we can’t see them with our eyes.