Dear Wyatt,

There are all kinds of insects crawling and flying around our planet. And you’re right, some of them—but not all of them—are poisonous.

I learned all about poisonous insects from my friend David James. James is a researcher at Washington State University who is very curious about monarch butterflies.

Dear Jenny,

Along with beaches, sunshine, and movie stars, a lot of people picture palm trees when they think of southern California. While there are lots of palm tree species in California, they aren’t all originally from the area. Many were brought from different places around the world.

Dear Callum,

A lot of different animals, like wasps, spiders, snakes, jellyfish, and scorpions, make venom. Animals like the cone snail, the blue-ringed octopus, and centipedes do, too.

Dear Zion,

Before humans even came up with the word “allergy,” they observed how some people would get rashes, sneezes or become really, really sick from different things in their environment. Historians even noted how people in ancient civilizations talked about something called “plant fever,” which gave people runny noses.

Dear Ms. Hundley and Students,

The human body is made up of 206 bones with different names. There’s your skull, or cranium. There’s your finger and toe bones, or phalanges. There’s also your kneecap, or patella. But it turns out, the bone we call the funny bone isn’t really a bone at all.

Dear Marko,

It’s hard to say exactly what would happen if you had three hearts and one of them stopped. Humans, and cats, have just one heart, so we have no experience with this. Octopuses, on the other hand, do have three hearts.

Across the animal kingdom, we see all kinds of eyelashes. They come in different sizes, shapes and textures. They also come in different colors, though most fall somewhere between black, brown, and blonde. All of them are actually hairs and the scientific term is “cilia.”

A good French fry starts with the right potato. My friend Rick Knowles is a potato researcher at Washington State University and told me all about the spuds.

All around the world, people fall asleep to different sounds. Maybe you hear a snoring dog, whooshing waves, noisy traffic, chirping crickets, a soft lullaby, or raindrops.

Every day people around the world get their water in different ways. Some get water from a well, others turn on a tap, go to the store, and some walk many miles to a river. But no matter how we get our drinking water, it almost always starts with rain.

In the movies, we often hear dinosaurs let out big, scary sounds. If you’ve ever played with toy dinosaurs, maybe you’ve also made your little Tyrannosaurus rex roar.

While it might seem like wildfires only cause destruction, they are actually a natural and important part of keeping forests healthy. After many years, trees have adapted to their homes. Some are pretty invincible when it comes to surviving a wildfire.

Dear Annalisa,

Sleep is important for lots of the animals on our planet. Just like you need a good rest, so do bees. But, bee sleep is different than human sleep.

Dear Kamrin,

Sand is actually made up of lots of different things. When we look at it under the microscope, we can see cooled lava, coral, seashells, and other kinds of wonderful, colorful rocks.

Dear Nicole,

It turns out that the experience of getting chills when we listen to music actually has a scientific name: frisson. That’s what I found out when I met up with Washington State University brain scientist Steve Simasko.

Dear Lily,

You’re right, stink bugs give off quite a stink. To find out exactly what that smell is all about, I visited my friend Elizabeth Beers. She’s a researcher at Washington State University who works with insects, including a kind of stink bug.

Dear Nisi,

All around the world bees are busy turning nectar from flowers into sweet, golden honey. That’s what I found out from my friend Brandon Hopkins, a honey bee researcher at Washington State University.

Dear Ben,

You’re right, a puffer fish can get pretty big. In fact, some of them can even inflate to the size of a balloon or a beachball.