Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

THE TREE LOBSTER LIVES! This animal’s nickname is the tree lobster. But it’s no lobster. It’s a giant bug called a Lord Howe Island stick insect. These critters used to crawl all over Lord Howe Island, near Australia. They grew 6 inches (15 cm) long. But in the early 1900s, rats got onto the island. The hungry rats ate every last stick insect. The only ones left were dead bugs in museums. Then, in 2001, researchers discovered similar-looking insects on a nearby island. They were skinnier than the old Lord Howe Island tree lobsters. And they had smaller spines on their legs. Were they a different species? Or the same bugs, but thinner? Scientists compared the DNA of the living bugs and the museum samples. And the DNA is the…

Whether you watch it on TV or read it on a phone, the news brings you short, true, important stories about what’s going on right now. Was there a fire at City Hall? Are bus schedules changing? Is there a new president of France? It’s all news. News Crews There are many people behind the scenes who help get the news out. News agencies hire reporters to get news all over the world. Then they sell the stories to many different newspapers and TV stations. So, instead of every paper sending a reporter to Beijing, one agency reporter can get the Beijing news for everyone. Producers pick stories for radio and TV news and put them together into a show. Reporters (also called journalists) find out the news. People call…

One morning in 1734, John Peter Zenger picked metal letters from a tray. He was spelling out the headline for the next edition of a newspaper called the New-York Weekly Journal. With stained fingers, he rolled sticky black ink onto the letters and laid a sheet of clean paper on top. Zenger was a printer. He had learned his craft from one of the first printers in the American colonies, William Bradford. Now Zenger printed whatever people needed—newspapers, books, posters for lost dogs. Arrested! As Zenger finished stacking the printed newspapers, the front door slammed open with enough force to rattle the windows. Men swarmed in. The sheriff ’s men. They grabbed the newspapers and headed back out the door. Zenger tried to stop them, but two men held him.…

Round Triangles Why are manhole covers round? And could they be any other shape? As you’re walking along a street, you might see metal lids that cover holes in the ground. Most of these covers are round, never oval or square. Why is that? It’s all about safety. If you’re covering a hole in the street, you don’t want the cover to fall in by accident. That makes a circle the best shape for the job. No matter which way you turn it, a round cover won’t fall into its manhole. A circle has the same width all the way around. An oval, on the other hand, is longer than it is wide. It’s possible to slip an oval lid through an oval hole. That’s also true for squares. So,…

A photographer named Lewis Hine calls to the night workers. He asks them politely to stand together for a photo. Flash! The dark mine fills with light. Hine’s photos are published in magazines. These are not pictures of America’s mighty workers. These are pictures of children. Hine shows these children proud and hardworking. He also shows the terrible place where they work. He hopes that his photographs will change the laws that let children from poor families work in factories and mines. These children are not stupid or lazy. They are just like other children, like you—but because they are poor, they often don’t go to school. Instead, they have jobs. 1911, New York City A mother in a run-down apartment calls her children to the dining room table piled…

Dear Marvin, I have a prank for you. Open Plush’s closet a little bit. Then fill a bin with confetti and put it on top of the door. The next time Plush opens it the confetti will spill all over her! Tell me you favorite prank. I’ll pull it on my parents. Leo W., age 8, New York Dear Leo, Excellent prank! You know what would make it even funnier? Instead of a bucket of confetti, a bucket of squid! Know where I can get some? My favorite prank is to leave a big book of pranks around, and let them wonder. Try it! You pranking pal, Marvin Dear Ask, You should have an issue on electricity. You could have a story about how platypuses use electricity to find food.…