Innehållsförteckning för May/June 2025 från Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

LETTER of the MONTH A Titanic Warning Hi, people (or maybe you are not, but I am just going to assume you are human)! My name is Charlotte, and I am 11 years old and living on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. I have been reading Muse for four years, and I just love it! My favorite issue is … you guessed it … “Moons Ascending” (March 2024). (Yes, it is really fascinating, especially learning that humans have been learning about my home.) Today, I want to explain an issue that is happening on Earth—pollution. Plastic is the main cause of ocean pollution. (I can see it clearly from here.) Plastic is awesome in some ways. To humans, at least. The only thing is most people just use it one time!…

What do playgrounds and children’s museums have in common? Both places are built for kids to have fun. But it’s no fun (and no fair!) if some kids can’t join in. The good news? Experts are finding ways to make these places fun for everyone. DESIGNING ACCESSIBLE PLAYGROUNDS Designing playgrounds is a tough job. First, they have to be fun. But they also have to be safe, affordable, and accessible. Kids with disabilities can use and enjoy accessible playgrounds. A disability is anything that limits a person’s movement or ability to do certain activities. Some people can’t get around without the help of a wheelchair or walker. Others have trouble climbing, jumping, or balancing. How do you design a playground for people with such different abilities? One way is to…

If you play board games, you’re used to rolling dice to move. Most of the time, the dice you use are cubes. Each die has six faces, and you have one chance in six of rolling a given number. But a cube isn’t the only possible shape for dice. Fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons use dice with four, eight, 10, 12, or 20 identical faces. The 20-sided die is a shape called an icosahedron, made up of 20 equilateral triangles. Are there any other dice-worthy polyhedrons, or solid shapes with more than six faces? Engineer and artist Robert Fathauer and mathematician Henry Segerman have come up with five dice that bring some new shapes to the fun and games. Modern 3D printers allow them to make and test many…

Larry Giles has been the vice president of engineering at Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia, and at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Over more than three decades, he’s overseen the creation of dozens of different rides. At Busch Gardens, these rides include a wood/steel hybrid rollercoaster called InvadR; a forest-themed coaster called Verbolten; and the tallest inverted rollercoaster in North America, Alpengeist. With all this experience, Giles knows what goes into planning a thrill ride. In 2022, he helped introduce Pantheon at Busch Gardens; it’s the fastest multi-launch rollercoaster in the world. Says Giles, “We’ve designed it so that the experience is changing all the time and will keep riders wondering what’s next. Multiple launches, speed changes, a sharp drop, and backwards acceleration are just a few of Pantheon’s…

>> REPTILE REPORT Rattlesnakes Coil to Conserve Rainwater Rattlesnakes often live in desert or arid environments. So, how in the world do they obtain the water they need to survive? Researchers in the United States recently announced that they’ve found the answer: Rattlesnakes coil up and become like collection plates for rainwater. Their scales seem to be the ideal texture for both gathering and retaining water. This behavior has been observed briefly at different times in different species of snakes. But thoroughly studying poisonous rattlesnakes can be dangerous and observing them in the rain has been difficult to do. Scientists waited for rattlesnakes in Colorado to hibernate. Then they used sprinklers to simulate rainfall on nearly 100 of the snakes while using video cameras to record their reactions. The snakes…

Have you ever played pinball? The rules are simple: Use a spring-loaded plunger to launch a ball onto the playfield. Then press the flipper buttons to work the flippers to aim your shots and score as many points as possible. When the ball “drains,” your turn is over. Since 2002, Michael Schiess and the folks at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California, have been working to preserve and celebrate pinball machines. They call it “one of America’s favorite pastimes.” This interactive museum displays more than 100 restored machines, which trace from the 1940s to today. Canvas paintings and murals of yesterday’s pinball art cover its walls. Museum staff develop art, science, and history exhibits based on pinball, and even use pinball to teach science at local schools. Thousands of…

>> NEW CONTEST Coaster Design In “Look! No Hands!” you learned about what goes in to designing the speediest, twistiest, safest rollercoasters imaginable. Now’s your chance to design a rollercoaster of your very own. What is it called? What does it look like? How fast, high, or far does it go? Draw us a picture of your dream rollercoaster, and we’ll open the gates to the Muse Theme Park in a future issue. >> ANNOUNCING CONTEST WINNERS! In November, we wanted to get a better understanding of what goes on in a pet’s mind. Since O and his translation helmet couldn’t make it everywhere, we asked you to help us figure it out. See what some of the Muser’s closest, cuddliest friends have to say. CONTEST RULES 1. Your contest…

You probably love—or once loved—a playground. This playground might have a giant pod you can climb over and over. Or a swing shaped like a bird’s nest. Or musical chimes. Or a cave made of bushes where you and your best friend whisper secrets. You cannot imagine your life without this place made with you in mind. The First Public Play Spaces But if you had been born more than 150 years ago, this playground would not have existed. Kids back then went to school if they were lucky. They went to work if they weren’t. If they had time to play at all, they played in the streets. Adults didn’t design public spaces for children. And any such places definitely weren’t for “play.” That started to change in the…

Doris Rusch takes play seriously. As a leading game developer, she has created video games about anxiety, bullying, mental and physical health, and more. She says great games make us think deeply and ask meaningful questions, such as “What is my purpose?” and “How do I relate to others?” For 17 years, Rusch did post-doctoral research at the MIT Game Lab. During the same period, she taught game design at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Today, she is a professor of game design at Uppsala University in Sweden. Her games have won numerous awards, and her 2017 book Making Deep Games: Designing Games With Meaning and Purpose has been called “transformative” by critics. She thinks everyone should be making games. YOU CALL YOURSELF A “PLAY AFICIONADO.” WHAT’S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT…

Q: What is at the end of a black hole? —Ashley S. A: When you hear the term black hole, you probably imagine a deep well that traps everything that falls into it. But that’s not really what black holes are, says Laura Blecha. She’s an astrophysicist at the University of Florida who studies galaxies. In fact, a black hole isn’t a hole at all. It’s really a point with a whole lot of mass squished into it. That point is called a singularity, and it is both the beginning and the end of a black hole. A black hole’s power extends beyond that single point, however. The singularity’s enormous mass means that it generates really, really strong gravity. That gravity creates a boundary around the black hole called an event…