A nine-year old girl asked a NASA tour guide about the age of moon rocks. Her family taught her that the universe is only 6,000 years old, which scientists believe is nowhere close to the truth. Who’s right here, and why? And was this little girl right to question the scientists?
Scientist PZ Meyers of the University of Minnesota provides an excellent kid-friendly explanation not only of the radiometric dating process that’s used to determine the age of very old things like moon rocks, but also of how and when it’s appropriate to question what we know about the natural world. (In short: it’s important for a scientist to be critical-minded, but it’s important to ask questions and pay attention to answers that provide more information instead of reinforcing ideas that we already have.)
Here’s a story from the New York Times about Natalie Portman, the actress you may remember as Princess Amidala from Star Wars Episodes I, II and III. Apparently she was quite the kid scientist in high school; she was a semifinalist in the national Intel Science Talent search!
Portman is 29 years old now and is about to have a baby of her own. Last night she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, playing a ballerina in a film called “Black Swan”. This just goes to show that you don’t have to choose between being a princess, a ballerina, or a scientist — you can be all three if you want!
From Gawker comes a cool story about a group of kids in England who did original research on the behavior of bees. The kids set up an experiment with colored lights to see if bees are able to remember the location of food.
Their research was so good it was published in a scientific journal called Biology Letters. Super cool!
It is called the Goliath Birdeater Tarantula. The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula is a very interesting looking spider. This tarantula is the biggest spider in the world. It can be up to 11 inches! This particular spider is coffee colored. This spider has hairs on its legs that it can flick which are extremely irritating to our skin.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula lives in a variety of places. This bird-eating spider can be found in South America and Venezuela. This spider can also be found in Brazil and humid tropical forest areas. When keeping this tarantula as a pet it should be maintained at 78 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
This spider has an interesting way of hunting. The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula bite is really harmless to humans, almost like a wasp sting. This spider takes young birds from their nests, which gives it the name “bird eater”. These spiders only use their bite for self-defense; for hunting they use stealth and strength.
You can clearly see the Goliath Birdeater Tarantula is a very special spider.
We’re always excited to hear about other Kid Scientists out there sharing their interest in science and education. Kaylie McFerrin from Wichita Falls, TX is one of the entrants in the Google for Doodle contest. The winner’s doodle will appear on Google’s home page. Kaylie wants to become a scientist so she can find a cure for her sister’s kidney cancer. There are lots of great careers for aspiring scientists that involve research, chemistry, and medicine. If you could do or be anything, what would it be?
Here’s some news that got all of us at Kid Scientist excited:
“President Barack Obama said Monday he would convene a national science fair next year to honor young inventors with the same gusto that college and professional athletes celebrate their victories at the White House.
‘You know, if you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House,’ said Obama, a sports fan as much as a science nerd. ‘Well, if you’re a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models.’
He said they would show young students how ‘cool science can be.’”
By now, you have probably seen the OK Go video that everyone is talking about, featuring the Rube Goldberg machine. That machine took months to build, and days to film. You can learn more about how the contraption was built here. We were wondering, who started this whole contraption building craze in the first place?
What people call “Rube Goldberg machines” are based on the cartoons of Rube Goldberg, whose work appeared in newspapers in the early 1900’s. The contraptions usually were incredibly complicated ways to do something simple, like scratch your back or mail a letter.
We really like this blog post about the greatest Rube Goldberg contraptions of all time. What do you think, which one is the best?
We remember having to learn multiplication tables in grade school. We also remember how much of a pain it can be. So when Principal Investigator Celeste started learning them in her third grade class, we thought of ways to make it easier. We got into the habit of going over multiplication problems in the car on the way to school, but after doing this for a few weeks we realized it would be good to have a way for her to go through multiplication problems on her computer whenever she wanted to.
So we made the Kid Scientist Multiplication Blaster. This is a web page that takes you through as many random multiplication problems as you can stomach, from 3 x 3 to 12 x 12.
Try the Multiplication Blaster out and let us know what you think. Does this make learning multiplication tables more fun? Are there other similar tools you’d like to see us make? Let us know!
One of our favorite dress up games is playing Pirate. Pirates get all the cool sayings, like “Yo ho ho” and “ARRRR!” and “Scurvy knaves!” We didn’t realize scurvy was a “thing” until we saw this video on “Spongebob Squarepants”
Spots on your back and teeth falling out? Gross! And what’s that stuff about a lemon tree?
Turns out scurvy is a real disease, and spots on your skin and spongy gums (EWW!) are two of the symptoms. It happens when you don’t get enough vitamin C. Long ago pirates and other sailors who were at sea for long periods had to live off preserved foods like dried meats. They didn’t get many fruits and vegetables, and so they would develop the kinds of health problems like scurvy that happen when you don’t eat a variety of good healthy foods.
Scurvy is pretty rare in modern times. Eating a variety of fruits (especially citrus fruits like oranges and lemons) and vegetables helps, and so does taking a vitamin C supplement. Drink your orange juice and you won’t have to worry about being a “scurvy knave”!
Subscribe Feed (RSS)
Kaylie McFerrin from Wichita Falls, TX is one of the entrants in the 
The contraptions usually were incredibly complicated ways to do something simple, like scratch your back or mail a letter. 