Category: Biology

The Mystery of the Alternating Nostrils

11/27/2021

Vicki Cobb
The Master Chef of Kids' Hands-On Science

Are your two nostrils exactly the same size? Don’t struggle to find out by looking in a small mirror. Put your nose right above the mirror and breathe down on it. You will see two circles of moisture as the warm moist air from your nose condenses into water when it hits the cool mirror surface. One circle will be a LOT larger than the other.

    You might conclude that yes, one nostril is bigger than the other; that you will have to live with being lopsided. But wait! I mean wait an hour or so and do it again. Surprise! This time the small nostril is now the BIG one! The larger nostril is dominant and takes in more of the air. You can do scientific study of your nose and see just how long each nostril dominates. Perhaps if you check often enough, you’ll discover a time when the two circles will be about the same size. This will be the moment of the changing of the nostrils. Of course, you have to do this study when you don’t have a stuffy nose.

    What’s behind this? It seems that your nostrils are on an automatic timer from your brain so that they take turns being dominant. It’s very interesting. But I’m not sure if it is important.

    Not many people know about this. But your dentist might. A dentist is always looking at peoples’ nostrils. See if your dentist knows about this. He or she might even know why this happens. This just might be a medical mystery worth investigating. And you might be just the one to do it.

Vicki Cobb ‘s “Discover Your Senses” series of books are available through the iTunes store. She begins by asking: “Know how to stop smelling? Hold your nose.” Also, check your library for copies. I mean wait an hour or so and do it again.

Vicki is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

MLA 8 Citation
Cobb, Vicki. "The Mystery of the Alternating Nostrils." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 21 Nov. 2017, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-mystery-of-the-alternating-nostrils.

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Some Painful Truth

11/18/2021

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Vicki Cobb
The Master Chef of Kids' Hands-on Science.

How well do you handle spicy food? Do you find food with a “kick” eye-watering and difficult to swallow? Or are you a real “fire eater;” nothing can be too hot?

A scientist, named Wilbur Scoville, figured out how to rank spicy food for hotness in 1912. The “heat” from peppers comes from a chemical called capsaicin (cap-say-sin). Pure capsaicin registers 16 million heat units on the Scoville scale. Zero is a sweet green, red or yellow pepper. A fresh, green Jalapeño (ha-la-pen-yo) is rated 2,500-8,000 units, a lot less hot than pure capsaicin.

The fact is that you don’t “taste” the heat. The sensation of heat comes from nerve endings in your tongue that respond to pain. Of course, these nerve endings are not just in your tongue. They are all over your body. So a good scientific question is: Can you “taste” hot sauce with, say, your wrist?

Check it out. Rub the inside of your wrist with a cut Jalapeño pepper or some hot sauce. Wait a few minutes. Feel the burn? Rinse off your wrist well with cool water.

Your tongue, of course, is much more sensitive than your wrist to many chemicals because it is always wet. Capsaicin, like a lot of other chemicals dissolves in water and reaches those nerve endings more quickly.

Another liquid that triggers your pain nerves in your tongue is soda. The carbon dioxide in the bubbles reacts with an enzyme in your mouth to form a weak chemical called carbonic acid. This acid fires the pain nerve endings in your tongue giving soda its “bite.”

How well can you tolerate this pain? Stick your tongue into a freshly opened glass of soda and hold it there. See how long you can keep it in the drink. One minute? Two minutes? Most people can’t last a minute. But maybe you’re tougher than that.

Some Mexican parents give their kids mixtures of sugar and red chili powder when they’re little to build up their tolerance for spicy foods. Do you think that people who love spicy food could also be champions at keeping their tongues immersed in soda? Design an experiment to find out at your next party.

Hot Stuff from Vicki Cobb on Vimeo.

atonguelashing from Vicki Cobb on Vimeo.

These videos were made from Vicki Cobb’s book We Dare You! She invites you to join her video project and make your own videos from her book and post them on the www.wedareyouvideos.com website.

Vicki Cobb is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

MLA 8 Citation
Cobb, Vicki. "Some Painful Truth." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 17 Oct. 2017, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/some-painful-truth.

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What's It Like Being a Wolf?

11/12/2021

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Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Nature's Animal Ambassador

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a wolf? You’re born in a cozy, dark den under the ground, probably along with at least one brother or sister. Your eyes are closed shut, but you can smell and feel your way over to your mother to drink sweet, warm milk from her teats. Your father and older brothers and sisters bring food from their hunts to feed your mother.

Your eyes open in about two weeks, but you can’t see much in the darkness of the den. You nap a lot, snuggled up to your siblings and your mom. Then, about a week later, your mother leads you all out of the den into the sunshine. How different it is up here! Now you explore the wild world, wandering among the trees, lapping water from a creek, wrestling and tumbling with your brothers and sisters.

After you get bigger and stronger, you and your family leave the den and move to a safe outdoor area. It’s scary at first, being in a strange new place with no dark den for comfort. An older brother or sister watches over you and the other pups while the rest of the family, or pack, goes hunting. When the hunters return you rush up and lick their faces and they share the meat they got on the hunt. All the older wolves in the pack let you climb all over them and nip their ears and tails while they take care of you, protecting you from danger.

All that good meat helps you grow into a big, strong wolf, with thick, shiny fur. In the fall, you go along on the hunt and learn how to find game and how best to catch it. Hunting is exciting but dangerous. You or other family members might get kicked by a deer or stomped on by a moose. But if you get injured, the other wolves take care of you until you recover. You are family, and family is what matters.

Grey wolf. © Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, 2014

How did the return of the wolves to Yellowstone Park save the park? That’s the riveting story Dorothy’s tells in When the Wolves Returned.

Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

MLA 8 Citation
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. "What's It Like Being a Wolf?" Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 27 Sept. 2017, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/whats-it-like-being-a-wolf.

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How to Take an Elephant's Temperature

11/8/2021

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Peggy Thomas
Curiosity Queen:
writing science, history, and everything in between

My knees shake as I stand behind Poonlarb, a towering female Asian elephant who rocks back and forth while the veterinarian explains the procedure. I pull on a rubber glove that goes up to my armpit, and grease my entire hand and arm with a lubricant.

Taking an elephant’s temperature is one way the vet can assess the animal’s health, which is important at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) in Thailand where many of the elephants have been rescued from harsh lives hauling lumber, or begging on the busy streets of Bangkok. The GTAEF is one of many organizations struggling to protect abused, captive elephants, as well as educate people on the plight of the dwindling wild population. Loss of habitat and poaching for ivory has made the Asian elephant ten times more endangered than their big-eared African cousin.

When the vet hands me the thermometer, I laugh. I was expecting something…well… elephant-sized. But the thermometer is no bigger than the one I use at home. Protecting the glass tip with my finger, I ask Poonlarb if she’s ready, and inch my hand into her rectum. “More,” the vet says, and I reach further pushing up on my tip-toes. Poonlarb’s muscles gently contract around my arm. If the mahout (elephant handler) wasn’t holding her tail, this nearly two ton female could easily knock me off my feet with one swish. I rub Poonlarb’s rump, and assure her it will be over soon, but four minutes is a long time when you have your hand up an elephant’s backside.

I pull the thermometer out and hand it to the vet. “36.2 Celsius,” she says. “Normal.” That’s 97.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Poonlarb is one healthy elephant, and luckily for me, a patient patient.

Peggy Thomas learning a new skill to add to her resume.

To learn more about Asian elephants, click here to go to Think Elephants International

Peggy Thomas not only knows something of the anatomy of an elephant, but she knows the internal structure of nonfiction.

Peggy Thomas is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through FieldTripZoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

MLA 8 Citation
Thomas, Peggy. “How to Take an Elephant’s Temperature.” Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 23 Oct. 2017, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/how-to-take-an-elephants-temperature.

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Rot Rocks!

10/29/2021

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David M. Schwartz
The amazing, engaging, math exponent

'Tis the season. The rotting season.

You thought Halloween was full of ghosts, goblins and ghouls? Well, wait until the post-Halloween season. This is when your Jack O' Lantern begins its ghoulish decline. It starts as a pumpkin and it ends as a heap of goo. This is scary!

Now is when your Halloween pumpkin begins to rot. Don't get me wrong. Rot is not gross. It is a beautiful thing—beautiful in its own deliciously disgusting way.

You start with a proud Jack, a plump, shiny-skinned pumpkin. Halloween is over so you leave it on your porch, or inside by the window, or maybe you toss it into the garden or onto the compost heap.

It attracts some visitors. A squirrel. A pair of mice. A scurry of sow bugs. They chew the skin of the pumpkin, leaving moist, rough surfaces, just perfect for the next wave of invaders: the molds and fungi and bacteria that start to grow. There are dozens, even hundreds, of types of organisms waiting to sink their "teeth" into pumpkin flesh as soon as the conditions are right. One kind of invader changes the conditions of the flesh to make it perfect for the next one. Meanwhile, the poor pumpkin is looking less and less like a pumpkin. Its skin turns to shades of black, gray and white, with only a few patches of dull orange. Its shape collapses into a heap, then a pile of mush, and then . . . well, no shape at all.

Do you think rot rots? Imagine what your life would be like if things didn't rot. You'd be tripping over all the old pumpkins, not to mention mice, eagles, tomato plants, oak trees and everything else that ever walked, flew, swam or grew upon the earth. Their dead bodies simply wouldn't go away! Worse, their nutrients would be locked forever inside. The energy in the molecules they are made of would be unavailable to any other living things. Rot, properly known as "decomposition," releases all those good vitamins, sugars, proteins, carbohydrates and energy so that they can be used by next year's pumpkin, which will grow from the seeds of last year's pumpkin. Mice and eagles, tomatoes and the trees in a nearby forest can grow and reproduce because nutrients and energy pass through complex food webs from plants to the animals that eat those plants, to other animals that eat those animals.

It's all possible because of rot. So you see, rot doesn't rot. Rot rocks!

Going....

...going...

...gone!

David is the author of > 50 books on math and science, including his newest, rottenest title, Rotten Pumpkin. For more information, click here.

David is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more.

MLA 8 Citation
Schwartz, David M. "Rot Rocks!" Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 2 Nov. 2017.

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The Mystery of the Alternating Nostrils

Some Painful Truth

What's It Like Being a Wolf?

How to Take an Elephant's Temperature

Rot Rocks!

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