doc_2021-03-25_21-38-32.archivetempAsk 2019-05-06

text and art by Thor Wickstrom

The three of us
carved into the
mountain forever!

May/June 2019 Volume 18 Number 5 cricketmedia.com $6.95

There’s room for Obviously it should be This nose deserves How do we
one more head... the most beautiful! a mountain! decide? Maybe it
Who should it be? should be someone
who knows us...
Ooh! Me!
Me! Me! ...and cares
about us!

How about the
smartest?

Someone we can’t Let’s get
carving!
live without!
And who gets us I think we all know
who that is!
out of fixes!

I’m glad our amazing cartoonist
finally gets some credit!
Yep! Mount Plushmore
sure looks great!

Huh? Did you say
“Mount Plushmore”?!?

She did!

Do Rocks
Need Us?

Volume 18, Number 5 May/June 2019

Liz Huyck Editor
Tracy Vonder Brink Contributing Editor
Emily Cambias Assistant Editor

Karen Kohn Art Director
Erin Hookana Designer
David Stockdale Permissions Specialist

ASK magazine (ISSN 1535-4105) is published 9 times a year, monthly except for combined How do clams get cozy? page 25
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33 Marvin’s Clever Tricks
May/June 2019,Volume 18, Number 5 © 2019, Cricket Media, Inc. All rights reserved, including back cover: Marvin and Friends
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“How to Make an Island,” excerpted from Island: A Story of the Galapagos © 2012 by Jason
Chin. Reprinted by permission of First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division
of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership. All Rights Reserved.“Looking for
Life on Mars” art © 2013 by Jeffrey Ebbeler.

Cover Illustration © 2019 by Thor Wickstrom

Photo acknowledgments: 2 (LT) Juniors Bildarchiv GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo, (RB) NOAA
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Ikon Images/Alamy Stock Photo, (LC) Siim Sepp/Alamy Stock Photo, (LB) Scenics & Science/
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Media GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo; 20 (LT) MIT/Kate Harris, (TC) Catmando/Shutterstock.
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Alisha Newton/Shutterstock.com, (RC) gunungkawi/Shutterstock.com, (RB) Jenny Lord/
Shutterstock.com; 26 (LT) NASA; 27 (RB) NASA; 28 (LT) NASA, (CC) Adrienne P Smyth and
Peter M Bradley (Worcester State University, Massachusetts).

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Suggested for ages 7 to 10.

Features robots eat dust? page 27
page 15
6 How to Make an Island Why do
by Jason Chin
How did this shell get up a mountain?
10 The Living Rock Cycle

12 How to Become a Fossil

by Emily Cambias

15 This Rock Was Once Alive
18 Oldest Living Rock Tells All

by MJ Old

22 This Is Not a Rock
24 Clam vs. Rock

by Christy Peterson

26 Looking for Life on Mars

by Tracy Vonder Brink

Is this a rock? page 23

by
Elizabeth
Preston

Rock-a-Bye, Mousey

Babies love being rocked. Even grown-ups
like it. What’s more relaxing than a nap in
a hammock? Now researchers have found
that adult mice also sleep better when
they’re rocked.

The scientists put mouse cages onto a
moving platform during the day. (Mice
are nocturnal, so daytime is when they
usually snooze.) The platform moved
side-to-side with a steady rhythm. By

watching the brain activity of the mice,
the scientists could see when they were asleep.
Mice slept about 12 percent longer when they were being rocked.
Researchers think an organ deep inside mouse ears is involved. Normally, this
organ helps with balance. So would humans also sleep better in moving beds?
More research is needed, but it’s possible.

Seal Eel Noses Are a Mystery Again?

Why does this seal have an eel up its nose?
No one knows.

Over the past few years, researchers have
found several young Hawaiian monk seals in a
strange predicament, with eels stuck waaaaay
up their noses. After people carefully pulled the
eels out, the seals were fine, but the eels died.
So far, scientists are not sure how it happens.
It might be that when a seal is out hunting, it
sticks its face into an eel’s hiding place. Then the
eel swims up its nose in panic. Or maybe the seals eat
an eel and then barf it back up—but the eel comes out its
nose instead of its mouth. Or putting eels up your nose might just be
a weird trend among young seals.

2 ask

The Original Unicorn? I thought they
would be more

sparkly...

It may look like a prank, That means Siberian unicorns lived
but this hairy creature alongside ancient humans and our
is a real animal. Or, it cousins, the Neanderthals. We may
used to be. The “Siberian even have eaten them.
unicorn” lived a long
time ago. Today, only
fossils remain. The
Siberian unicorn was
really a giant, furry
rhinoceros. Scientists
used to think it died off
about 200,000 years
ago. But they now think
that some of these rhinos lived until
39,000 years ago.

They roamed Eastern Europe
and Central Asia, munching grass.

Unforgotten Homework

Even the ancient Egyptians had Now write So much for
homework. And a bit of it is still “accept advice time travel.
around, scratched into a wax
tablet nearly 2,000 years old. The from a wise ask 3
homework is in Greek, which was man only” four
spoken in Egypt at the time. At
the top is a wise saying written more times.
out neatly by the teacher. The
student practiced copying it below.
On the back there’s multiplication
tables. Normally, the lines would
have been rubbed out and the
wax tablet used again. But this
homework has stuck around,
giving us a little peek into kids’
lives of the past.

Trying to look Why? I’m sick of kids picking
more like a rock. me up all the time.
Whatcha But who wants a
doing? boring old rock?

Check out this rock. These are pretty rocks.

Hey! That will be great

for our collection.

Who stole
my eggs?

Oh, come
on!

If I stay perfectly
still, he won’t see me.

4 ask

This is a
nice rock.

Add it to the pile.

If I hide in
my shell I’ll
be safe.

Psst, hey, are you a rock? Let’s look for more!
Crab.
Cricket.
Caddisfly.

Turtle. Frog.

Did they get any rocks at all? Now’s our chance.
Anyone for stick collecting?
Where did our rocks go? I think they ran away.
And who broke mine?

Uh-oh.

Wait for us!

ask 5

How to Make
an Island

text and art by Jason Chin

A volcano has been growing under the Cool!
ocean for millions of years. With this New land!
eruption, it rises above the water for the
first time, and a new island is born. Over the next
million years the
6 volcano erupts
many times. With every
eruption, the island gets
bigger. As the lava cools, it
becomes black rock.

The seed of a mangrove Let’s go!
tree floats around the
ocean. It washes up and
takes root. In time, a
mangrove grows.

A seabird
discovers the
island and stops
for a rest. She
decides to make it
her home.

Marine iguanas swim
from a nearby island.
This species has
adapted to life on a bare
volcano. Long claws
grip the slippery rocks.
Powerful tails help them
swim under water. They
graze on algae growing
on underwater rocks.

The high cone of the volcano stops rainclouds, so rain falls
on the island.
The wind brings
spores of lichens
and simple plants
called worts.
They can live on
nothing but rain
and bare rock.

After a million years, the volcano erupts
less often. The water around is full
of fish. Seabirds gobble them up just
offshore. New volcanoes erupt nearby,
forming a chain of islands.

Ooh! New forest! Mangrove trees flourish along the coasts.
Their roots provide a home for sea turtles
and young fish, sharks, and rays.

Birds bring plant seeds. Some Birds fly to the
take root. As the plants die, island, or are blown
they mix with rock dust and there by storms.
bird droppings to make soil.
This lets more plants grow. Land iguanas float
to the island on logs
Sea lions from the north come and branches.
to live on the island’s beaches.

In a distant land, a flood washes a group of tortoises out to sea. After floating for
weeks, ocean currents carry them to shore.

8

When the island is Over hundreds of
2 million years old, the thousands of years of
volcano stops erupting. living on the island, the
The island slowly plants and animals that
begins to sink, about arrived there adapt and
a millimeter a year. In change. Some evolve into
another few million new species that exist
years, it will sink below nowhere else on earth.
the waves.
Some
Some seagulls begin to hunt at iguanas
night. In time, their eyes have turn pink.
become larger, allowing them to see
better in the dark. There are no predators on this little
island, so fish-eating cormorants don’t
When humans finally visit the islands, they need to fly. Each generation has smaller
are amazed at the variety of life they find. The wings, until they can’t fly at all.
birds, tortoises, and plants on each island
are all a little different—evolved to fit that The tortoises’ shells change too. As the
particular place. One visitor, a scientist named island gets shorter and drier, their shells
Charles Darwin, takes notes. Later, he writes a become smaller and turn up in front.
book explaining how evolution works. This shape is better for keeping cool and
reaching tall food.

These are the
Galapagos Islands.

9

The Living Rock

When a volcano Volcanic Wind, rain, and rivers break
erupts, magma rock is full off bits of rock and carry
oozes out. Magma of minerals them away as sand and grit.
is melted rock, that plants can
recycled from
deep inside Earth. use.
Cooled magma
makes volcanic, or
igneous rock.

In some places,
magma pushes up
to the surface,
making a volcano.

Are No, but they As the earth
volcanoes do grow and moves, some
sedimentary and
alive? change! metamorphic
rocks are pushed
art © 2019 by Denise Ortakales to the surface.
Deep inside the earth, These also make
rocks melt into magma. mountains.

10 As the rock layers sink, heat from
inside the earth cooks sedimentary
rock into different kinds of
metamorphic rock. Metamorphic
rocks have been changed by heat.

Cycle You might think rocks don’t change.
But they do—in their own slow time.
art by Denise Ortakales

Bacteria Rocks wear down, blow away, dissolve, and get
living deep melted down into new rocks—very slowly, over
underground ooze
acids that millions of years. And living things play a part in
dissolve rocks
to form the process. Without living things, Earth’s rocks would
caves.
look very different.

Plant
roots grow
into rocks and help
break them up.
Plants and animals
also make
chemicals
that change

rocks.

Sand In the
and rock ocean, shellfish take
mix with re- minerals from the water
mains of plants to build shells. When they
and animals to die, their shells sink to the
make soil. seafloor and become

Layers of sand, mud, and remains part of the rock
of living things build up. Over time, again.
they compress into sedimentary rock.
11

HBFeocowosmtse oial Look out!
bayrtEmbyilyMCaranmiebiaGsalloway

120million years ago, an faster and faster, down the hill. And art © 2019 by Marnie Galloway
iguanodon stood on right in the middle of breakfast,
a riverbank, chewing Wham! The poor iguanodon was
a leaf. It had been raining, and the rudely buried under a ton of mud.

bank was full of fresh new plants Sadly, that was the end of the
for his breakfast. iguanodon. But it was the beginning
The rain also turned of a brand new fossil.
the hillside above into
mud. Some of the Under the mud, bacteria and
mud began to slide, worms nibbled away all the soft bits
of the iguanodon’s body. They left a

collection of
bones and
teeth under the
muddy river.

Bacteria and bugs eat soft
body parts but leave bone
to make fossils.

12 a s k

Living bones are full
of tiny holes.

Like all bones, the iguanodon’s The minerals clumped into Water carries
were not completely solid. Each crystals and hardened. After a long, tiny bits of
bone was filled with millions of tiny long time, there wasn’t much of the rock into
holes—holes so small you can only original bone left. The iguanodon’s holes in bones.
see them with a microscope. When skeleton had been fossilized: replaced Over time,
the iguanodon was alive, these holes by a stone copy. rock replaces
held tiny blood vessels and nerves. the bone.
Rain and wind dumped more
Rain falling on rock and seeping dirt and sand on the spot where the A fossil is a
through soil dissolves minerals as it bones lay. They built up heavy layers. rocky skeleton
passes through. So the water where Eventually, the old mud was inside layers of
the iguanodon lay was full of miner- compressed into solid rock. other rocks.
als, tiny bits of rock.
Or walking
Some of this mineral- around!
filled water seeped into
the iguanodon’s bones.
The rocky bits in the
water washed into the
tiny bone holes and
stuck. For thousands
of years, hard minerals
from water slowly
replaced the bone.

a s k 13

Over millions of
years, more rock
layers form on top.

Millions of years passed. One day, a paleontologist, a
scientist who studies dinosaurs, was
More layers of rock formed walking along a rocky cliff. She noticed
an interesting rock sticking out.
on top of the fossil. New
She soon came back with a team.
animals evolved. They chipped away at the cliff.
Sometimes they put rocks on their
Different plants tongues to test them. Fossils stick to
the tongue more than ordinary
covered the land. rock—the spongy pattern of the old
bones make them rough. Over many
The land itself months, the team slowly uncovered
the skeleton. After a hundred million
was moving too. As years, the iguanodon would finally
see the light of day.
the continents slowly

shifted, the layer of

rock containing the

iguanodon skeleton was

As continents pushed up when a ridge of
shift, they push
layers of old mountains formed. Up, up, up
rock to the
surface. it went, until just a few inches of rock

hid the fossil

from view.

Ice cracked

the layers of

stone. Wind and

rain carried

away tiny bits

as sand. Inch by

inch, the rock

That’s even older over the fossil
than my egg!
iguanodon

wore away.

Fossils stick to the tongue
more than other rocks.

14 a s k

True Fossils Like me!

True fossils are made when

minerals (tiny bits of rock)

replace the bone over many

thousands of years. The

result is a bone-shaped

rock that different

from the rock

around it.

Fossils are the traces of living his
fossil
things preserved in rocks. was once
part of a
Mold Fossils dinosaur.

Sometimes creatures Cast Fossils
leave an imprint of their
bodies in mud or sand Some fo sils form when san
that hardens to stone. This or mud fills a shell or an
is how we know about imprint of a creature. Then
ancient leaves and soft- the fill turns to stone, leaving
bodied creatures. a molded shape in the rock.

Ammonites, cast fossils of ancient
snails, are a sign that the rock
used to be seafloor.

Trace Fossils a s k 15

Dinosaur footprints, animal
burrows, and other traces of
living things can be preserved
in mud that hardens into stone.
These are also fossils.

There’s even more
this way!

Sea lilies have no bones, but they
can still leave fossils.

Petrified Wood art © 2019 by Jim Bradshaw

Sometimes when ancient trees fell in mineral-rich water,
minerals replaced the wood, leaving a tree-shaped rock.

Amber Is that where
Rocky the Flying
Amber is the hardened resin Squirrel lives?
of ancient trees. Sometimes
it has insects trapped in it!

Are you Limestone
part rock?
Limestone is a calcium-rich rock made from the
Rocks are remains of old shellfish, corals, and plankton.
rocks. You are a Over time, as they get buried under more
living animal. But you shells, the weight compresses them into
and rocks do share some stone. Limestone is a good place to
ingredients. Minerals! look for fossils of ancient creatures.

What’s a mineral?

A mineral is any hard, rocky substance that forms naturally,

is not alive, and has its own chemical recipe. There are about

4,000 natural minerals on earth.

All rocks are made of minerals. Some rocks are just one Some limestone is made of the
mineral. Others are a mix. The minerals in a rock determine tiny shells of ocean plankton,
what kind of rock it is. Table salt is a mineral, also known as like these foraminifera.

sodium chloride. Chalk is a mineral. And so are metals like

iron and gold.

Living things also need minerals. Calcium builds shells and

bones. Small amounts of salt, iron, and other minerals help

muscles and nerves work. These are the same minerals

found in rocks. But inside a living body, they do

different jobs. Your body is about 5% minerals. Half

of this is calcium, in your bones.

Animals get the minerals they need from

water and food. And some minerals—like

salt—we sprinkle on lunch! In shelly limestone, you can see the

remains of larger seashells.

16

These tiny Chalk
algae shells
form chalk. The tall chalky cliffs of Dover,
England, are made up of
shells from tiny algae called
coccolithophores. These
algae cover themselves with
a suit of round plates made

of calcium carbonate. How
many dust-grain-sized shells do
you think it took to make this cliff?

Instant
ancient art!

Diatomaceous Earth Coal (and Oil)

Diatoms are tiny algae that Coal is the compressed remains
live in the ocean. They pull of ancient plants, algae,
silica from seawater to make and animals. Over
beautiful, glassy shells in millions of years,
countless patterns. Old pressure sque zes
diatom shells sink to form the remains into a
diatomite, a light-colored thick, carbon-rich
rock. These rocks are pushed goo: oil. If the oil
to the surface by moving is squeezed more, it
continents. hardens into coal.

Tiny Flint
diatoms
Flint is a smooth
quartz rock found
inside chalk and
limestone. Scientists
are not entirely sure
how it forms. But one
possibility is that tiny silica
shells fall into holes bored by clams and other shellfish. As the
limestone rock compresses, the silica hardens into flint.

17

Oldest Living
Rock Tells All

They look Meet some of
like muffins! Earth’s earliest
inhabitants.
They look like
mushrooms.

They look like they
have a story to tell!

18 a s k

In the shallow water
of Shark Bay, Australia,
strange rocky columns stick
up from the sandy bottom.

Shark Bay is named for the 29

by MJ Old species of shark that have been
art by Nic McDougal
spotted here. But the scientists who
Tiny microbes built
these columns, a visit this remote place don’t come
millimeter at a time.
for the sharks. They come to see a

far more remarkable creature—

ro k-making microbes from the

dawn of time.

The lumpy columns that

dot this bay are no Say “excuse
ordinary rocks. If me.”

you cut one open,

it would look

like a stack of

pancakes, with

some green fuzz

on the top. That fuzz

made the rock. It also

made a lot of our air.

Meet the cyanobacteria—

one of Earth’s most ancient

life forms.

Cyanobacteria is sometimes

called blue-green algae, but it

is not algae. It’s a single-celled

microbe that lives in the ocean.

To keep safe, cyanobacteria stick

together with slime. The slime

traps minerals, tiny bits of rock in

the water. Over thousands of years, Cyanobacteria are
these slime-trapped minerals build tiny, just one cell.
up in layers and turn to stone. They eat carbon
dioxide and burp
out oxygen.

text © 2019 by MJ Old, art © 2019 by Nic McDougal

a s k 19

They may not look like We need oxygen to breathe, but for
much, but they do a lot!

cyanobacteria, it’s waste.

Cyanobacteria have been doing

their thing, soaking up carbon

dioxide and making oxygen, since

Earth was young—3 billion

(3,000,000,000) years

or more. They were

around long before

dinosaurs, or

plants, or bugs. For

These orange The Crowds of cyanobacteria more than 2 billion
mats of bacteria cyanobacteria live on the tops of their years, cyanobacteria and
live on sulfur. rocky columns. other microbes had the
Over time, they
will trap minerals like to live on the planet to themselves.
and harden into
rock. top, to soak up more What did they do all that

sun. So the columns time? They made Earth’s air, and

grow up and up. The many of our favorite rocks.

columns are called stromatolites. If you got in a time machine

They grow so slowly that a scratch and went back 3 billion years, you

left by a boat oar 100 years ago still couldn’t stay long.You wouldn’t be

looks fresh. able to breathe—there was no oxygen

Got Air? in the air. All the oxygen was locked
up in water and rocks. Until the

Cyanobacteria use sunlight to turn cyanobacteria got to work, burping

water and carbon dioxide into oxygen into the water.

sugar. When they’re done, they Timeline of Earth
burp out oxygen.

I love
timelines!
They make
me feel so

young.

Billions of Years Ago

20 a s k

As the cyanobacteria multiplied, themselves. As they pumped Scientists find
oxygen built up. It stuck to tiny bits out oxygen, they slowly fossil stromatolites
of iron in the seawater to make red poisoned their own ocean. all over the world.
rust. The rusty iron fell to the bottom These ancient
of the sea. There it formed layers of New bacteria evolved that rocks can tell us
red iron-rich rock. The oxygen also liked the oxygen. They took over a lot about the
mixed with minerals to make new the rocky stromatolite columns. seas and air of
kinds of rocks. New animals, such as snails, liked early Earth, and
to eat the cyanobacteria. The how life evolved.
Life Loves Oxygen cyanobacteria began to decline.
If you cut open a
Eventually, bubbles of oxygen started But the ancient air-makers are stromatolite, you
to escape into the air. New kinds of still around in a few places. can see the layers
life evolved, life that breathed oxygen. Living stromatolites have been built up over
That oxygen gave the new animals discovered in salty bays in thousands of years.
lots of energy. Bugs, fish, dinosaurs, Australia, Mexico, and the
and mammals—all evolved thanks to Bahamas. Extra-salty water
oxygen from cyanobacteria. keeps out snails and other
animals. And the shallow
Unfortunately, oxygen is bays often fill with sand,
poisonous to cyanobacteria which stops coral from
taking hold.

Cyanobacteria are not
alone in Shark Bay. Their
rocky columns host many
different microbes, all eating and
trapping minerals. But among them,
the cyanobacteria are still bubbling
out oxygen, building their
mysterious pancake stacks.
Life and rock, still
dancing their ancient
dance.

Where did the Don’t worry,
microbes go? they’re still here!

a s k 21

This isPretendin Not a
roc is a rea
a ea ie rom re ators. an odd-looking rock isn’t a
to rock at all. Can you spot:
ter all, w o woul wa a fish, a bird, some eggs, a
mushroom, a lizard, a tortoise, a

grasshopper, a frog, a crab, and some

sneaky shellfish?

1

I’m over here!

These guys are
too good at hide
and seek! I’m not
playing with them

anymore!

22 a s k

Are you sure?

Rock

You can’t
fool me, Puck!

a s k 23

Clam vs. Rock
by Christy Peterson

This
clam is wedged
tight into a coral

reef, a rocky
structure made by
living corals. How did

it get in there?

How did this squishy clam conquer a rock?

Think the Far out in the ocean, a tiny Many of these colorful animals text © 2019 by Christy Peterson
clams would clam creeps over a coral reef. would like to eat the tiny, slow clam. It
let us hide Brightly colored fish dart in needs a hiding place! The clam finds
with them? and out. Something startles a puffer a small crack in the coral. It’s just the
fish. It goes from fish-shaped to spiky right size. The clam slides in. Wedged
I’ll protect balloon in seconds. In the distance, an inside the hard coral, the clam is safe
you! eagle ray slowly flap, flap, flaps. from hungry mouths.

24 a s k

Algae Safe inside
living inside the
clam’s curly lips give its home, the
them their vivid color.
Depending on the algae, clam eats
these clams can be blue,
green, yellow, crimson, and eats.

or brown. It grows

The and
clam’s lips are
ringed with tiny grows.
black eye-spots that
can sense changes in The crack in This young clam
light. When they see the rock gets has been grown
the shadow of a fish, tighter and tighter. in an aquarium,
the clam pulls back What’s a clam to do? so you can see
into its shell. its whole shell.
Instead of moving, the clam

begins to dig. It rasps at the coral

with a rough patch on the bottom

of its finger-like foot. And it has Why do they call
another trick—it can dissolve rock. it a boring organ?
This clam has a soft pad where its I’m sure it’s very

interesting.

Burrowing shell joins, called the “boring organ.”
clams belong
to the giant clam This pad oozes a weak acid onto the
family. But they
only grow about coral it touches. The acid dissolves

fist size. To eat, the the coral. Gradually, the hole gets
clam pushes
bigger as the clam grows. To bore,
its brightly When the clam is all grown up, it meaning to
drill a hole.
colored lips, or will be about 4 inches (10 cm) long.

frill, out into the water. Algae living in All that time, the clam never has to

the frill gather sunlight. They make leave its safe home. It might live there

food for themselves and the clam. for 80 years, with only its colorful frill

The clam also sucks in bits of food peeking out.

from the water. Many other burrowing clams have

A fish swims over the clam’s new also found homes in this reef. Shells make
Together, they help recycle old coral great
home. Tiny eye spots in the clam’s back into sand and seafloor. Shellfish rocks... ...and rocks
and living corals use the minerals make great
frill spot the movement. Whoosh!
shells!
The clam pulls back inside the crack.

The fish swims away. As soon as it is released by the clams to build new

safe again, the clam pushes its frill shells. So who wins, clam or rock?

out of its hiding place. Both!

a s k 25

Looking Space is full
of planets,
for Life moons, and
on Mars asteroids. Are any
besides Earth home to
living things? Astronomers
would love to know. When
NASA and other space agencies
send spacecraft and robots to
explore Mars, they look for signs
that anything ever lived there. What
exactly are they looking for? Rocks!

y racy Vonder Brink Rocks!
art by Jeffrey Ebbeler My favorite!

Was there ever
life on Mars?
The answer
might be hiding
in its rocks.

26 a s k

Follow the Water Chemical Clues Get every
germ off, so if
Most scientists think that any I find any I’ll
kind of life needs liquid know they’re
water. So the first Mars
missions looked for signs Martians!
of water. And sure enough,
they found it. Although Curiosity uses an X-ray
Mars is now pretty dry,
water once flowed on the eye to examine the rock.
planet’s surface.
The way the X-rays scatter
The Curiosity rover is a car-sized
robot that has been exploring Mars shows what minerals are in the rock.
sin e 2012. In Gale Crater, it found
rocks that have been shaped by Sometimes Curiosity collects samples
flowing water. Now it’s sampling the
by drilling a small hole in the surface.
rocks to see what’s
in them. Was Then it lifts some powdered rock into Curiosity
the ancient
water full of an on-board chemistry lab. drilled this
minerals? It can also fire a powerful laser hole in a
Very salty? Martian
Hot or cold?
Was it right to vaporize a bit of rock. Looking rock.

for life? The mix of at the rock vapor with special
minerals in the rocks
could answer these questions. cameras can tell what minerals
In 2020, a new Mars rover
will visit a dried-up lake called are there.
Jezero. Scientists hope that if there
ever we e microbes on Mars, they So far, Curiosity has found
might ha wa hed into the lake. As
the lake mud turned to rock, it coul minerals that only form in water,
ha e fossilized the microbes. So
Jerzero’s rocks might hold traces of proving Mars was once wet. It’s
ancient life.
also found organic molecules.

These are molecules that

contain carbon and hydrogen,

both ingredients that life needs.

Finding organic molecules

doesn’t prove life was there—

but it means life might have

been possible.

a s k 27

Space probes also active volcanoes in the ocean, and

check for unusual in poisonous hot springs. Because

amounts of different microbes can survive Earth’s toughest

chemicals. If the conditions, it’s possible life could

amounts change, living survive even on harsh planets like

things might be chang- Mars.

ing them. How do you look for microbes on

Satellites have another planet? Or remains of ancient

detected methane gas microbes? Microbes leave traces, even

This Mars rock in Mars’s atmosphere. Methane can be on hard rock. Sometimes bacteria
shows layers
worn away by made by living things, or by rocks dis- cling together in a sticky sheet, known
flowing water.
solving. The methane on Mars seems as a biofilm. Biofilms can trap min-
What’s
methane? to come and go with the seasons. erals to make layered rocks. They can

There’s a What’s causing the changes? Bacteria also make chemicals that change the
free sample!
underground? Or is frozen methane rocks around them.

melting in the summer? And The 2020 Mars

what made the methane in rover will carry many

the first place? As yet, we more tools to look for

don’t know for sure. signs of life on Mars.

Mini Fossils This is a fossil of a microbe It will drill deep into
from Earth. Might Mars the rock where mi-
If life does exist on other rocks also hold tiny fossils crobes might be hiding.
planets, it’s most likely of ancient life? Powerful cameras will
very small and simple, like look for traces of long-

bacteria. ago biofilms, or even

On Earth, bacteria tiny microbe shells.

have been found Around 4 billion years ago, Mars

living in rocks miles and Earth were a lot alike. Both had

below the earth, around rocky cores, air, and water. Lakes

formed.Volcanoes erupted. On Earth,

life got started. Did it also start on

Mars? If it did, will we find it hiding in

the rocks? Stay tuned!

28 a s k

Hey, Sage! Evie P. wants Salt is a mineral. It washes into the ocean from rocks on land. When rain or
to know, Why are oceans snow falls, it dissolve minerals in the rocks, including salt. These wash into
salty but not lakes? streams, rivers, and lakes, which flow into the ocean. Water also picks up
minerals when it seeps through soil.

So salt washes into lakes too!

Yes. Most streams
and lakes are a bit
salty—but not as
salty as the ocean.

Why aren’t they But the Salt loves to dissolve in water!
as salty? ocean...
So how salty is
I get it! Oceans have no outlets. the ocean?
The minerals get trapped. When
the sun heats the ocean, water Some parts of the
evaporates. It goes into the air, ocean are more
but salt gets left behind. Little by salty than others.
little over millions of years, oceans Overall, ocean
have gotten saltier. water is about
3% salt. But if
Underwater volcanoes and you spread the
hot vents add salt and other ocean’s salt over
minerals to ocean water, too. all Earth’s land,
you’d form a layer
40 stories tall.

Yikes! I think
we’ll need more
popcorn.

Most lakes have water Some minerals settle on
flowing both in and out the ocean floor. Some are
of them. New fresh used by living things.
water flows in. And
salty water flows or
seeps out. That keeps
them pretty fresh.

a s k 29

In our January issue Send your letters to Ask Mail,
we asked you to imagine 70 East Lake St., Suite 800, Chicago, IL
yourself with a super 60601, or have your parent/guardian
animal sense. Thanks to email us at [email protected].
all you super sensers
for sharing your
secrets!

Snake Heat Vision Sense Supersonic Hearing
Henry D., age 7, Tennessee Like Bats
Colin B., age 8, Texas

Owl Night Vision Bat Sense Butterfly Taste
Emerson C., Hosanna I., age 9, Michigan Rachel L., age 8, Canada
New Jersey

Dear Editor, Dear Simeon, Dear Avery,
I think you should write about It is so nice to hear from Could you do an issue on
wood. Wood is useful for a lot someone who really appreciates sloths? I like trees too. I also
of things. I like to whittle and the wonder of wood! I’ve have red hair! What’s your
make crafts with wood. I‘d always wondered what experience with dogs? I don’t
like to know more about wood, makes those round shapes in mean robot dogs. Does Bot
where to find it, what kinds burlwood, and why we can’t chase you? Do you like books?
live the longest, and what eat it. So many mysteries to I do. Have your read Goddess
makes the best paper. uncover! Girls? It’s my favorite!

Sincerely, Simeon B., Curiously, Sincerely,
Wisconsin Plush Clara M., Texas

30 a s k

Idan H., I would have a dog’s
age 8, super nose to smell
Colorado when my dad brings
treats home.
Kelly H., age 8,
Texas

Snake Senses
• heat vision
• cold blooded
• no eyelids
• fangs
Jeremy,
age 9, Illinois

I wish I could Dinosaur Voice I can smell like a dog!
see the things Lexy F., age 7, Silas R., age 7, Virginia
that other Oregon
animals can Elephant smelling.
see, like UV Elephants can smell
light. I would water twelve miles away.
also like to fly. Parisa L., age 7, Oregon
Lillian C.,
age 8,
Michigan

Dear Clara, Dear Zia, Dear Mahika,
I’ve never met a sloth, or What is your favorite cake Baking chocolate cakes is so
a goddess, but they’d be flavor? Mine is chocolate. much fun! If Plush helps me with
welcome to visit my tree Also do you bake cakes? What the eggs. I also like vanilla and
any time. Bot is much too flavor? I bake chocolate cakes. lemon and butterscotch and spice
well mannered to chase cake and apple cake and cherry
squirrels. And if he did, Love, and coconut cakes and I think I
we could just tweak his Mahika P.-K., age 7, am going to need another page
program. Maryland to list all my favorite cakes.

Your Forest Friend, Sweetly,
Avery Zia

a s k 31

May/June Contest

My Pet Rock

Would you like a pet that’s easy to care for,
doesn’t eat much, and won’t keep you up at
night? How about a nice pet rock? For this
month’s contest, find a rock that might
make a good companion. Get to
know your rock—is it hard, smooth,
flaky, shiny, talkative? Would it like
some extra eyes? Draw us a picture
or send us a photo of your new
friend, and we’ll host a rock star
party an upcoming issue of Ask.

Contest Rules: 5. Your entry must be signed or emailed 7. Email scanned artwork to ask@cricket-
by a parent or legal guardian, saying it’s media.com, or mail to: Ask, 70 East Lake
1. Your contest entry must be your very your own work and that no one helped St., Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60601. Entries
own work. Ideas and words should not you, and that Ask has permission to must be postmarked or emailed by June
be copied. publish it in print and online. 30, 2019.

2. Be sure to include your name, age, and 6. For information on the Children’s Online 8. We will publish the winning entries in an
address on your entry. Privacy Protection Act, see the Privacy upcoming issue of Ask.
Policy page at cricketmedia.com.
3. Only one entry per person, please.
4. If you want your work returned, enclose

a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

If I hid an elephant ® art © 2015 by an Joven
in a gray and crumpled sky
do you think that I could find it the magazine for children
when the clouds went rolling by?
Get SPIDER Magazine!
-Sara Valafar
You’ll love stories, poems,
jokes, recipes, and more

funny iends!
for ag 9

32 a s k Subscribe at Shop.CricketMedia.com/Try-Spider

art by Thor
Wickstrom

Salt, No Pepper

Can you separate salt from pepper with just a plastic spoon?

Challenge your friends to What’s Going On
a sorting contest. Who
can separate mixed salt When you rub the plastic
and pepper the fastest, with the cloth, you’re
using only a plastic spoon? creating static electricity.
This means lots of tiny
You can, with your electrons (which have
secret weapon: static. a negative charge) are
jumping from the cloth to
What You’ll Need the spoon.

Salt All those negatively
Pepper charged electrons create
Sheet of paper a weak magnetic pull.
Plastic spoon (or knife, They tug on the salt and
or ruler) pepper.
Wool, silk, or fleece
cloth (or sweater, hat, Salt is sodium chloride,
or mitten) tiny little rocks. Pepper is
ground plant seeds. Pepper
What To Do is lighter than salt, so it
leaps up first. (But if the
First, mix together the spoon is too close, or has
salt and pepper in a pile a lot of static charge, the
on the paper. salt will leap too.)

Grab the spoon and Tips
rub it briskly with a bit of wool, silk, or
fleece. This could just be the sleeve of This trick works best on dry days. It
your sweater. Rub 10-20 times at least. may not work well if it’s rainy.

Now, hold the spoon just above the pile It also helps if you don’t let go of
of salt and pepper. And—the pepper will the spoon in between charging it up and
leap up to the spoon! trying for the pepper.

If some of the salt leaps too, try holding
the spoon a bit farther from the pile.