July 26, 2023
Listener Questions P.4❓
In this special episode, we focus on the questions that listeners have submitted. We learn about bugs and why we sometimes feel itchy after we get bit. We also learn about how thunderstorms can sometimes cause problems with our electricity, why we cannot dig from one side of the earth through to the other, why ladybirds are called ladybirds when they are not always ladies are not birds and how glass was created and how it was used long ago. Lastly, we talk about snowflakes and how snowflakes for their different shapes.
Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark
❤️👂🔬
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About Sleep Tight Science
Sleep Tight Science is an engaging bedtime show for the whole family that answers the questions kids have about science. Each episode explores a fascinating topic in science and technology, from the mysteries of outer space to the wonders of the human body. Sleep Tight Science is the perfect bedtime companion for curious minds of all ages. Have an interesting science topic you would like featured? Send us an email at hello@sleeptightscience.com and we may feature it in an upcoming show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Hi, science fans.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Guess what.
00:00:48
Speaker 1: We are launching Season four of sleep Tight Science this September, and we need your help to make it extra special. Did you know that your voice can be part of our show. We want to hear your amazing voices in our show opening. It's super easy and fun to join in. Just record yourself saying you are listening to sleep Tight Science. Then send your recording to the email address in our show notes.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: How cool is that.
00:01:21
Speaker 1: We can't wait to hear all your fantastic voices. Thank you for listening. You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know that the gigliest animal in the ocean.
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Is the dolphin?
00:01:57
Speaker 1: What? Dolphins love to play and have fun all day long? And guess what their favorite game is? Hm hmm it's tag cool, just like the game you play with your friends. When dolphins play tag, they chase each other around in the water going ee. Hello, friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers your questions about science. In this episode, instead of following a special topic, we will spend all our time together answering questions that listeners have sent us. There have been so many questions that we decided to create. We ate some special episodes to answer them. It's summer where we live, and we are spending time outside being chased by raccoons, meeting our backyard snake, greeting the neighborhood skunk in the morning, and planting lots of flowers for the bees. We have also noticed a lot of earwigs near our shed, which we think are kind of yucky, maybe because they look a bit scary. An earwig has two pinchers kind of like tiny claws at the end of its body, called pincers. The earwig uses its pincers to catch its food, like plants, insects, or even small animals. They might look a little scary, but they don't usually hurt people. What have you seen during your break?
00:03:41
Speaker 2: Do you have earwigs where you live?
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Have you tried going on a scavenger hunt to collect items commonly found in nature, such as leaves, rocks, flowers, or insects. Observing the things you see in nature is a great way to explore science. Now, let's start with a question submitted to us by arn. He was wondering why mosquitoes and other bug bites itch. It's never fun when a mosquito or bug bites you, they have a special part in their body called a probiscus, which is like a tiny straw. They use this probiscus to suck a tiny little bit of your blood. But what is interesting is mosquitoes and bugs have something in their saliva that they leave behind when they bite you. This saliva contains special substances that helps them get a nice tasty meal. It's these substances that can make your skin feel itchy. You see, when a mosquito bites you, your body's defense system releases something called histamine. Histamine helps your body fight off the mosquito saliva and heal the bite, but histamine can also cause your skin to feel itchy. Scratching might feel good for a little while, but it can make things worse. Scratching can break your skin and make it easier for bacteria to get inside, which could lead to infections. Important to try not to scratch those itchy bites. Instead, you can try some remedies to soothe the itchiness. You can ask an adult to apply a gentle cream or lotion on the bite. You can also use an ice pack or a cold damp cloth to relieve the itch and remember, over time, your body will heal the bite all by itself. Thank you arn. Our next question is from Rosy in Virginia and she is four years old.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Rosie asks why does.
00:06:22
Speaker 1: Power go out during thunderstorms. Thunderstorms can be big and powerful and have lightning, thunder and lots of rain, but sometimes they do cause a few problems with our electricity. When lightning strikes, it's like a giant spark of electionlectricity jumping from the sky to the ground. This lightning can travel through the air or even along the ground, and sometimes it can hit things like trees, buildings, or even power lines. Power lines are the big cables made of metal that carry our electricity. They are connected to power plants that generate the electricity we use. But when lightning hits a power line, it can cause a big surge of electricity, kind of like a shock. This sudden surge of electricity can be so strong that it can damage the power lines or the equipment at the power plants. When that happens, the electricity stops flowing and we experience a power outage. But don't worry. When the power goes out and it's safe to do so, a team of people go out and work really hard to fix the problem and get the power back on as soon as possible. They check the power lines, repair any damage, and make sure everything is safe before turning the power back on. So during a thunderstorm, if the power goes out, it's because the lightning has caused a disruption in the flow of electricity. Thank you, Rosie. Our next question is from Oliver, who turns eighth this year and lives in Perth, Western Australia. Oliver asks, why can't you dig in a straight line through planet Earth and come out on the other side. That would be fun if we could pop on a train and come out on a completely different continent on the other side.
00:08:54
Speaker 2: Let's dig into the answer first.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Let's imagine that we start digging a tunnel from one side of the Earth. We grab our shovels and start digging down, down, down. As we go deeper and deeper, we encounter some interesting things. The Earth is made up of different layers. The outermost layer is called the crust, and it's the part we live on. Beneath the crust, we have the mantle, which is like a thick, gooey layer, and at the very center. There's the core, which is super hot and made of solid and liquid metals. Now the hard part might not just be using a shovel to dig such a deep whole, but the fact that as we dig deeper, the temperature and pressure increases and the materials around us get denser and heavier. The pressure becomes so intense that it would squish us before we got to celebrate digging so deep. Another challenge we face is that the mantle is not a solid block. It's kind of like a thick, flowing layer of rock called magma. Digging through the mantle would be like trying to dig through incredibly thick, hot, and sticky rock. Even if we managed to get through the mantle, we would reach the core. The core is super hot and it's not a friendly place for us humans. So the combination of extreme heat, pressure and the challenge of moving through dense materials makes it impossible for us to dig a tunnel straight through the earth and come out on the other side. So for now, we'll leave traveling through the center of the Earth to movies and our imagination.
00:10:59
Speaker 2: Thanks.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: Oliver Rosie, who is six and from Wellington, New Zealand, would love to know why ladybirds are called ladybirds when they are not all ladies and are not birds. Ladybugs are amazing little beetles that you can find almost everywhere in the world. In North America we call them ladybugs, and in Britain they're known as ladybirds. The name lady comes from a special person called Mother Mary. Now to avoid getting confused with true bugs, scientists like to call them lady bird beetles or lady beetles. These bugs come in all sorts of colors and patterns, like red with black spots, and they look a bit like tiny ovals with a rounded back and a flat belly. Ladybugs can be boys or girls, and the girls are usually a bit bigger than the boys. Some ladybugs have bright colors and patterns, and that's like a warning sign to tell other animals not to eat them because they taste yucky. There are so many different kinds of ladybugs, over six thousand species, and they can live in lots of different places.
00:12:34
Speaker 2: And as for the.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: Bird part of their name, well, ladybirds have wings and they can fly from one place to another.
00:12:44
Speaker 2: People thought they were.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: Like little birds that could flutter around even though they're actually insects and not birds at all. Sometimes names can be a little bit confusing, but they're just ways for us humans to remember and talk about different things. So even though ladybirds aren't all ladies and they're not birds, we still call them ladybirds because it's a special name that people have given them. Thank you, Rosie. Did you know that when it's super hot outside some things can get a little bit crazy? For example, did you ever notice that the road seems to be shimmering like a magical lake when it's really hot. When the bright sunshine shines on the road, it gets really hot. This heat makes the air above the road expand and become lighter. The way light moves through this air changes, especially as we look further down the road. But here's the funny part. The air doesn't act the same everywhere. It gets all wiggily and moves around a lot, so it keeps changing its thickness and how light behaves in it. And that's why we see the fun shimmering effect when we look down the road. So the sun and the hot road create a magical dance of light and air, making everything shimmer and dance too. Our next question comes from Miles, age six, who lives in College Station, Texas. Miles wants to know how and when glass was invented. About four thousand years ago in a place called Mesopotamia, some clever craftsmen discovered how to make their own glass. One day, these people were making a cozy fire to keep warm and cook their food. They noticed that the fire melted some special rocks they had around. When those melted rocks cooled down, they turned into something magical glass. It was like finding a shiny treasure. They saw that glass was clear and could let light pass through, so they started making all sorts of wonderful things with it, like little beads, ornaments, and even containers to hold pressure things. These ancient glass makers got better at their craft. They learned new ways to shape and color the glass, creating even more beautiful objects. People loved glass so much that it became a fancy thing for the rich. They used it to decorate their fancy furniture, make pretty jewelry, and store their special oils and perfumes. As time went on, more and more places around the Mediterranean learned the art of making glass. The Phoenician traders shared perfume vessels. The Eutruscans in Italy made glass containers, and the Greeks even experimented with colorless glass. One cool thing they did was mosaic glass. It's like making colorful patterns using tiny pieces of glass like a put puzzle. They made all kinds of beautiful vessels and decorations with this method. So glass has been around for a very very long time and people all over the world have been using it to make amazing and lovely things. Thank you, Miles. Our final question comes from Georgia Lee, who is five years old. She wants to know how snowflakes form their different shapes and what is in them. It's hard to think of winter and the cold and snow when it is so hot where we are, but maybe just thinking of winter will help us cool off. Do you think it will help? When winter does come, the air gets really cold and water droplets in the clouds turn into tiny ice crystals. These little ice crystals are like little building blocks that make up snowflakes. As these ice crystals fall from the sky, they meet other water droplets and more cold air, and guess what, They start to grow and change their shape as they travel through the clouds.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Now.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: Every snowflake is different, just like you and your friends. They have their own special shapes, and no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Imagine that snowflakes are like little artists. They create beautiful patterns with their ice crystals, and they are all so unique and wonderful. You might have heard that snowflakes have six sides, like little snow stars. It's because of the way their ice crystals join together. When these crystals come together, they may these lovely hexagon shapes, kind of like tiny snow puzzles. So the next time you catch a snowflake on your mittens, remember that you're holding a tiny work of art made by nature, and each snowflake is as special and one of a kind as you are. Thank you, Georgie Lee. In this episode, we learned about bugs and why we are sometimes.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Itchy after we get bit.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: Some bugs, like mosquitoes, have something in their saliva that they leave behind when they bite us that makes us itchy. Some lotion cream or an ice pack might help with the itch. We talked about thunderstorms and why they sometimes cause problems with the electricity. The lightning can sometimes cause a disruption in the electricity, but people will go out and repair it as soon as it is safe. We looked at why we cannot dig a hole from one side of the earth to the other with the layers of the earth being either thick, liquid or extremely hot. At this point, this can only be done in movies or our imagination. We looked at why ladybirds are called ladybirds and what they are called in other places around the world. We looked a bit at glass, how it was created and how it was used years.
00:20:23
Speaker 2: And years ago.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: And we ended this episode talking about snowflakes. Snowflakes are each uniquely shaped ice crystals that are formed when ice crystals fall from the sky.
00:20:38
Speaker 2: Meet more water than other cold air.
00:20:42
Speaker 1: This episode was made with question from arn Rosie, Oliver, Rosie Miles, and Georgia Lee. I'd like to say thank you to William age five, O'mari Millie from Pennsylvania and Clementine and Holden. We hope to use your ideas in future episodes. We would love it if you left us a review wherever you listen to podcasts, Your review might help others decide to listen to our show too. If you'd like to send us your questions, Please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com. Thank you, and sleep tight
Speaker 1: Hi, science fans.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Guess what.
00:00:48
Speaker 1: We are launching Season four of sleep Tight Science this September, and we need your help to make it extra special. Did you know that your voice can be part of our show. We want to hear your amazing voices in our show opening. It's super easy and fun to join in. Just record yourself saying you are listening to sleep Tight Science. Then send your recording to the email address in our show notes.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: How cool is that.
00:01:21
Speaker 1: We can't wait to hear all your fantastic voices. Thank you for listening. You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know that the gigliest animal in the ocean.
00:01:55
Speaker 2: Is the dolphin?
00:01:57
Speaker 1: What? Dolphins love to play and have fun all day long? And guess what their favorite game is? Hm hmm it's tag cool, just like the game you play with your friends. When dolphins play tag, they chase each other around in the water going ee. Hello, friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers your questions about science. In this episode, instead of following a special topic, we will spend all our time together answering questions that listeners have sent us. There have been so many questions that we decided to create. We ate some special episodes to answer them. It's summer where we live, and we are spending time outside being chased by raccoons, meeting our backyard snake, greeting the neighborhood skunk in the morning, and planting lots of flowers for the bees. We have also noticed a lot of earwigs near our shed, which we think are kind of yucky, maybe because they look a bit scary. An earwig has two pinchers kind of like tiny claws at the end of its body, called pincers. The earwig uses its pincers to catch its food, like plants, insects, or even small animals. They might look a little scary, but they don't usually hurt people. What have you seen during your break?
00:03:41
Speaker 2: Do you have earwigs where you live?
00:03:47
Speaker 1: Have you tried going on a scavenger hunt to collect items commonly found in nature, such as leaves, rocks, flowers, or insects. Observing the things you see in nature is a great way to explore science. Now, let's start with a question submitted to us by arn. He was wondering why mosquitoes and other bug bites itch. It's never fun when a mosquito or bug bites you, they have a special part in their body called a probiscus, which is like a tiny straw. They use this probiscus to suck a tiny little bit of your blood. But what is interesting is mosquitoes and bugs have something in their saliva that they leave behind when they bite you. This saliva contains special substances that helps them get a nice tasty meal. It's these substances that can make your skin feel itchy. You see, when a mosquito bites you, your body's defense system releases something called histamine. Histamine helps your body fight off the mosquito saliva and heal the bite, but histamine can also cause your skin to feel itchy. Scratching might feel good for a little while, but it can make things worse. Scratching can break your skin and make it easier for bacteria to get inside, which could lead to infections. Important to try not to scratch those itchy bites. Instead, you can try some remedies to soothe the itchiness. You can ask an adult to apply a gentle cream or lotion on the bite. You can also use an ice pack or a cold damp cloth to relieve the itch and remember, over time, your body will heal the bite all by itself. Thank you arn. Our next question is from Rosy in Virginia and she is four years old.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Rosie asks why does.
00:06:22
Speaker 1: Power go out during thunderstorms. Thunderstorms can be big and powerful and have lightning, thunder and lots of rain, but sometimes they do cause a few problems with our electricity. When lightning strikes, it's like a giant spark of electionlectricity jumping from the sky to the ground. This lightning can travel through the air or even along the ground, and sometimes it can hit things like trees, buildings, or even power lines. Power lines are the big cables made of metal that carry our electricity. They are connected to power plants that generate the electricity we use. But when lightning hits a power line, it can cause a big surge of electricity, kind of like a shock. This sudden surge of electricity can be so strong that it can damage the power lines or the equipment at the power plants. When that happens, the electricity stops flowing and we experience a power outage. But don't worry. When the power goes out and it's safe to do so, a team of people go out and work really hard to fix the problem and get the power back on as soon as possible. They check the power lines, repair any damage, and make sure everything is safe before turning the power back on. So during a thunderstorm, if the power goes out, it's because the lightning has caused a disruption in the flow of electricity. Thank you, Rosie. Our next question is from Oliver, who turns eighth this year and lives in Perth, Western Australia. Oliver asks, why can't you dig in a straight line through planet Earth and come out on the other side. That would be fun if we could pop on a train and come out on a completely different continent on the other side.
00:08:54
Speaker 2: Let's dig into the answer first.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Let's imagine that we start digging a tunnel from one side of the Earth. We grab our shovels and start digging down, down, down. As we go deeper and deeper, we encounter some interesting things. The Earth is made up of different layers. The outermost layer is called the crust, and it's the part we live on. Beneath the crust, we have the mantle, which is like a thick, gooey layer, and at the very center. There's the core, which is super hot and made of solid and liquid metals. Now the hard part might not just be using a shovel to dig such a deep whole, but the fact that as we dig deeper, the temperature and pressure increases and the materials around us get denser and heavier. The pressure becomes so intense that it would squish us before we got to celebrate digging so deep. Another challenge we face is that the mantle is not a solid block. It's kind of like a thick, flowing layer of rock called magma. Digging through the mantle would be like trying to dig through incredibly thick, hot, and sticky rock. Even if we managed to get through the mantle, we would reach the core. The core is super hot and it's not a friendly place for us humans. So the combination of extreme heat, pressure and the challenge of moving through dense materials makes it impossible for us to dig a tunnel straight through the earth and come out on the other side. So for now, we'll leave traveling through the center of the Earth to movies and our imagination.
00:10:59
Speaker 2: Thanks.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: Oliver Rosie, who is six and from Wellington, New Zealand, would love to know why ladybirds are called ladybirds when they are not all ladies and are not birds. Ladybugs are amazing little beetles that you can find almost everywhere in the world. In North America we call them ladybugs, and in Britain they're known as ladybirds. The name lady comes from a special person called Mother Mary. Now to avoid getting confused with true bugs, scientists like to call them lady bird beetles or lady beetles. These bugs come in all sorts of colors and patterns, like red with black spots, and they look a bit like tiny ovals with a rounded back and a flat belly. Ladybugs can be boys or girls, and the girls are usually a bit bigger than the boys. Some ladybugs have bright colors and patterns, and that's like a warning sign to tell other animals not to eat them because they taste yucky. There are so many different kinds of ladybugs, over six thousand species, and they can live in lots of different places.
00:12:34
Speaker 2: And as for the.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: Bird part of their name, well, ladybirds have wings and they can fly from one place to another.
00:12:44
Speaker 2: People thought they were.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: Like little birds that could flutter around even though they're actually insects and not birds at all. Sometimes names can be a little bit confusing, but they're just ways for us humans to remember and talk about different things. So even though ladybirds aren't all ladies and they're not birds, we still call them ladybirds because it's a special name that people have given them. Thank you, Rosie. Did you know that when it's super hot outside some things can get a little bit crazy? For example, did you ever notice that the road seems to be shimmering like a magical lake when it's really hot. When the bright sunshine shines on the road, it gets really hot. This heat makes the air above the road expand and become lighter. The way light moves through this air changes, especially as we look further down the road. But here's the funny part. The air doesn't act the same everywhere. It gets all wiggily and moves around a lot, so it keeps changing its thickness and how light behaves in it. And that's why we see the fun shimmering effect when we look down the road. So the sun and the hot road create a magical dance of light and air, making everything shimmer and dance too. Our next question comes from Miles, age six, who lives in College Station, Texas. Miles wants to know how and when glass was invented. About four thousand years ago in a place called Mesopotamia, some clever craftsmen discovered how to make their own glass. One day, these people were making a cozy fire to keep warm and cook their food. They noticed that the fire melted some special rocks they had around. When those melted rocks cooled down, they turned into something magical glass. It was like finding a shiny treasure. They saw that glass was clear and could let light pass through, so they started making all sorts of wonderful things with it, like little beads, ornaments, and even containers to hold pressure things. These ancient glass makers got better at their craft. They learned new ways to shape and color the glass, creating even more beautiful objects. People loved glass so much that it became a fancy thing for the rich. They used it to decorate their fancy furniture, make pretty jewelry, and store their special oils and perfumes. As time went on, more and more places around the Mediterranean learned the art of making glass. The Phoenician traders shared perfume vessels. The Eutruscans in Italy made glass containers, and the Greeks even experimented with colorless glass. One cool thing they did was mosaic glass. It's like making colorful patterns using tiny pieces of glass like a put puzzle. They made all kinds of beautiful vessels and decorations with this method. So glass has been around for a very very long time and people all over the world have been using it to make amazing and lovely things. Thank you, Miles. Our final question comes from Georgia Lee, who is five years old. She wants to know how snowflakes form their different shapes and what is in them. It's hard to think of winter and the cold and snow when it is so hot where we are, but maybe just thinking of winter will help us cool off. Do you think it will help? When winter does come, the air gets really cold and water droplets in the clouds turn into tiny ice crystals. These little ice crystals are like little building blocks that make up snowflakes. As these ice crystals fall from the sky, they meet other water droplets and more cold air, and guess what, They start to grow and change their shape as they travel through the clouds.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Now.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: Every snowflake is different, just like you and your friends. They have their own special shapes, and no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Imagine that snowflakes are like little artists. They create beautiful patterns with their ice crystals, and they are all so unique and wonderful. You might have heard that snowflakes have six sides, like little snow stars. It's because of the way their ice crystals join together. When these crystals come together, they may these lovely hexagon shapes, kind of like tiny snow puzzles. So the next time you catch a snowflake on your mittens, remember that you're holding a tiny work of art made by nature, and each snowflake is as special and one of a kind as you are. Thank you, Georgie Lee. In this episode, we learned about bugs and why we are sometimes.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Itchy after we get bit.
00:19:20
Speaker 1: Some bugs, like mosquitoes, have something in their saliva that they leave behind when they bite us that makes us itchy. Some lotion cream or an ice pack might help with the itch. We talked about thunderstorms and why they sometimes cause problems with the electricity. The lightning can sometimes cause a disruption in the electricity, but people will go out and repair it as soon as it is safe. We looked at why we cannot dig a hole from one side of the earth to the other with the layers of the earth being either thick, liquid or extremely hot. At this point, this can only be done in movies or our imagination. We looked at why ladybirds are called ladybirds and what they are called in other places around the world. We looked a bit at glass, how it was created and how it was used years.
00:20:23
Speaker 2: And years ago.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: And we ended this episode talking about snowflakes. Snowflakes are each uniquely shaped ice crystals that are formed when ice crystals fall from the sky.
00:20:38
Speaker 2: Meet more water than other cold air.
00:20:42
Speaker 1: This episode was made with question from arn Rosie, Oliver, Rosie Miles, and Georgia Lee. I'd like to say thank you to William age five, O'mari Millie from Pennsylvania and Clementine and Holden. We hope to use your ideas in future episodes. We would love it if you left us a review wherever you listen to podcasts, Your review might help others decide to listen to our show too. If you'd like to send us your questions, Please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com. Thank you, and sleep tight