http://www.nature.com/news/the-whale-that-talked-1.11635

Your Family, Our Family

Learn more about the human family:

http://humanorigins.si.edu

Watch the artist make models of early humans:

http://humanorigins.si.edu/exhibit/early-human-reconstructions

Your Family Tree

Construct your own family tree online:

http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder

See Your DNA!

Watch a video of a slightly different way to do this experiment:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/extract-your-dna.html

What is DNA, anyway? Explained here!

http://vimeo.com/60747882

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/22/booted-dung-...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2012/oct/14/felix-baumgartner-skyd...

Mane Attraction

See how male and female lions react to the dummies :

http://www.cbs.umn.edu/lionresearch/mane-research  

(videos are at the bottom of the page) 

The Buzz about Dino Fuzz

See an animation of what microraptor the four-winged dinosaur might have looked like when alive:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00klzx5 

Naked Mole Rats!

http://www.arkive.org/naked-mole-rat/heterocephalus-glaber/video-00.html 

February 2013: Oceans of Grass

January 2013: Our Star

Scoops
See the Hiriko folding car in action:
http://www.hiriko.com/?lang=eng

Where do cats go? See what the camera reveals:
http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/photovideo.html#videos

The Sun

See what the sun is up to today and check on the latest space weather forecast at:
http://spaceweather.com

Flares erupt, sunspots grow, and other amazing video from the SDO satellite:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=141041161

Watch the northern lights from high above the earth, filmed by the International Space Station:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/20110917-aurora.html

See what the sun looks like from other planets:
http://news.discovery.com/space/how-would-the-sun-look-fromgotta-see-video-120824.html

How plants turn sunlight into sugar:
http://woodchurchscience.edublogs.org/files/2008/03/photosynthesis-flash.swf

Learn more about the sun at Space School:
http://science.discovery.com/video-topics/space-videos

November/December 2012: Animals Sound Off

Explore more animal sounds and videos at the Macaulay Library of sound:
http://macaulaylibrary.org/

Why Do Birds Sing?
Hear the calls and songs of your favorite birds:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search

Name that bird game:
http://enature.com/challenge/birdcallchallenge.asp

The Noisy Ocean
Listen to the deep ocean in real time with LIDO, a network of underwater microphones across the globe:
http://listentothedeep.net/acoustics/index.html

Help scientists match whale calls at WhaleFM:
https://www.zooniverse.org/project/whalefm

On the Frogwatch
Hear the frogs that live in your area, and find out how to join the FrogWatch: 
http://www.aza.org/frogwatch

October 2012: Skeleton Stories 

What the Bones Say
Expore Jamestown at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/jamestown/jamestown-standalone

Your Bones
Watch a skeleton being assembled: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/museumoflondon/6840833799/

 

September 2012: Who Needs Numbers? 

Watch a crab shell being printed, animals counting, body numbers, and an abacus in action on our video page:
www.askmagkids.com/video

Scoops
See a crab shell being printed:
http://www.makerbot.com/blog/category/makerbot-projects/hermit-crab-project-shellter

Blockhead
To be even more amazed by the Fibonacci numbers, through doodling, check out these fun videos:
Part 1: http://vihart.com/blog/doodling-fibonacci-1
Part 2: http://vihart.com/blog/doodling-fibonacci-2
Part 3: http://vihart.com/blog/doodling-fibonacci-3

Bot's Number Tricks
For more fun games and cool things to make, visit the Museum of Mathematics (MoMA) online at:

http://momath.org/home/activities

July/August 2012: Caves Rock!

Scoops
Follow the migrating cranes:
www.operationmigration.org

The Secret Cave

Tour Lascaux caves from your computer and see all the amazing paintings:
http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en#/fr/00.xml (English language site)

Making Caves

Explore more caves online and get a list of caves near you at the National Caves Association:
http://cavern.com

Bats
Learn more about bats at the Bat Conservation Society:
http://www.batcon.org

Build your own bat house! Free plans at:
http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house/subcategory/39.html

Letters

Is it legal to keep raccoons and other wild animals as pets? To find the laws in your state, check:
www.humanesociety.org/about/state

May/June 2012: Bubbles and Balloons

Scoops
See a jawfish mimic the mimic octopus:
at http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/01/05/how-does-a-fish-mimic-a-mimic-octopus-video/

Take a tour of the Canadian ice hotel:
http://www.hoteldeglace-canada.com/360/index.html

And there's one in Sweden, too:
http://www.simply-sweden.com/icehotel/?gclid=CNC1iImo068CFbEDQAodZ2sNdQ

The First Balloonists

Play with the gases in Earth’s atmosphere at the Atmosphere Design Lab:
http://forces.si.edu/atmosphere/interactive/atmosphere.html

There's a Balloon in My Belly!

Video of the Cartesian Diver experiment, and another way to make the diver:
http://www.physics.org/tricks/cartesian-diver/

The Alchemist of Air

Explore more about air pressure:
http://onlinephys.com/pressure4.html

April 2012: How Many Fish in the Sea?

Scoops
See archaeologists remove an axe from the Viking boat burial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardnamurchan_axe,_by_Charlotte_Tooze.ogv

Ocean Census

Everything you want to know about the census! At the Census of Marine Life website:
www.coml.org

Tuna Tag

See where the tuna are right now with the real-time tuna-tracking:
http://topp.org/species/bluefin_tuna

See where other ocean predators are right now too:
http://topp.org/

Follow tuna taggers as they tag tuna:
http://topp.org/features/topp_and_bluefin_tuna

Explore more

Deep-sea explorer game:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6930000/newsid_6935100/6935143.stm

Design your own research submarine (ROV) online:
http://www.mysticaquarium.org/fun-and-learning/games/302-build-an-rov

Design your own virtual fish and release it in an online aquarium: 
http://www.virtualfishtank.com

The Encyclopedia of Life, a page for every species on Earth:
www.eol.org

Marine expeditions with the classroom-at-sea online:
http://www.classroomatsea.net/general_science/index.html

March 2012: It's Shocking!

Scoops

Follow the removal of the Elwha river dams as it happens:
http://www.nps.gov/olym/photosmultimedia/elwha-river-webcams.htm

Electricity

Learn more about electricity:
http://www.engineeringinteract.org/resources.htm

Electric games:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/electricity.htm

Build an electric motor!
http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/activities/activity-detail/activities/build-an-electric-motor/

 

February 2012: In Your Dreams

Find out what other kids think about dreams at PBS Kids It’s My Life:

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/emotions/dreams/article2.html

How much do different animals sleep?
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chasleep.html

Australian Aboriginal cultures view dreams as a whole separate world. Learn more at:
http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm

January 2012: Crazy for Color

Crazy for Color

Explore more color at the Exploratorium:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/staff_picks/color/

Try mixing light colors:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/mix_n_match/

See the Universe's cosmic colors:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/cosmic-colors/en/

Body Talk Beneath the Sea

Watch a show about the amazing color-changing cuttlefish:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1150618835

November/December 2011: Robots Like Us

Scoops

Hear the vegetable orchestra play:

www.vegetableorchestra.org/sound.php

Team Robot

To find a group building robots near you, check out:

FIRST Lego League
http://usfirst.org/whatsgoingon

Vex Robotics

http//www.vexrobotics.com/competition

RoboCup Soccer
 (the international robot soccer league)
http://rcj.robocup.org/

BotBall

http://www.botball.org/

BEST Robotics (in Texas and surrounding states)

http://www.bestinc.org

Robo-One (Japan), a league specializing in humanoid robots

http://www.robo-one.com

Robo-Games (mostly for older kids)
http://robogames.net

Robot Events lists events going on in many different leagues: 
http://robotevents.com 

Robot Relatives

See automatons in action:
http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/automaton/automaton.php?cts=instrumentation

Anatomy of a Robot

See more of what’s inside Pleo the robot dinosaur:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Pleo-Teardown/597/1

Robot Zoo

See robot animals in action!

Robot gecko:
http://web.mit.edu/sangbae/www/videos/Stickybot_IEEE.mov

Robot rat:
http://www.brl.ac.uk/projects/neuro/video/Video2/scratchbot2.wmv

Robot sandfish lizard:
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/32116.php?from=184971

Robot hummingbird:

http://www.avinc.com/nano

Robot inchworm:

http://arl.mae.cuhk.edu.hk/en/node/678

Robotic fish:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6076315483090528628

If you like to make stuff, check out Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show:

http://sylviashow.com/episodes

October 2011: The Fungus Among Us

Scoops
Join the Khan team or see how the search is going:
http://exploration.nationalgeographic.com

Check out more fungi at the Children's University:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/microorganisms/whatarefungi.asp

See some more mushrooms that glow like the ones on our cover:
http://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/?p=1154

September 2011: What's in a Face?

Scoops

See sunspots flare:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/gallery/assets/movies/304prom_erupt_Mar2011_zm_best.mov

Hear a Koala bellow:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/brutish-koala-bellows-attract-mates-not-ward-off-rivals.htm

Reading Faces

Explore the mind and expressions at the Exploratorium:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/mind

July/August 2011: Seeing Stars

This Month's Contest
Get a Sky Map of the stars above your house tonight:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

Explore more mysteries of space:
http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/

See an animation of a black hole:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/general/blackhole.mov

Follow the Voyagers’ journey and see what’s on their gold record:  
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/voyager/index.shtml

Have more questions about black holes? Check out
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4836  and
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html

Help count the stars from your own computer:
http://www.windows2universe.org/citizen_science/starcount

Join the hunt for other planets from your own computer:
http://www.planethunters.org/

Scoops
Hear sleeping bears snore:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/02/the-secrets-of-bear-hibernation.html?ref=hp  

May/June 2011: Wild or Mild?

Scoops

Hear the newly discovered Koro language:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101005-lost-language-india-science/

Tale of the Dog

Read more about Brian Hare and his experiments with how dogs think:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/hare.html

Wild Lives

Black Pine Animal Sanctuary:
http://www.blackpineanimalpark.com/

There are many animal sanctuaries around the country; to find one in your area, search online for "exotic animal sanctuary" or "exotic animal rescue" and your state.

For help with an injured or straying wild animal

Find a wildlife rehabilitator in your area (searchable by city or zip code):
www.wildliferehabber.org

Your local police department (311) can direct you to the animal control officer.  They will know what's best to do with any wild animal you might encounter.

National Audubon Society (for help with birds):
http://www.audubon.org/

 

April 2011: Can Your Trust Your Senses?

Scoops

How does a cat drink?
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/11/131241860/pet-physics-the-uncanny-lapping-of-cats

Hear the pyramid that chirps like a bird:
http://www.ocasa.org/sounds/qqcaca.mp3

Do You See with Your Eyes or Your Brain?

See balls roll uphill and more amazing illusions:
http://gcoe.mims.meiji.ac.jp/jpn/movie/impossible_motions2/index.html

Gorilla? What Gorilla?

Can you spot the gorilla? See the original experiment:
http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html

March 2011: Who Needs Wind?

Scoops

Meet some of Mr. Blobby's friends at the Census of Marine Life:
http://www.coml.org

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

See a video documentary about William Kamkwamba and his windmill:

http://missingpiecesvideo.com/kamkwamba/movingwindmillsFINALsubtitle.mov


Learn how to build an electric motor:
http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/activities/activity-detail/activities/build-an-electric-motor/

Follow the Rough Science challenge to generate electricity:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/series1/challenges/generator/

Jersey Atlantic Wind Farm

See pictures of the Jersey Atlantic Wind Farm being built:

http://www.acua.com/acua/windfarmconstructionphotos.aspx#

 

February 2011: Secret Life of Forests

Scoops

See Icarus the crow work hard for his dinner:
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/crows/files/taylor_movies2.mpg.

Visit dancing robots at the RoboCup:
http://rcj.robocup.org/videos.html

Don't believe it? See a shirt being sprayed on:
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_21-9-2010-13-23-53

What Good is a Forest Fire?

Learn more about forest fires and fire safety:
Smokey the Bear:
http://www.smokeybear.com/kids/default.asp?js=1
National Park Service:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/parkmgmt/fireecology.htm

January 2011: Just the Right Size

See a zebra fish embryo growing:
http://www.hhmi.org/news/popups/keller_mov3_pop.html

November/December 2010: A Peek Behind the Scenes

Baby Mammoth
Explore a 3D model of Lyuba:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/content/waking-the-baby-mammoth-3630

Learn more about mammoths and mastodons:
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/mammoths/allaboutmammoths.asp

Lyuba’s exhibit, “Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age” 
will be coming to these museums: 

October 16, 2010 - January 9, 2011      Liberty Science Center, NJ

March 4 - October 9, 2011                   The Anchorage Museum, AK

November 25, 2011 - April 15, 2012     Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO

May 26 - September 3, 2012                U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL

October 13, 2012 - January 13, 2013    Museum of Science, Boston, MA

February 15 - May 27, 2013                 Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO

July 4 - October 6, 2013                      San Diego Natural History Museum, CA

Raise the Bridge
Learn more about Chicago's movable bridges at:
http://chicagoloopbridges.com
Visit inside a Chicago bridge lift for yourself, at the Chicago Bridge Museum (located inside a bridge): 
http://bridgehousemuseum.org/visit/bridgelifts/
Watch videos of the bridge going up:
http://chicagoloopbridges.com/tour/Videos/lake2010V.html
http://chicagoloopbridges.com/text%20pages/rackandpinion2010.html

A Day at the Aquarium
To go on your own behind-the-scenes tour at the Shedd aquarium:
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/hours.html

Or check with your own local aquarium!

Need more fish facts?

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/faq/

Design your own research submarine (ROV) online:
http://www.mysticaquarium.org/fun-and-learning/games

October 2010: Secrets of Alchemy

See how a fireworks show is put together:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/fireworks/index.html

Learn how to make crazy putty in your kitchen:
http://cdn.makezine.com/make/2010/07/SSAMMS_EP02_CrazyPutty.m4v

The Comic Book Periodic Table of the Elements:
http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/

 

September 2010: In Other Words

Scoops
See meat ants at work:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16861-killer-ants-could-take-a-bite-out-of-cane-toad-problem.html

Follow Plastiki's voyage:
http://www.theplastiki.com

Conversation with an Ape

Learn more about Kanzi and his family:
www.greatapetrust.org

 

July/August 2010: Born to Build

Scoops
See the difference in barefoot running:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8483401.stm

See more stone-age symbols:
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2748/27481201.jpg

Which Nest is Best?
Build an oriole nest:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/oriole/BuildNest.html

May/June 2010: Try, Try Again

Scoops
See flying fists of fruit-fly fury: http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13308

Watch an octopus with shells: http://museumvictoria.com.au/about/mv-news/2009/tool-use-in-veined-octopus/

Wings for One

See the Puffin: https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/nasas-puffin-aircraft-stealthy-one-man-vtol-aircraft  

See Jetman: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/flight-of-the-jet-man-3757/Overview/99#tab-Overview

See the Martin Jetpack: http://www.martinjetpack.com/video-gallery.aspx

See the Condor: http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/maccready_video.html

 

April 2010: Lost & Found

Make-a-mummy game!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/launch_gms_mummy_maker.shtml

Lost sounds
Hear a Parasaurolophus: www.nmnaturalhistory.org/sci_parasaur.html
Hear the first recorded voice: www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php
Hear a rebel yell: http://www.26nc.org/History/Rebel-Yell/rebel-yell.html
Hear a short talk with Rawls, and his recreation of a big group Rebel Yell:
http://hfb.vfhblogs.org/2009/06/the-authentic-rebel-yell/

See a live coelacanth:
www.arkive.org/coelacanth/latimeria-chalumnae/video-00.html

Grow your own Wollemi pine:
www.wollemipine.com

 

March 2010: Can We Save Them?

Find out more about endangered species and what you can do to help at:
The World Wildlife Federation: http://gis.wwfus.org/wildfinder/
US Wildlife service: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/kids/index.html

Adopt an Animal!
Ask at your local zoo or aquarium, or:
World Wildlife Federation: http://www.worldwildlife.org/ogc/species_category.cfm
National Zoo, Washington: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/AdoptSpecies/
Brookfield Zoo, Chicago: http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/ecomv2/adoption/adopf08.asp
Houston Zoo, Houston: http://www.houstonzoo.org/adopt/
San Diego Zoo: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/adopt/animal.html

Frogs!
Explore the world of frogs at: www.exploratorium.edu/frogs
Learn more about the Amphibian Ark: http://www.amphibianark.org/
Watch a documentary about the Amphibian Ark, “A Thin Green Line”
:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/frogs-the-thin-green-line/video-full-episode/4882/

Help scientsts track frogs and other wildlife:
Wildlife Watch: http://www.nwf.org/WildlifeWatch/

Make a certified native habitat in your backyard:
National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat program: http://www.nwf.org/kidsgardenforwildlife/
or (for grownups) :  http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat

Bats!
Build a Bat House: http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/bathouse.cfm
Bat House instructions to print out: http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/bathouses/SingleChamberBHPlans.pdf

February 2010: Do You See What I See?

Learn more about telescopes:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/telescope.html

Play with lenses:
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/magnify/index.html

How does a magnifying glass magnify?

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/microscopy/simplemagnification/index.html

More about reflections:
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/reflection/index.html

More about refraction (How does light passing through glass or water bend and make rainbows?):
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/refraction/index.html

Find out how to make your own Galileo telescope:

https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/

Learn more about light and optics at:

http://www.opticsforkids.org/gallery/

January 2010: In the Ice

Hear cats purr like a baby: 

http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/cmvcr/Domestic%20cats.html

See more about science in the Antarctic: 
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/frequently_asked_questions.htm

Explore the North and South poles:
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/

 

November/December 2009: Searching for Pirates

See more artifacts from the Queen Anne's Revenge and read Wendy's reports at:
http://www.qaronline.org/

Locate artifacts on a map of the Queen Anne's Revenge dive at:
http://www.qaronline.org/QARinteractiveSiteMap.htm

 

October 2009: Boo!

See the amazing Vegetable Car:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/racing_car

Learn more about fear at:
The California Science Center Goosebumps site,
http://www.fearexhibit.org/brain

 

September 2009: Eureka!

See Snowball the Cockatoo dance:
http://www.birdloversonly.org/snowball2.html

See an animation of how the Antikythera gears might have worked:
http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/whatsnew/column/antikytheraI-0400/kyth5.html

See a Lego model of the Antikythera:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/12/lego_antikythera_mechanism.html

Learn more about the Antikythera at: 
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/antikythera/

 

July/August 2009: Contintents Crack Up!

Listen to the sound of a real queen ant and a caterpillar faker:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40606/title/Caterpillar_noise_tricks_ants_into_service_#ant_sounds

Play the Pangaea game:
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/pangaea/Pangaea_game.html