Who, what, where, when, why & how? Our online science magazine for kids tries to answer all your questions on science, environment, earth, geography, health, living beings, exploration and discoveries. You will find features on shooting stars, ocean depths, dinosaurs, satellites, ham radios, hiccups, and much more. Enter this fascinating kids science zone and find the answers to all your questions about the world around you.
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Is Bamboo a Grass!
If you look at a blade of grass and a bamboo tree they remind you of a mouse and an elephant. But unlike those animals, the grass and the bamboo belong to the same family. They are brothers! The bamboo is the largest member of the grass family. It grows in Asia, South America and Africa. It has about 500 different varieties. They all have smooth, hollow jointed stems with a strong watertight partition at each joint....
Do Whales and Dolphins see Blue?
Dolphins and whales live in the deep blue sea, but strangely these animals are not able to see the colour blue! Leo Peichl of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and his colleagues discovered during routine tests that seals do not respond to the blue colour. Intrigued, they carried out similar tests on few other species, such as dolphins and whales, and found the same results. According to fossil evidence, whales are believed to have descended from a four-legged primitive ungulate (hoofed mammal) which lived on land and was similar to the modern day hippopotamus....
Who Invented Band-aid?
What happens when you have a small wound? Just apply a small piece of sticky plaster with gauze (a loosely-woven cotton surgical dressing), or band-aid on it for a few days, and ta-da, your wound is healed! What a stupendous item this band-aid is! So ideal for accident prone people, whether adults or kids. Well it was exactly for this reason that Earle Dickson invented it. He did it for his wife, who though not into rough contact sports was nevertheless accident prone....
How did the Safety Match Originate?
Fire was invented when two flint stones were struck together igniting a spark. From earliest times people made fire by either striking flint stones or by rubbing a hard stick against a soft one so that the friction caused soft flakes to peel off and start to smoulder. The only improvement on these primitive methods was the tinder box that contained some steel, flint, and some dry tinder for the spark to ignite. This tinder was often pieces of linen or silk....
Which is the World's Oldest Working Locomotive?
The Indian Railways is one of the world’s oldest railways dating back to 1849. It also has the largest network in terms of route length covering nearly 63,000 route kilometres touching every nook and cranny of India. The Indian Railways is also the world’s single largest employer with about 1.6 million people working in nine zones. Among its many unique gems are the toy train that runs on the Darjeeling Himalayan rail route, the rack railway at Udagamandalam in south India, the busiest narrow gauge network in the world, etc....
How do Flush Toilets Work?
Toilets are an amazing invention. Nearly every home has at least one. It is a very necessary utility needed in all homes to maintain hygiene. It is really amazing how this system works – you press a lever or pull a chain and whoosh! About two gallons of water rushes down into the porcelain bowl in three and four seconds. Gurgle-gurgle-urp it is clean and ready for use again! Toilets were known in India as early as three thousand years ago!...
Why do we See a Face on the Moon
When people say that they see a man’s face on the Moon, they are actually seeing the uneven surface on the Moon. There are deep holes, called craters, and hills on the Moon’s surface. There is no man on the Moon. That the Moon is much smaller than the stars and even the earth. In fact, four moons put together would make one earth. The Moon looks big because it is much closer to us in comparison to the stars....
What is a Tsunami?
Last year there were three more fishing villages in the Pacific island country of Papua New Guinea than there are today. You might ask why. The answer is that these three villages were washed away by an ocean wave that was more like a giant wall of water. It goes by the name tsunami, a Japanese term meaning a harbour wave. Ocean that Becomes a Giant Wall [Illustrations by Kusum Chamoli] A tsunami is caused by a disturbance in the sea floor, just like the disturbances on land....
What Toothpaste did the Ancients Use?
One of my earliest childhood memories of Delhi is seeing morning walkers, milkmen, or shopkeepers chewing away at the neem stick, much like a cow chewing the cud. It seemed strange that they should go to all that effort when readymade toothpaste was available. Neem (Azadirachta indic a) twig still used as toothbrush in many parts of India The world was divided into four kinds of people: those who used toothpaste and brush, and they were the elite; those who used tooth powder for which the index finger doubled as the brush; people who used indigenous “monkey-brand” tooth powders and lastly, those who used neem sticks which were two-in-one....
Who Invented Traffic Lights?
Long before roads needed traffic lights, railways were using a system of signals to control train traffic. In the early railways, a single track was used for both up-going and down-going trains, and safety depended on spacing the arrival and departure of trains according to time intervals. These signals consisted of a ball and something that looked like a kite. When the kite was raised on top it indicated danger while if the ball was raised, it indicated the all clear....