OCTOBER 2020 VOL. 32 NO. 2 ISSN 1010-144X SCHOLASTIC.COM/SUPERSCIENCE Hundreds of sharp teeth help this sea lamprey attach to other fish so it can suck their blood. LIFE Real-Life Vampires! Meet five wild creatures that feed on blood Watch a VIDEO about the eruption that buried the ancient city of Pompeii! www.scholastic.com/superscience STICKY MASKS Earlier this year, as the coronavirus began to spread Newsblast around the world, officials recommended people wear 2 The latest science news face masks in public. Leigh Radziwon and Kim Murray, A company that makes Halloween masks the owners of Halloween mask company StickFX, (above) adapted their design to make face The Fight Over masks (below) for pandemic safety. jumped in to help! They designed protective masks 4 Pompeii with replaceable filters. Researchers are at Parts of the masks are made from silicone. This odds over an ancient city buried by lava material sticks to skin, creating a tight seal around the nose and mouth. The first prototype, or testable Hands-On model, had straps that looped behind the ears. Later 7 Uncover With Care models included adjustable straps or no straps at all! Connecticut-based StickFX has sold more than 8,000 Skeleton Scanner masks since May. The company has also donated 8 A scientist reveals the insides of fish filter masks to essential workers. “We all have a duty to help during times of crisis,” says Radziwon. Thirsty for Blood The above photo shows 10 Meet five creatures giant clouds of dust and that feed on blood gas where stars form. The image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Pumpkin Smash! 14 Eco-friendly ways to get rid of your Halloween pumpkin SLYTHERIN Explain This! 16 Can you make sense SNAKE of this strange photo? HUBBLE In 2019, biologist Zeeshan Mirza was in a forest in northeastern India when he spotted a Explore Online PICS bright-green snake with a dark-orange stripe. Look for the icons below in this issue and Earlier this year, the Hubble spinning balls of material become It turned out to be an undiscovered species! visit scholastic.com/superscience to access these resources: Space Telescope, a powerful larger over time. Eventually, they Mirza named it Trimeresurus salazar, after the instrument circling Earth, reached heat up and burst into new stars. book character Salazar Slytherin. In the Harry Skill Leveled a big milestone. It turned 30! To Over the decades, photos from Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Slytherin is one of Video Builders Text Games celebrate, the U.S. space agency Hubble like the one above have Hogwarts’ founders. He could talk to snakes! Location where EUROPE the new pit NASA released this stunning image taught scientists a lot about how The new snake is a type of pit viper. Pit viper was found ON THE COVER: recently taken by Hubble. Each stars form and die, says Joseph vipers are venomous: Their bite injects a ASIA Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games Read about bright swirl in the photo is a nebula, DePasquale at the Space Telescope toxic substance that can be deadly. Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games INDIA Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games sea lampreys, a giant cloud of dust and gas. Science Institute. They’ve also Mirza hopes that naming the snake AFRICA and other Pit vipers like T. salazar New stars form inside nebulae. increased the public’s interest in the after Slytherin will help people feel bloodsucking INDIAN have heat-sensing organs creatures, on That happens when gravity pulls universe. “Hubble’s images are awe- connected to it. Many habitats where pit OCEAN on their faces that detect page 10! warm-blooded prey. dust and gas together. These inspiring,” DePasquale says. PAGE 2: NASA/ESA/STSCI (HUBBLE PICTURES); NASA VIA GETTY IMAGES (HUBBLE TELESCOPE); PAGE 3: AMOD M. ZAMBRE (VIPER);vipers COURTESY OF STICKFX (HALLOWEEN MASK); COURTESY OF KIM MURRAY (FACE MASK); JIM MCMAHON (GLOBE) live need to be protected, he says. COVER: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM (LAMPREY); ILLUSTRATION BY SHEN FEI (POMPEII) 2 OCTOBER 2020 SCHOLASTIC.COM/SUPERSCIENCE 3 BONUS Explore DIGITAL Online Skill Leveled FEATURE! Video Builders Text Games Visit scholastic.com /superscience for a slideshow Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games Skill Leveled of the amazing Video Builders text Games Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games artifacts found at Skill Leveled Video Builders text Games Fight Over Pompeii. Inside a Volcano Pompeii Mount Vesuvius sits on two tectonic plates that are slowly shifting. Here’s how that movement can lead to an eruption. Scientists feud over how to The Superhot 1 African 4 material bursts plate slides out and flows down study an ancient city buried by under the the volcano’s sides. Eurasian plate. a volcanic eruption The rock melts as it is heated Lava, gas, inside Earth. 3 and ash shoot through the vent. Eurasian In 79 A.D., a volcano in plate southern Italy erupted. Magma burns The explosion buried the 2 through the nearby city of Pompeii. plates and builds up African pressure beneath plate the volcano. As you read, think about how 20,000 residents rock, lava, and Two groups of scientists Think: What might affect how dangerous an eruption is? ATLANTIC studying past natural disasters weren’t very OCEAN gas raced down want to study Pompeii: can help people today. ASIA worried. EUROPE the volcano’s archaeologists, who study But the ITALY slopes, burying human history and culture, Preserved City He’s a member of the scientific he year was 79 a.d. quivering earth Pompeii under and volcanologists, who Pompeii is a unique site for committee for the Great in the bustling was a warning. Pompeii 10 meters (33 feet) study volcanoes. To do their archaeologists. Most ancient Pompeii Project, the group Roman city of Magma was moving AFRICA of ash. Over time, work, volcanologists need to cities were abandoned and that manages the excavation, Pompeii. For underground. And the ash hardened, analyze the layers of soil. But decayed long before they were or digging up, of the site. months, the city had Mount Vesuvius, a towering AFRICApreserving the city. for many years, archaeologists discovered. But Pompeii was Pompeii’s artifacts shed light Tbeen rattled by earthquakes. volcano east of Pompeii, was Since workers discovered have been digging up the full of activity when the volcano on life in the Roman Empire. These ground-shaking events about to blow. The eruption Pompeii’s ruins in 1748, city’s remains, disturbing burst. “It was a thriving city that This influential group of states are common along Italy’s west began with a massive gray cloud researchers have been drawn to that soil. Can the experts was demolished overnight,” ruled by Rome existed from coast. So Pompeii’s roughly rising into the sky. Superhot the site. But there’s a problem. JIM MCMAHON (GLOBE); TRISTAR PICTURES/PHOTOFEST (POMPEII) ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT KEMP (VOLCANO DIAGRAM) find ways to work together? says archaeologist Steven Ellis. 27 b.c. to 476 a.d. Researchers 4 OCTOBER 2020 SCHOLASTIC.COM/SUPERSCIENCE 5 Mount Vesuvius is similar today, it might signal that the volcano is reawakening. Uncover andsOn Vesuvius has erupted dozens of times, most recently in Inuir 1944, killing 26 people. If the With Care volcano’s next burst is a big one, that could mean trouble for the OBSERVE Archaeologists container. Record 700,000 people living nearby. must move soil to dig up your observations. artifacts. Volcanologists need STEP 4: Use your excavation to study undisturbed soil. Why Scientists in Conflict tools to unearth the penny. Archaeologists have dug up might it be difficult for them to How do the layers of sand and about two-thirds of Pompeii so work in the same area? soil look now? Record your far. The Great Pompeii Project is MATERIALS glass bowl, observations. working to restore the city and wide-mouth jar, or clear STEP 5: Brainstorm ways you protect it from damage. But the plastic container • penny • could unearth a penny with The ancient city of group has also restricted many sand or sugar • soil or coffee less change to the layers. Pompeii spans 4.5 square volcanologists from working grounds • measuring cup • miles. Vesuvius stands Repeat steps 1-4, testing one there for the time being. 6 miles east of the city. ruler • “excavation tools” of your ideas. That’s why in 2019, a group like spoons, toothpicks, craft of volcanologists, including sticks, and index cards RESULTS have found graffiti promoting Evidence of the victims have behind, revealing the final Kilburn, published a letter in How did each excavation gladiator fights and even a fast- also been unearthed. After the moments of Pompeii’s people. the scientific journal Nature. PROCEDURE affect the layers of soil? food shop. “We’ve found bones eruption, ash hardened around It criticized the Great Pompeii STEP 1: Place a penny in the CONCLUSIONS bowl. Cover it with a layer of from fish and pigs that tell us human bodies. As the bodies Sleeping Giant Project for making it difficult for 1. Did your new excavation what people ate,” says Ellis. decayed, the cavities were left For archaeologists, Pompeii’s volcanologists to access the site sand about 3 cm (1 inch) thick. method better preserve the treasures are buried in soil. and for moving soil that could Smooth the sand’s surface so layers than your first one? Researchers at Odds But to volcanologists, that be used to study Vesuvius. that it’s flat. How could you improve your soil is worth more than gold.