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Search results
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: See Cow? No, Sea Cow (for the Week of Jan. 18, 2009)
January 18, 2009 Q. Dear Twig: What's a sea cow? A. "Sea cow" is another name for animals called dugongs and manatees. Like land cows, dugongs and manatees are big, peaceable, plant-eating mammals. Unlike land cows, dugongs and manatees l ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Ranking Skunk Species (for the Week of April 1, 2007)
March 23, 2007 Q. Dear Twig: You said there are several skunk species. How do they smell? The same? Different? A. It seems they smell about the same. Scientist Bill Wood, who in the past two weeks has given us lots of great stinkin' skunk facts, says ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Purple Box, Detector Gadget (for the Week of Aug. 24, 2008)
August 21, 2008 Q. Dear Twig: There's a funny purple box in a tree by the road near my house. I live in northern Ohio. I saw one in Pennsylvania, too. What are they? A. Hey, good eyes to spot them! They're traps for the emerald ash borer, a smal ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: One Gene, Two Gene, Red Gene, Blue Gene... OK, Maybe Orange (for the Week of Aug. 23, 2009)
August 23, 2009 Q. Dear Twig: What makes a tomato a certain color? A. A combination of the color of the skin, either clear or orange, and the color of the pulp, the stuff inside. For example, a tomato with clear skin and red pulp looks pink. One that ha ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Oh, Deer, Where's the Velvet? (for the Week of Nov. 23, 2008)
November 23, 2008 Q. Dear Twig: The stuff that a deer rubs off of its antlers — the "velvet." What happens to it? My dad and I saw a rubbed tree but no velvet. A. Deer Reader: It seems the deer eats it. Or, if the deer is a farm-raised deer, a ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Nurdle Beach (for the Week of May 24, 2009)
May 24, 2009 Q. Dear Twig: So what about nurdles? A. So this: So dumped, lost, littered and accidentally spilled nurdles — plastic pellets used to make plastic things (doll heads, P-51 models, the keyboard I'm clacking this on, etc.) — "are di ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Oak from Acorn? A-OK! (for the Week of Sept. 6, 2009)
September 6, 2009 Q. Dear Twig: Can I grow an oak tree from an acorn? A. Oh, sure. And you can try very soon. Acorns ripen and fall in autumn. Squirrels know that and you will too if you spend time under an oak tree. And both main kinds of acorns — ones ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Non-maple Tree Syrup (for the Week of March 11, 2007)
March 5, 2007 Q. Dear Twig: I know maple syrup comes from maple tree sap. What other trees can you use to make syrup? A. In cold northern places like Alaska and Scandinavia, people make syrup from birch tree sap. In steamy southeast Asia, folks boil down ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: New Fuels? Cool! (for the Week of March 2, 2008)
March 2, 2008 Q. Dear Twig: You talked about electric cars. What other ways can you run a car? A. Well, you can push it yourself. Ha ha ha! Kidding. ["Not funny": Twig's niece Elderberria.] OK, here are some of the other ways: Biodiesel: Li ...
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Smart Stuff with Twig Walkingstick: Motorcycle Muffins (for the Week of Aug. 26, 2007)
August 26, 2007 Q. Dear Twig: Can animal poop on the road cause a crash? I read about a motorcyle accident. The driver said he wiped out when he drove through some manure! A.: In theory, it can. Anything slippery can make tires lose their grip. Ice, snow ...