Page Type: Elementary

Axolotls are amphibians that are native to Mexico. You’re not likely to spot a wild one in a faraway country like Wales, in the United Kingdom (UK). So when 10-year-old Evie Hill saw an axolotl in a Welsh river, her mom thought she was mistaken.

“I went down to the [river] bank, and there was this thing with gills on its head,” Evie told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “I was like, ‘That’s an axolotl.’ I [said], ‘Mum, there’s an axolotl in the river.’” 

Despite her mother’s doubts, Evie knew it was an axolotl because she had seen examples of the amphibians in YouTube videos. Axolotls once lived in bodies of water all around central Mexico. Today, wild axolotls are rare. They are found only in Lake Xochimilco, which is in Mexico City.

Mistakes aren’t easy to fix when you’re working with paint or ink, but experts have discovered that ancient Egyptian artists found a way to cover their errors. They used a thick white “correction fluid.”

Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, United Kingdom, discovered the fluid on a 3,300-year-old painting of an animal called a jackal. The artist had made the outline of the jackal and then covered part of it with the correction fluid and painted a new line over it. 

The researchers studied the fluid with the help of infrared photography, which can show things the human eye can’t see. 

Using a digital microscope, the researchers discovered that the fluid was made of two minerals called calcite and huntite. (Ancient Egyptians also used minerals to make paint.) The microscope also revealed that the artist had added bits of yellow paint to the correction. This would have helped everything blend in with the yellowish papyrus so that the mistake wouldn’t be as visible.

A surgeon in the United Kingdom (U.K.) recently performed an operation on a patient who was 1,500 miles away! It was the first time a U.K. surgeon carried out what’s called a “remote surgery.” 

Prokar Dasgupta, a doctor and a professor at King’s College London in the United Kingdom, did the surgery on a patient on the island of Gibraltar, 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away. Dasgupta used a controller called a console to guide a three-armed robot to do the operation in Gibraltar. The robot’s 3-D camera allowed Dasgupta to see what was happening. There was also a human medical team in the room with the robot to ensure that everything went smoothly.

More than 250 years ago, the American colonies went to war against their ruling country, Great Britain. This war, called the American Revolution, led to the birth of the United States. But some of the people who fought for the rights of Americans had few rights themselves. One of these patriots was a man named Prince Hall. 

No one knows the exact details of Hall’s background. He may have been born on the island of Barbados, and he may have been enslaved there. By 1770, Hall was a free man living in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Hall was active in the Freemasons, which was a bit like a club that had meeting places in both America and Europe. The Freemasons said they believed in freedom and equality. Yet the Boston Freemasons did not allow Black people to join. Hall and several other men founded a Freemasons meeting place for Black members called the African Lodge. The African Lodge became an important part of building a community for Black Boston residents.

Robots are cool, but they can be clumsy. If you ask a robot to pick up a soft peach or a pair of glasses, its hands might do some serious damage. But that could be about to change. A new robot hand can pick up an object as delicate as a potato chip.

“Right now, robotics is starting to be able to do large motions around the house, but struggles with really fine and delicate movements,” Siqi Shang said in an article on the University of Texas website. Shang, an engineering student at the University of Texas (UT), helped to develop a new technology. It’s called Fragile Object Grasping with Tactile Sensing (FORTE). 

Scientists used the FORTE technology to build extra-sensitive robot fingers that contain air channels, or tunnels. When the fingers are grabbing an object, the air channels move, which changes the air pressure inside them. The fingers also contain sensors that monitor the air pressure to figure out if the object is being gripped with the right amount of force.

As a Japanese American, Gyo Fujikawa didn’t always have an easy life. But she created a better world on the pages of her famous picture books. It was a colorful place where kids of all backgrounds laughed and played together.

Becoming an Artist

Fujikawa was born in Berkeley, California, in 1908. Her parents, both Japanese immigrants, were farmworkers. When Fujikawa was young, her teachers realized she had a great talent for art. They raised money to pay for her to go to art school. 

Fujikawa started her career as a commercial artist, which means she made art for advertisements or products for sale. In 1933, she got a job at Walt Disney Studios. One of her big tasks there was to help create a book to go along with an animated movie called Fantasia.

World War II (1939-1945) was a difficult time for Fujikawa. During this time, her parents and brother were forced to go to an internment camp simply because they were Japanese American. The experience deeply affected Fujikawa. You can read more about internment camps below this article.

Books for Everyone

In the 1950s, Fujikawa began illustrating other people’s children’s books. But she was frustrated because the children she was asked to draw were white. Other picture books also featured mostly white children. They didn’t look like Fujikawa or her family. 

Fujikawa began writing and illustrating her own books in 1963. Her soft, colorful illustrations showed children and animals with sweet expressions. Most distinctive of all, the children in Fujikawa’s books weren’t only white. They represented many races, including white, Black, and Asian. 

At the time, it was rare for children’s books to show a diverse group of children as friends. Fujikawa wasn’t just making pretty pictures. She was drawing a world she wanted to see in real life. She also believed that all children deserved to see themselves represented in books.

Fujikawa wrote and illustrated more than 40 books, many of which are still in print. Her books include Babies; Oh, What a Busy Day; and Welcome Is a Wonderful Word. She died in 1998.

Actor Zendaya doesn’t share much about her private life. That’s why it was surprising when photos of her wedding to actor Tom Holland appeared online. The wedding looked beautiful, and Zendaya said her friends complimented her on how the photos came out. There was only one problem—the photos weren’t real. They had been made by artificial intelligence (AI).

“Many people have been fooled by them,” Zendaya told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. “People were like, ‘Your wedding photos are gorgeous.’ And I was like, ‘Babe, they’re AI. They’re not real.’”

It’s a common mistake. AI technology is so good at making fake photos and videos that we often can’t tell they aren’t real. Some online tools are designed to help users decide whether an image was created by AI. But these tools don’t always get it right.

Fish can swim in water and elephants can walk on land, but what creature can walk on water? The ripple bug can! Now this bug’s special ability has inspired the design for a tiny water-walking robot.

The ripple bug is a kind of water strider, which is an insect that moves lightly across water. The bug has tiny little fans on the ends of its feet. The frilly feet fans keep it from falling into the water and help it make quick turns as it moves. 

“If you are blinking, you miss the action,” said scientist Víctor Ortega Jiménez in an interview with Science News Explores. Watching the ripple bug’s feet made him wonder if frilly feet could help a robot walk on water too.

Do hedgehogs have a superpower? Not quite, but the adorable animals do have very good hearing. Researchers say European hedgehogs’ hearing could be the key to saving the species.

Sounds travel to our ears in vibrations called sound waves. Sound waves that humans can’t hear are called ultrasonic. Dogs have famously sensitive ears. They can hear far more sound waves than humans. Hedgehogs can hear even more. In fact, researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have found that hedgehogs can hear at least twice as many ultrasonic sound waves as dogs!

Scientist Sophie Lund Rasmussen led the hedgehog research. Rasmussen, who has become known as “Dr. Hedgehog,” believes her discoveries could help European hedgehogs, which are often hit by cars.

“I thought perhaps we could try and make sound repellers for cars so the hedgehogs would avoid crossing the roads when the cars were running,” Rasmussen told the Associated Press.

Does it really matter if the metal and plastic we use gets recycled? Two stories—one from the United States and the other from the United Kingdom (UK)—prove that thoughtful recycling can change lives.

In the UK town of Solihull, 13-year-old Ryan Hulance has raised thousands of dollars for charity. He did it by recycling over a million cans.

The United Kingdom is one of many countries where scrap metal companies pay money for used cans. The companies recycle the metal so that it can be used in other products.

In 2023, Ryan started calling businesses and asking them if they had any used metal cans. He was soon collecting hundreds of cans per week. Since then, he has recycled enough cans to raise $20,000 for food banks and other charities.