Page Type: Elementary

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will darken the daytime sky over part of North America. Areas of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada will be affected. 

During a total solar eclipse, the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun completely. Along a narrow band on the surface of Earth, the sky goes dark for a short time. This band is called the path of totality. There, only the outer edge of the Sun (called the corona) can be seen.

On April 8, totality, or complete darkness, will begin over the Pacific Ocean. Over time, the Moon’s shadow will move over Mexico and into the U.S. and then Canada. Totality in the United States begins in Texas just before 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. It ends in Maine at just after 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Each location in the path of totality will be completely dark for only a few minutes or even seconds. But things won’t go back to normal right away. Before and after totality, the Moon will partially block the Sun. This is called a partial eclipse.

Imagine going back in time to the year 850 BCE. Researchers can’t time travel, but they’re doing the next best thing by studying the remains of an ancient village in England that’s remarkably well preserved.

Archaeologists, scientists who study human history, say that the village was abandoned more than 2,800 years ago when a huge fire broke out. Residents quickly escaped, leaving all their belongings behind. The village, now known as Must Farm, wasn’t discovered until 1999. Although its contents are burned, they’re still in remarkably good condition. That’s because the village sits on wetlands, where the level of oxygen—which breaks down materials like wood and cloth—is low.

Researchers unearthed what is left of four roundhouses that had been built with wood, straw, earth, and clay. At one time there were probably twice that many houses, and all were surrounded by a 6.5-foot (2-meter) fence. Researchers also found ceramic pots, neatly sewn linen items (possibly clothing), tools, and wooden bowls and buckets. There were clues about the villagers’ daily habits, too.

“On the bottom of [one of those buckets] were loads and loads of cut marks, so we know that people living in that…kitchen…were just flipping that bucket upside down and using that as a chopping surface,” archaeologist Chris Wakefield told CNN.

Some of the items held clues about what the people ate. One bowl had the remains of a wheat porridge with animal fat. Others, which were studied in a lab, had traces of deer meat and honey.

Researchers say it’s rare to find an ancient site that’s so well preserved.

“In a typical…site, if you’ve got a house, you’ve probably got maybe a dozen post holes in the ground and they’re just dark shadows of where it once stood,” Wakefield said. “This was the complete opposite of that process. It was just incredible.”

Click through the slideshow, which features some of the items found at Must Farm.

Is Earth the only place where life exists, or are there living things in other parts of the universe? Scientists don’t know the answer yet. But in a few months, NASA will launch a message into space.

NASA is calling its project “Message in a Bottle” because it’s sort of like putting a written message into a bottle and throwing it into the ocean, hoping someone will find it. NASA’s message is engraved, or etched, onto a metal plate. The plate will be attached to NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will be launched in October 2024. Clipper will travel 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to Europa, which is one of Jupiter’s moons. The spacecraft will then take pictures and collect information about Europa. Scientists are interested in Europa because there’s an ocean under its surface. Liquid water is necessary to support life, so any time scientists find water beyond Earth, they study the possibility that life exists there.

If there is life on Europa, it won’t respond to NASA’s message. For one thing, it would be marine (sea) life, and it could be very tiny and not very complex. But if intelligent aliens ever do discover the metal plate, they’ll know that it was made by living beings. Maybe they’ll even figure out that it was made by living beings on Earth.

NASA’s message was inspired by Earth’s water and how it makes life possible here, just as water might make life possible on Europa. Here’s what is etched on the metal plate:

• A poem written by Ada Limón, the poet laureate (national poet) of the United States. It’s called “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.”
• An illustration of a bottle inside the Jupiter system, which includes the planet along with its rings and moons.
• A portrait of Ron Greeley, a scientist who was involved in NASA’s early efforts to send a spacecraft to Europa.
• Drawings of sound waves. The waves represent the sound of the word water as it is spoken in 103 different languages.

If you’re interested in reading Limón’s poem, you can find it on NASA’s website.

When Charlie Jeffers found out that his friends were throwing out their old LEGO sets, he came up with an idea. Charlie started an organization that sends old LEGO bricks to new homes.

The organization, which is called Pass the Bricks, collects LEGO sets from anyone who is willing to donate them. Then a group of volunteers cleans and sorts the bricks and repacks them into boxes. Pass the Bricks works with several charities to give these newly packaged LEGO sets to families who might not be able to afford LEGO for their kids.

The woolly mammoth was a huge, hairy elephant species that once lived in the coldest parts of Earth. The mammoth went extinct sometime between 4,500 and 10,000 years ago. But it may not be gone forever. Scientists are trying to bring this beast back.

No one is sure exactly what killed off the woolly mammoth in the first place. The world was getting warmer at the time, and woolly mammoths were cold-weather animals. It’s possible they just couldn’t survive the higher temperatures. Woolly mammoths were also heavily hunted by humans.

Now, a company called Colossal Biosciences is trying to create new woolly mammoths. To do this, scientists are starting with cells, which are what all living things are made up of. Recently, Colossal Biosciences announced that it had created stem cells, which are what new cells start as before they become cells for a heart, skin, or any other body part. 

Colossal created stem cells for Asian elephants, which are the closest living relative to woolly mammoths. The company hopes to work with these stem cells so they can create elephants with the same traits as woolly mammoths. These animals wouldn’t be exactly like the real thing…but they’d be very close.

Not everyone agrees that it’s a good idea to bring the woolly mammoth back. Many scientists wonder where the animals would live and if they would even survive in today’s warming world. Others say instead of bringing back extinct species, scientists should work more on ways to protect the ones that are living today. Many species are endangered, including the Asian elephant. 

Colossal says its work will help the Asian elephant because the company is studying elephant cells. The cells might help scientists understand how to keep living elephants healthy. Scientists may even be able to use the stem cells to create more Asian elephants.

Colossal hopes that it will someday create herds of woolly mammoths to replace the ones that died off thousands of years ago. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

In Kate DiCamillo’s new book, Ferris, 10-year-old Ferris Wilkey is having a busy summer. Her aunt and uncle have broken up, her little sister is trying to get in trouble, and her grandmother says she sees a ghost. It’s a sweet story of an offbeat but loving family. It also happens to be hilarious.

If anyone knows how to write a great story, it’s DiCamillo. Her first book, Because of Winn-Dixie, won several awards and was later made into a movie. Since then, she’s written many other books, including Flora & Ulysses and The Tale of Despereaux. In most of them, the main character is under 13 years old. It may be hard to imagine how an adult can write about a kid’s thoughts and feelings. But DiCamillo says she remembers very well what it was like to be a child.

“I am, basically, an 8-year-old,” DiCamillo told the New York Times. That could be why so many kids feel like they can relate to DiCamillo’s books. The proof of this is in the hundreds of fan letters she receives every week, and in the crowds of people who come to see her when she goes on tour to promote her books. 

“I’m deeply moved by it… I’m astonished by it,” she told the Associated Press. 

DiCamillo has loved a good story since she was a kid. Now, her own stories are inspiring new generations of young readers. 

“Stories help us see each other and help us see ourselves,” DiCamillo told Bookpage.com.

Dogs love company, so they can get lonely when left by themselves. That’s why Ogmen Robotics developed ORo, a robot that can care for a dog when its family isn’t at home.

Humans who are at work or running errands can watch and speak to their dog through ORo’s video screen. They can also pre-load ORo with treats and use an app on their phone to tell the robot to give one (or several) to their dog. ORo can even play fetch with a playful pooch, launching a ball so the dog will chase it. If the dog brings the ball back, ORo will throw it again…and again.

But the robot doesn’t just respond to human commands. It uses artificial intelligence (AI), a kind of technology that lets machines learn new information. ORo learns the layout of a home, so it can follow active pups all over the house without bumping into walls or furniture.

Like many 8-year-olds, Ashwath Kaushik likes bike riding, LEGO, and hanging out with his friends. He also likes chess—and he’s really good at it. On February 18, Ashwath became the youngest person ever to defeat a chess grandmaster.

In the game of chess, grandmasters are considered the very best. It’s not easy to defeat one. Ashwath’s victory opposite grandmaster Jacek Stopa, 37, took place at a chess tournament in Switzerland. Only one other 8-year-old had defeated a grandmaster before, and he was five months older than Ashwath.

“I feel proud of my game and how I played. I felt amazing, just unbelievable,” Ashwath told CNN.

Ashwath started playing chess when he was 4 years old. He learned the game with help from a website called ChessKid. Before long, he was playing on a chess board against family members and winning. Today, Ashwath has a chess coach and some big dreams. What’s his goal?

“[I want to be] a world champion,” he told CNN. “That will be a bit of time. It won’t come quickly.”

“I practice a lot each day,” Ashwath said. “A lot of children have a natural talent, so I think I’ve got a natural talent at chess.”

When Lanny Smoot was about 5 years old, his dad brought home a light bulb, a bell, batteries, and wire. Smoot watched, amazed, as his dad put those things together in a way that made the bulb light up and the bell ring. He decided he wanted to see what he could make. Today, Smoot is a Disney imagineer—an inventor who has created some of Disney’s most incredible attractions.

Smoot’s journey to becoming an imagineer started soon after he saw that bulb light up. At school, he loved science class, and he entered every science fair there was. At home, he started taking things apart to see how they worked. He also started building new things from whatever materials he could find. He even put together a unicycle using a bike seat and part of a tricycle. (He can still ride a unicycle!) Eventually, Smoot went to college and studied engineering. An engineer is a person who designs complicated products, machines, systems, or structures. He became a Disney imagineer in 1998.

Coco Gauff just had a very good year. In 2023, the 19-year-old Gauff won the U.S. Open, which is one of the world’s four major tennis championships. Many people believe Gauff could become one of the greats in her sport.

Gauff’s rise in her sport has been slow and steady. She won some junior tennis titles as a kid, and pretty soon she was playing in major tournaments (tennis events) against some of the players she has always looked up to. In June 2019, Gauff had a chance to play at Wimbledon, a major tournament in England. Only 15 at the time, she played against the great Venus Williams—and won that round.

Since then, Gauff has had a chance to spend time with Venus and her tennis-star sister, Serena. She says the sisters are serious on the tennis court, but they know how to relax too.

“They’re goofy, fun people. That’s the coolest part,” Gauff told the Guardian. “They taught me you could be yourself and still be intense on court.”

Later in 2019, Gauff took part in the U.S. Open and found herself out of the contest when she lost a match against top tennis player Naomi Osaka. She was frustrated and upset. But at 16, she’d made it to the third round of one of the biggest events in her sport. It was a big deal. Gauff played against Osaka again, at the 2020 Australian Open. She won the match.

Gauff’s 2023 U.S. Open victory is her first win in a major tennis event—and her steady improvement suggests it won’t be the last.

Meanwhile, Time magazine sees a bright future for Gauff. The publication named Gauff as one of its 10 Women of the Year for 2024. The list is made up of what Time calls “extraordinary leaders.” Tennis talent isn’t the only reason Gauff made the list. She often speaks out on issues she cares about, such as climate change and equal rights for all.