Sliding Into History

Seventy years ago, Jackie Robinson changed baseball—and helped change America.

If you tune in to any Major League Baseball game on April 15, you might notice something oddly similar about the players. They’ll all be wearing the number 42 on their uniforms. Players do that every April 15 to honor baseball legend Jackie Robinson. He wore number 42 when he made his major-league debut (first appearance) 70 years ago. When Robinson, an African-American, stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he broke baseball’s color barrier (something that blocks progress).

GAME CHANGER

In the 1940s, professional baseball—like many other parts of American society—was segregated. An unwritten rule had kept black players out of the major leagues since the 1880s. Instead, they had to play in separate leagues, called the Negro Leagues.

Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers, wanted to change that. He knew he needed a player with more than just talent. He needed someone with the courage to face racism on and off the field. After meeting Jackie Robinson, Rickey knew he had found that player.

PROVING HE BELONGED

During his first season with the Dodgers, Robinson faced challenges that no other player had to deal with. He received death threats from racist fans. Players on other teams shouted racial insults at him. When the Dodgers played in other cities, he often wasn’t allowed to stay in the same hotels as his white teammates. But Robinson didn’t lose his cool.

“He responded to the racism by playing hard on the field,” says his daughter, Sharon Robinson. Robinson led Brooklyn in hits, runs, and stolen bases in 1947. He also won baseball’s first Rookie of the Year award. Later, in 1955, he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series championship.

By the time he retired in 1957, Robinson had opened the door for many more black players to enter the major leagues. Today, Robinson (who died in 1972) is remembered not just as a baseball legend but also as a hero of the civil rights movement.

“He knew the importance of standing up for what you believe in,” says Sharon Robinson.

Do you think Jackie Robinson is one of the best baseball players of all time? Why or why not?

A Boost for Bees

An endangered bumblebee gets new protection.

There’s been a lot of buzz about some bees lately. This spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the rusty patched bumblebee to the endangered species list. It’s the first bee in the contiguous United States (the area of the country that includes the 48 states that share borders) to be added to the list.*

SAVING A SPECIES

The rusty patched bee was once found in prairies and other grassy areas in 28 states, but its range has slowly been shrinking. Since the late 1990s, its population has dropped by nearly 90 percent.

The bee faces many threats, including diseases and loss of its habitat due to the construction of farms, cities, and roads. Pesticides are also a big danger. Farmers spray these chemicals on crops to protect them from harmful insects, but pesticides can also end up killing bees.

Because the rusty patched bee is listed as endangered, harming it or its habitat is now illegal. The Fish and Wildlife Service will work to develop a plan to help the bee’s population recover, which may include setting new rules on where pesticides can be used.

A SWEET DEAL

The rusty patched bumblebee is one of more than 4,000 bee species native to North America. Like all bees, it plays an important role in nature. Bees help pollinate many types of flowers and plants, enabling them to reproduce. About one-third of our food crops, from blueberries to tomatoes, are pollinated by bees.

Unfortunately, scientists estimate that nearly one-quarter of all bee species in North America are at risk of extinction (no longer found alive). Conservationists are hopeful that the new measures taken to protect the rusty patched bumblebee will also help other bees that share its habitat.

“It’s a really good day for this bumblebee and all of the other bees that are out there,” says Scott Hoffman Black, the head of the Xerces Society, a bee conservation group.

*Seven other bee species are listed as endangered, but they are found only in Hawaii.

Why are bees so important for us? Is this good news or not so good news about bees?

Prints From the Past

Scientists find the world’s largest dinosaur footprint in Australia.

Scientists in Australia recently got a chance to walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs. In March, they announced that they’d identified thousands of dinosaur tracks along a 15-mile stretch of Australia’s northwest coast. One of the footprints is the largest dinosaur footprint ever recorded.

The footprint is about 5 feet 9 inches long—large enough for most people to lie inside it. The print was likely left behind about 130 million years ago by a type of dinosaur called a sauropod. These long-necked herbivores (animals that only eat plants) were the largest known dinosaurs, with the

biggest ones measuring about 130 feet long.

A BIG DISCOVERY

That giant footprint wasn’t the only amazing discovery in the area. In total, the scientists identified the footprints of 21 different dinosaur species. That includes the first evidence of a stegosaur—a type of dinosaur with spiky plates along its back—in Australia. It’s the most diverse group of dino prints ever found in one place.

“It really is a snapshot of life during the age of the dinosaurs in this particular area,” says Steve Salisbury. He is a paleontologist (a scientist who studies fossils) at the University of Queensland in Australia.

ON THE TRAIL

The dinosaurs originally left their footprints in sand. Over time, these prints were filled with other types of sand and small pebbles. The tracks eventually fossilized, or hardened into rock. To figure out which types of dinosaurs had left them, scientists studied the size of the footprints and the patterns in which they were made.

The scientists worked with a group of Aborigines (ab-uhr-IHJ-ih-neez), or Australian natives. The Aborigines had known about the tracks for years, but they didn’t share their secret with the paleontologists until 2008. The scientists and the Aborigines created a digital map of the area and made molds of some of the tracks. These can later be used to make replicas (exact copies) of the footprints for museums.

Officials plan to open parts of the area to the public to give visitors a chance to walk among the dinosaur prints too. “With tracks, you really feel like you’re seeing where one of these fantastic animals actually was millions of years ago,” says Salisbury.

Why is this discovery an important find for scientists?

Hand-Raising Kash

A tiger cub gets the royal treatment.

His name is Kashtan, which means chestnut in Russian. But they call him Kash for short. The Amur tiger cub and his three sisters were born in September at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin.

A month after the cubs’ birth, Kash developed an infection, as did one of his sisters, who died. Kash was sent to the zoo’s hospital for about two weeks. “That’s a little too long for him to be put back with his mother,” said Katie Kuhn, area supervisor of Big Cat Country at the zoo.

Initially, Kuhn and the other keepers were concerned that Kash’s mother, Amba, might not allow him to be removed each day for feedings that would keep him alive. Later, they feared that Amba would reject Kash since he had been sick.

To keep Kash alive, the keepers hand-fed him nutrients that his mother otherwise would have provided. Amur tigers are endangered, so helping to keep Kash alive is particularly important.

The keepers spent 16 hours a day with Kash, feeding him six bottles each day. He now eats horse meatballs and is able to spend time with his surviving sisters, Eloise and Bernadette. He is learning how to hunt and socialize. “He needs to learn when another tiger is telling him to back off,” Kuhn said.

I asked Kuhn if Kash has a favorite toy. He likes boat buoys, she said, “because they’re soft, and it’s like he’s killing a prey.”

GROWING UP

Many people might think that Kash and his sisters look like puppies. But Kuhn says, “They’re definitely not puppies. A bite from one of these guys, even at 4 months old, would probably send me to the hospital.”

Will there come a time when the zookeepers will have to stop hand-feeding Kash?

“Oh, for sure,” Kuhn said. “We’re playing it day by day. We usually stop going in with [normal tiger cubs] when they’re about 3 months old. Because we’ve been with Kash for so long, we still feel comfortable going into the enclosure.”

That may not last long. “With each passing day,” Kuhn said, “we’re definitely cutting back our presence with him.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Would you want to raise a baby tiger? Why or why not?

Twister Trouble

Could 2017 be one of the worst years ever for tornadoes?

 

Tornadoes can whip up without warning. These cone-shaped, violently spinning clouds have winds that can reach 300 miles per hour and wipe out nearly everything in their paths. So far in 2017, they’ve been churning up more trouble than usual. So far, 755 twisters have been reported this year in the U.S. That’s the most tornadoes that have been recorded in January to mid-May in at least a decade.

“We’re on a record pace for tornadoes,” says Patrick Marsh, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

Through mid-May, twisters had killed 33 people, including 16 in Georgia alone. Tornadoes had also ravaged (caused severe damage) homes and other buildings, causing several billion dollars in damage across the country.

AN EARLY START

Spring and summer are usually the busiest seasons for tornadoes. But tornado season began early this year, with 432 twisters touching down in the first three months of 2017. So why did tornadoes get a head start this year?

To answer that question, it’s helpful to know how a twister forms. Two of the key ingredients are warm, moist air traveling low to the ground and cool, dry air above it. When those two air masses meet, a thunderstorm can form. Under certain conditions, the storm can produce a tornado.

This winter was unusually warm in much of the eastern U.S., and water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico were also far above average. The warm, moist air from the Gulf combined with cool, dry air traveling east from above the Rocky Mountains, causing more thunderstorms than usual for that time of year.

“Anytime you have severe thunderstorms, you have the possibility of tornadoes,” says Marsh.

Meteorologists warned that as the weather warms up in late spring, we could be in for even more tornado trouble. On Tuesday, more than 20 tornadoes were reported across the central U.S., with eight spotted just in Oklahoma.

When is the season that has the most tornadoes? Why is there more tornadoes produced in this season?