July/August 2019 Volume 23 Number 06 cricketmedia.com $6.

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but they still
require a human
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 ®

LY/AUGUS
US
S 2019
muse ® JULY/AUGUST 2019
Volume 23, Issue 06

FEATURES

26
Animal Firefighters
to the Rescue
Can animals help
manage risks?
by Sonja Cole

10 12 30 36 42
Fire Danger The New Normal Bots vs. Blazes Some Like It Hot Oceans Under Fire
Why does California’s scary Drones and Certain species Damage doesn’t
wildfire risk Camp Fire offers clues robots help us thrive with stop at the
keep growing? about the future. fight fires. regular burns. water’s edge.
by Alice Andre-Clark by Jeanne Miller by Kathryn Hulick by Charles C. Hofer by Eser Yilmaz
 DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL James M. “McLeod” O’Connor
EDITOR Johanna “Axe” Arnone EPARTMENTS
DEPARTMENTS
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Kathryn “Headlamp” Hulick
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Tracy “GPS” Vonder Brink
Emily “Wind Meter” Cambias
2 Parallel U: Fyre
ART DIRECTOR Nicole “Chainsaw” Welch
by Caanan Grall
DESIGNER
CARTOONIST
Shavan “Shovel” Spears
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6 Muse News
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS David “Pulaski” Stockdale
by Elizabeth Preston
18 Science@Work:
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Erik Hakenen
ONTARIO INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN EDUCATION,
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Carl Bereiter
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
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John A. Brinkman What They Carry
NATIONAL CREATIVITY NETWORK
Dennis W. Cheek 24 Mini Myth:
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OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF A Gift and a Curse
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Sheilagh C. Ogilvie 47 Your Tech
WILLIAMS COLLEGE by Kathryn Hulick
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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 48 Last Slice
Paul Sereno by Nancy Kangas
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 PARALLEL U CAANAN GRALL

2
 New-va In Town
I’m going to be completely
straight with you and start this
Muse Mail

letter off by saying that I am

the queen of The Great Nova
Empire (I’m sure you’ve heard
of it), and if you publish this
in the magazine everyone
working for Muse will get an
all-expense-paid trip to my
planet with the best food and
entertainment and the most
exclusive housing possible
in this section of the gamma
quadrant. If you don’t, on the
other hand, well let’s just say
that The Great Nova Empire
has been collecting the most
annoying creatures in the
galaxy for a very long time and
we are not afraid to use them.
Now that that’s out of the way,
I just wanted to say that I am
still quite new to Muse (this
would be my fourth edition),
LETTER
of the and I love it! For a while I’ve
MONTH been looking for something

Theoretically Serious
that’s educational, funny,
and not completely meant
for toddlers (or flopzoppers
I’m a serious Whovian, Star Wars fan, and nerd from Ravenclaw, as we like to call them where
and I would really appreciate it if you would do an issue on I come from). So when I
theoretical physics and multidimensional topology and geometry. stumbled upon Muse, I had
Please mail me a set of slides containing the safest strains of your high expectations, and let’s just
“scented microbes.” Also, the blueprints for the Color Gun. If you don’t say that you guys have made
publish this letter, I WILL send my little brother to annoy you, and when the people of The Great Nova
he’s finished doing that, I’ll send an army of lime green fire-breathing Empire proud! So as the leader
jackalopes, each of which is armed with a lightsaber to wipe out your of one of the greatest planets
army of hot pink bunnies at Muse HQ. This is NOT an empty threat! in this universe, I would
I’d also like to say that the lime green fire-breathing jackalopes LOVE officially decree Muse one of
chocolate and WILL eat all of yours if you don’t publish it. the best magazines ever to
—JAMES N. W. / Alabama exist! But seriously, thanks for
giving me and a bunch of other
P.S. Cate, the average airspeed velocity of an unlad
den European people the ability to learn while
swallow is 11 meters/second. Also, could you and Whatsi
W send me a having fun!
—NOVA T. / The Leader of the
pair of rocket boots? Size 6, please. Great Nova Empire

I’d send a pair right away, but Ms. Acorn sayss they’re “not
ready” and they have to “stop turning on by th hemselves.”
But . . . I took a peek into the future. Those rockket boots
look pretty swell on you!
—CATE

3

Muse Mail
Planet of the Lepus
I am writing this letter to
the HPBs. I must warn you
of the impending danger. My
secret land narwhal spies have
eavesdropped on the editors
of Muse and heard them
plotting to completely and
utterly destroy the tribes of hot
pink bunnies once and for all.
Fortunately, with my incredible
balloon dragon skills, I have
created an HPB refugee
planet. There are electric
blue salamandizards as well
as the exotic blazing purple
pikafooted pancake. However,
for you to get this message, it
will have to be published in
Muse. So, if this letter is thrown
in the fan mail pit, I will send
my infinite hordes of one-
eyed one-horned flying purple
people-eaters to possess you!
Naturally, if published, the
HPBs will be eternally grateful
and will give you a tour of their
collection of slightly lopsided
pancakes, a great honor.
—ALAXAR / Chromium Plated
Dragon of Ezalazar
4
Alaxar’s HPB
refugee planet
Brainy Question
I am not an interdenominational
space dragon, or a royal of
distant planet. I am a very
shaky 12-year-old whose
passion is imagining that I
am a jellyfish. (Long story. It’s
called disassociating, and it
calms me down.) I would enjoy
it very much if you could do
an issue, or at least an article
on the chemical imbalances
in your brain and how they
affect people. I am a child who
suffers from social anxiety and
depression, both of which have
been diagnosed by experts,
multiple times. I want to know
why I feel like constantly sinking
through the floor when I talk to
people, and why I hear voices.
And because I trust you and
your sources, and I have always
liked “head-stuff,” as my friends
affectionately call it sometimes.
I would like to know about these
things, and what exactly causes
them, and I want the other
people who read this magazine
to know about them.
—SIDNEY / age 12
Divine Intervention
It has come to my attention that
one of you has a secret identity.
No names shall be spoken.
I, the goddess of wolves, the
dusk, death, and honesty
give you my word. I am of
full Irish descent. I’ve been
reading Muse since Kokopelli
could throw a pie!!!! Gosh, I
miss that prankster (sigh)!
Nostalgia aside, your magazine
is STELLARACULAR!!! I have
every mag I could get my hands
on! And I’ve read them from
cover to cover. Too many times
to count. Literally! I would love
and appreciate it if you did
an article (or even a mag) on
gods and goddesses of other
cultures! Like Greek, Roman,
Gaelic, etc. Please do! Because
I will, like, “totally not” send
thousands of my finest warriors
to destroy Muse HQ and suck
your souls and all color and
emotions from your world!
Mwahahahahaha! *ahem!*
I mean . . . yeah! Anyway,
Kokopelli sends his love . . .
with a pie to the face! Now, the
FMP needs a wash, and some
incense. That is an order!
—QUEEN RAVEN / Maine

A World Without Chocolate
I have some startling news.
Zombie chickens are coming!!!!!
It’s true. They have allied with
the HPBs and are coming to
destroy not just Muse, but all
of the chocolate and candy in
the WORLD! This email/letter/
polymorphic communication
device must be published in
your magazine or there won’t be
a magazine to publish this in.
—ANTHONY / Ruler of Phobos and
Deimos
_________________
Fine Romance
I haven’t read Muse for as
long as some of your other
readers, but I already feel as
if I know everyone involved
in the making of it! Oh, how
rude of me, I haven’t introduced
myself yet! I am Queen Aolanie,
and I come from the land of
Harry Potter and amazingly
famous authors. I am a very kind
werewolf, but I am not afraid
to attack. Could you please do
an article about why romance
happens for humans? I’m crazy
about romance!
—AOLANIE, QUEEN OF ALL
ROMANCE / age 11 / Colorado
A land of famous authors
sounds too good to be true. Let
me know if you ever need a
visiting engineer . . .
—WHATSI
Attack Animals
If this goes in the FMP, I will
send my fish, chickens, and
cats to destroy your HQ! I
am writing to you for two
reasons. The first is that
I just thought it would be
fun! The other being that I
think your magazines are
cool. In the future, please
do an article about authors,
because that’s what I want
to be. I love books, and
I like making up stories.
Roleplaying games are also
something that I find really
cool. Say hi to Cate for me.
—SAM S. / age 10 / Oregon
Roleplaying games
are so much fun! At
Mnemosyne, I can
play with people from
all over the world.
—AARTI
Art by Sam S.
Vim and Vigorous
Science
I would like it if you did an
article about energy and how
we get energy and use it. My
favorite part of Muse is finding
the false story, then going back
and reading the true stories and
learning a ton of stuff ! I really
liked the March 2018 issue
about hacking. I hope to build
a big lab somewhere, someday,
but for now I’ll settle for making
things bubble and explode at
my desk.
—HURRICANE S. / age 11 /
Virginia
P.S. I cannot stress this
enough: Muse is awesome!
Something to say?
Send letters to Muse Mail,
70 E. Lake St., Suite 800,
Chicago, IL 60601,
or email them to
muse@cricketmedia.com.
5
 BY ELIZABETH PRESTON

ENVIRONMENT

Oops, We’re
Muse News

Turning These
Monkeys Yellow
IN COSTA RICA, mantled howler
monkeys normally have black fur. But
some have started growing yellow
patches. Researchers think sulfur in
pesticides is to blame. The monkeys
may be eating leaves contaminated
with pesticides from nearby farms.

One of
these stories is
text © 2019 by Elizabeth Preston

FALSE. Can you

spot which one?
The answer is on
page 35.

6
 PSYCHOLOGY

Is This Color Alarming?

EVERYONE KNOWS fire trucks are
red—right? Maybe not for much
longer. Several US cities are testing
out new fire truck designs. If you
spot a hot-pink fire engine zooming
down your street and blasting
opera music, don’t be surprised.
It’s important for other drivers
on the road to recognize fire
trucks and get out of their way.
That’s why most fire trucks are
painted a bright red that’s easy to
spot. They also use blaring sirens
to get the attention of drivers.
But psychology research has
shown that in most weather
conditions, bright pink gets more
attention than red. And for city
dwellers who are used to hearing
sirens on the street, classical
music is more surprising.
Fire departments hope the
new truck design will keep
firefighters safer on the road. If
the experiment goes well, more
pink-painted rescue crews may
be hitting the streets soon.

UP IN SPACE

Space Snowman
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft left Earth in 2006. It
became the first craft to study Pluto up close in 2015.
Then it kept flying. In January 2019, New Horizons sent
pictures of the most distant object humans have ever
studied. It looks like . . . a snowman.
This space rock is called MU69, also known as
Ultima Thule. It’s just 19 miles (31 km) long. Research-
ers think its two parts gently collided billions of years
ago, soon after the solar system formed. The space
snowperson has been in one piece ever since.
New Horizons has sent more data and pictures of
MU69 back to Earth. They will take a while to arrive.
The details could help researchers understand how
the planets in our solar system formed.

7
 Traces of blue pigment in these
teeth hint at an interesting story
about a medieval female scribe.
Muse News

ARCHAEOLOGY

WHEN YOUR DENTAL hygienist
scrapes plaque off your teeth, you’re
probably happy to have it gone. But
scientists were glad a medieval
skeleton still had its tooth gunk.
That material revealed something
surprising about the history of
writing.
The skeleton came from a woman
who lived in a German monastery
about a thousand years ago.
Researchers wanted to study
material from her teeth to learn
more about the woman’s diet and
mouth bacteria. But under a
microscope, they discovered a
bright blue substance.
The blue came from lapis lazuli, a
kind of rock. In medieval Europe,
lapis lazuli was extremely expensive.
It was used to make a blue pigment
that only went into the most
important books. (Back then, people
had to write and illustrate books
entirely by hand.) The researchers
think this woman was most likely a
scribe or painter of very valuable
books. Men are better known as
scribes from this time, so finding a
female scribe is a big deal. This
woman may have gotten the
pigment in her mouth when she
licked her brush to give it a point.

BUGS

These Spider Moms

Make Milk Too
MILK IS FOR mammals. Human moms make milk to feed their
babies, as do other furry species and dolphins and whales.
Animals like fish, reptiles, birds, and bugs don’t make milk. Or so
we thought. But now researchers have discovered milk from a
very surprising mom: a spider.
The species is a jumping spider called Toxeus magnus. When a
mother spider’s eggs hatch, she starts leaving little droplets of a
nutritious, milky liquid around the nest. The baby spiders drink
these droplets. After about a week, they start drinking the milk
straight from their mother’s body, just like baby mammals.
The little spiders stay in the nest and keep drinking milk for
about 20 days, until they’re almost grown up. They’re lucky to get
so much attention from a parent. Most baby spiders, and other
bugs, have to fend for themselves.

8
 TECH DESK

Beach Bot Looks

Out for Turtles
BABY SEA TURTLES have a challenging start to life. Their
mothers bury eggs on beaches. When the babies hatch, they
have to crawl up through the sand, then dash to the ocean. To
avoid predators, sea turtles usually hatch at night. They then
follow the brightest light, which should be the moon and stars
reflecting off the ocean. But artificial lights can lead baby sea
turtles in the wrong direction—which means they won’t survive.
Some researchers are addressing this problem with a robot. That’s the ne
ews!
Scientists sent a little four-wheeled rover onto three beaches Go to page 3 35
5 to
in North Carolina. The robot carried light sensors. Patrolling the o
otted
see if you spo
sand at night, the robot measured how much artificial light— o
ory.
the false sto
such as the light from a hotel—reached the beaches.
The crawling robot let researchers measure light pollution in
detail, from a turtle’s perspective. They found that darker areas
were more popular places for turtle moms to lay eggs. They
hope other robots could help us learn where light is a problem,
so we can better protect endangered turtles.

9
 Why the risk of wildfires keeps gro
owing
by Alice Andre-Clark

I
n 2018, more than 8,000 wildfires tore through
California. They burned an area larger than the
state of Delaware. In 2017, wildfires across the
United States burned about four times more lan nd
than they did 30 years earlier. What’s making soo
many places go up in smoke?

A WARMING PLANET the fire season longer. In Californiia,

Climate change plays a big part in the wildfire increase. The
Earth is getting warmer. Human activity such as burning
oil and gas creates greenhouse gases. These trap heat in
the Earth’s atmosphere. The average global temperature is
about 1.3º Fahrenheit (0.74º C) higher now than 100 years ago.
This warming trend has a big effect on what experts call the
fire triangle.
nd oxygen.
Fires need three things to grow: fuel, heat, an
Rising temperatures create more fuel for fires. Hot
H also contribbute to climate changee. Burning gasoline
weather dries out plants and trees. Those materials
can go up in flames in an instant.
Climate change contributes to wildfires in
other ways too. Fires tend to happen in the
warm months. So climate change makes
climate change seems to have increased
the force of strong winds that spreead fires.
Higher temperatures have also attracted invvasive
species that give forest fires a helpping hand. Dry
cheatgrass, for example, is invasivve in Califo ornia
and catches fire easily. Invasive baark beetless kill
trees. More dead trees mean moree fuel.
Climate cchange worsens wildfi fires. But wildfires
w
produces greenhouse gases. Bu urning trees and
plants inn a forest fire producees many of the same
probleematic gases. In spite ofo this riskk, scientists
are llearning that putting out
o wildfires as soon
as they start may not be such a goo od idea.

10
LETTING IT BURN
A terrible
ibl 1910 forest
f fire
fi known
k as the
h Big Burn killed 87
people in three western states. Later, th he Forest Service put
money and energy into stopping forest fires immediately. This
policy became known as the ““10 a.m. rule.” Whenever a
fire was reported, they aim med to put it out by 10:00 the
next morning. This was a m major change.
Before the twentiieth century, Native
ericans had managed forests and brush with
what would eventuaally bee called “prescribed
burns.” These small, delibeerately set fires helped
clear land. They kept b brush h that could easily catch
fire away from homes. With hout controlled fires,
the 10 a.m. rule eventu ually led to an explosion of
trees. Trees are fuel. A
And m more fuel leads to bigger
fires. Unfortunately, quiickly extinguishing every
small fire may leead too bigger ones.
By the 19700s, many forest rangers were
turning bacck to pprescribed burns. They
either set fires or allowed naturally
occurrin
ng onees to burn within
Wildland Fire
Danger Ratings
LOW:
Fires do not ignite
readily. They will
spread slowly.
MODERATE:
Fires can start from
most accidental
causes. Control is
relatively easy.
HIGH:
Fires can start from
most causes. Fires
may become seri-
ous and difficult to
control.
VERY HIGH:
Fires can start easily
and spread rapidly.
May quickly develop
high-intensity charac-
teristics.
EXTREME:
Fires start easily,
spread furiously, and
burn intensely. Will
not be extinguished
by control efforts until
a change in weather
or fuel supply.
careful boundaries. They wanted to remove some of the fuel that
might turn a small fire into a multi-state megafire. Prescribed
burns are actually a form of prevention. They usually help make
large, uncontrolled fires less likely.
However, many politicians don’t like prescribed burns. It’s
not easy for legislators to explain to the people who voted for
them why the government is setting fires near their houses. In
1988, a large wildfire hit Yellowstone National Park area, which
had a policy of allowing some fires to burn. President Ronald
Reagan called the policy “cockamamie.”
Occasionally a prescribed burn gets out of control. That
makes people worry all the more about them. In 2000, a
prescribed fire in New Mexico jumped its boundaries. It turned
into the Cerro Grande wildfire, which cost about 400 families
their homes.
Even when forest rangers are allowed to do prescribed burns,
they may have a hard time paying for them. Because wildfires
are getting bigger, government needs to spend more money
fighting them. In 1995, the Forest Service spent less than one-
fifth of its budget on putting out fires. In 2015, it spent over half.
That leaves far less money for fire prevention.
HOMES IN THE HOT SPOTS
We’re also seeing more damage because more people are
building homes in places where wildfires are likely. Right now,
about 45 million homes are located in the most fire-risky areas.
That number is expected to go up by about 18 million by 2030.
Crowded fire zones are problems in several ways. First,
humans cause more than eight out of every 10 wildfires. Those
could be campfires that don’t go out, fireworks, or sparks from
car engines. More people near the forests mean more of these
fires starting.
When people live near wildfires, firefighters may have more
trouble fighting and preventing the blazes. It’s hard to do
prescribed burns near someone’s house. And firefighters need
different strategies to protect houses and other buildings than
to stop fires from spreading through woods.
Fires also do much more terrible damage when people are
nearby. Fire can kill. Families lose homes and other property.
People suffer when they see their communities devastated by fire.
HOLDING BACK THE FLAMES
The current wildfire crisis has many different causes. So we
may need to try many different things to resolve it. If we learn
to depend less on fossil fuels like oil and gas, we might be able
to slow climate change. If we manage forests with prescribed
burns, we might end the explosion of trees that allows wildfires
to spread quickly. We might keep people out of harm’s way if
we change the rules for building houses in fire-risky areas.
What other ways can you think of to reduce fire danger?
Alice Andre-Clark used to live in California, where she enjoyed visiting
the giant redwood and sequoia forests. She hopes that we can learn how
better to protect the people, the homes, and the beautiful landscape of
our western states.
11
 WHAT TODAY’S WILDFIRES TELL US ABOUT OUR FUTURE
text © 2019 by Jeanne Miller
 “bJ ust a heads up—there’s
a huge plume of smoke
and it doesn’t look good.”
Dacia Williams’ mom was
phoning from her car. She had
just taken Williams’ 9-year-old
son, Dominic, to school. It was
November 8, 2018, and Williams
was at home with her 11-year-
old son, Anthony. He had a fever
and couldn’t go to school. Their
house was in Magalia, California,
a few miles up the hill from her
mother’s home in Paradise.

LEAVING PARADISE
Williams was used to seeing smoke. Where
she lived, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, she could see for miles. In the past
20 years, about a dozen wildfires had burned
in this dry, windy area of Northern California.
She’d had to evacuate many times.
She and Anthony started packing things
to bring with them, just in case. Then they
walked out onto the deck. “That’s when we
saw ash falling. The clouds were nothing like
I’ve ever seen,” Williams recalls. They’d been
close to wildfires before, but this was different.
“Anthony looked at me and was like, ‘We gotta
get outta here,’ and I’m like, ‘Agreed.’ ” They
grabbed their backpacks and their puppy and
got in the car. They headed for Chico, 20 miles
(32 km) away, where the boys go to school.
There were no other cars on Skyway Road
when they started out. Then, traffic slowed to
a halt in Paradise. What they didn’t know was
that Skyway Road was blocked, for miles and
miles ahead, with abandoned cars, burned
cars, downed trees, and other debris.
They were at a standstill with dozens of
other cars at the Y-shaped intersection with
Clark Road when a police car came through,
its loudspeaker blaring. The officers told
people to cover their faces and get out and
run. Williams thought, “I have a sick kid
A satellite image shows
the California Camp Fire and a puppy—this is not right.” But she and
on November 8, 2018. Anthony grabbed the dog and a couple of
small blankets and, in smoky chaos, began

13
 Skyway Road in
Paradise, California,
was blocked for miles
with abandoned cars, Emergency workers smashed the
burned cars, downed
trees, and other debris. glass of an unfinished metal-roofed
coffee shop and herded people inside.
They were safe from embers. But, as
the fire raged around them, it got
hotter in the coffee shop. Williams
says, “I just thought, “We’re not going
to make it out of this.’ Many people
were thinking the same thing, and
they were screaming and panicking.
It was like a bad movie.”
Finally, fire engines arrived. They
hosed down the buildings and their
surroundings. Bulldozers cleared the
roads. It was late afternoon when the
evacuees were able to get into their
cars—those that hadn’t burned—and
leave. Williams says, “We drove out
and it just looked like a war zone.
There were no landmarks, because
running down Clark Road. Not far down the road, they were everything was gone. Telephone poles were still on fire,
stopped by firefighters who said, “Sorry, we’re surrounded. trees were still on fire. At that point, it was dark, so all we
There’s nowhere to go.” saw was the red and orange glow.”

NO WAY OUT THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Close to the Skyway/Clark Road intersection a new strip They had survived the country’s deadliest wildfire in ten
mall was under construction. It had a small concrete decades. It was called the Camp Fire, after Camp Creek Road,
parking lot. The firefighters and law enforcement officers where it started. It began as a brush fire on an inaccessible
shepherded Williams and Anthony and about 150 other rock slope, sparked by a faulty high-voltage power line.
people onto the lot. They told them, “We have to take A wild wind blew embers everywhere. The fire eventually
shelter here. The fire will blow around us, and you need to burned 153,000 acres (61,917 hectares) and destroyed towns,
get down on the ground and cover yourself with whatever Paradise and Magalia among them. The fire killed over 80
you have. It’s going to get hot, it’s going to get windy.” people and burned almost 14,000 residences. Williams and
Flying embers ignited a
grass fire across the road. The
firefighters put it out with hand
tools. Fire hydrants were dry
because water had drained out
of open pipes in burned houses.
The firefighters called for air
drops and fire engines, but
hours passed with no response.
Williams remembers, “The
smoke was crazy thick. First
it got really cold, because the
sun was blocked out, and then,
as the fire got closer, it got
really hot and really windy
and we just stayed huddled
under those blankets, praying.”
The wind blasted debris, ash,
and embers around them.
Propane tanks in a nearby
field exploded, shaking the
ground. A woman’s jacket
caught on fire.

14
her sons lost their house. Williams’ brother,
grandmother, and other family members
lost homes too.
The Camp Fire was not the only hugely
destructive California wildfire in 2018.
Several months earlier, the state had
experienced the largest fire in its history.
The Mendocino Complex Fire burned over
459,000 acres (185,751 hectares) and left
countless people homeless. In 2017 much
the same thing had happened. California’s
governor at the time, Jerry Brown, called
massive fires “the new abnormal.” He
warned that the state’s residents should
expect major wildfires to break out
throughout the year as the fire season
expands. Since the early 1980s, large and
destructive wildfires have been on the rise
throughout the western United States.
The temperature of our planet is rising.
Burning fossil fuels, such as coal and oil
and natural gas, releases carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a
greenhouse gas that traps heat and keeps
it close to the Earth. Michael Wehner, a
climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, explains that
California has a well-defined rain season.
He says, “As the climate warms, during the
non-rain season it dries out faster and it
dries out more because of the temperature
increase. The grasses and brush and trees
in California and the West are flammable
for a longer period of time, and in some
cases they’re more flammable than they
otherwise would have been.”
Temperature records around the world
show it’s warming almost everywhere.
Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels
immediately, the Earth would not begin
to cool for centuries. The hope is to keep
the temperature from continuing to rise.
Wehner says, “The timescale of climate
change is long. You do something today
and it doesn’t have any real effect for 20 or
30 years on the global scale. So that makes
this a difficult problem.” In addition to
abandoning fossil fuels, the solution will
have to involve finding a way to get carbon
dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Wehner says, “It looks like the end of
the world to some people. But it’s not
the end of the world—it’s important to
remember that. We will survive this. We’re
an adaptable species. We’ve survived
worse, but this is the challenge of our

15
 Smoke from the
Camp Fire in Northern
California made the air
unhealthy to breathe.
time.” He adds, “Young people, who are perhaps naturally
more optimistic, need to remain that way to figure out what
the solutions are.” In the meantime, we can expect to see
higher temperatures and drier soils persist. That means
more fires for more months each year.
FIGHTING THE FIRES
Scott Westrope, Deputy Fire Chief of the Santa Rosa,
California, Fire Department, has been fighting fires since
1995. He says perimeter control—fighting the fire at its
outer edges—is usually the first line of attack. “There are
smaller fires, and even some bigger fires, when you can go
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right to controlling the perimeter of the fire.” Sometimes
firefighters can go to the head of the fire, where the wind
is driving it forward, but that’s often too dangerous with
a huge, destructive fire (also called a conflagration).
Westrope says, “For these sorts of big conflagrations we’re
seeing across the state, a lot of times the best you can do is
to save lives. And then, when the weather cooperates or you
can get aircraft on it or you can get a dozer line in front of it,
you can start worrying about perimeter control.”
In October 2017, a year before the Camp Fire, Westrope
found himself fighting such a conflagration. The Tubbs Fire
started as an electrical fire next to a home in the town of
Calistoga in northern California. Driven by very high winds,
it traveled 12 miles (19 km) over wooded hills and entered
Santa Rosa city limits just three hours after it began.
The Tubbs fire, Westrope says, “was moving so fast
we had a 5-mile- [8-km-] wide fire front covering several
neighborhoods at the same time.” A fire front is the edge of
a wildfire. His department had to decide what they could
do with the resources they had. “Life comes first, so we ran
 Survivors of the Camp Fire
can turn to professional
counselors—and one
another—for support.
ahead of the fire doing evacuations. We were knocking on
doors. We were driving around with loudspeakers on to get
people out of the way . . . the fires are so fast-moving that
the best you can do at first is to get out and save the lives
that you can.”
The winds in that fire were wild and unpredictable.
Westrope says, “Our department would pick a street and
say, ‘This is where we’re going to stop the fire,’ and move all
our resources into place. But as soon as they got everybody
engaged there, they’d look behind them and the fire was
burning actively a block away. So now they’re going to move
resources and draw a line in the sand there, and then it
would blow up another block away.”
The Tubbs fire killed 22 people and destroyed over 5,600
structures, including Westrope’s home. Many other large
fires burned in northern California at the same time.
WHAT’S NEXT?
If this is the future for the western United States, what can
we do to lessen the damage? Many fires start when winds
cause trees to fall onto power lines. Residents are asking
utility companies to put electrical lines underground.
That’s a very expensive project and not likely to happen
soon, except in limited areas. Where houses are close
to fire-prone areas—in zones known as the wildland-
urban interface—homeowners can reduce their risk by
keeping the areas immediately around their homes free of
flammable vegetation.
The question arises: should people rebuild in high-
risk zones? Even when a neighborhood is completely
destroyed, it’s hard for people to give up and move away.
Some people who lost homes say they’re not going to
abandon their town.
Williams and her sons are renting rooms in a house in
Chico. She says, “I don’t think anyone ever really thinks:
you’re evacuating, this is the last time you’re going to
see your house. You just don’t. We had nightmares for
over a month—even the puppy!” Fortunately, as a crisis
counselor herself, Williams has been able to help her
family recover from the ordeal. All survivors have
access to counseling services, which are available
free of charge.
What does their home town look like now? “No trees, it’s
just leveled. My neighbor went up to try and sift through
the ashes, and she called and asked, ‘Have you been up?’ I
said, ‘No, I just can’t seem to.’ She said, ‘There’s no reason
to. There’s nothing left. You can’t even sift. It’s just ash.’ So
because of that, and the fact that the boys and I were doing
so well, making such good progress, emotionally speaking,
in our recovery, I just thought I don’t even want that.” They
will not be moving back to Magalia.
Jeanne Miller lives in Berkeley, California, where, along with other
San Francisco Bay Area residents, she breathed the smoke of these
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17
Science@Work

by Diana Lynn

ERIK HAKENEN
PILOT AND AERIAL FIREFIGHTER
Erik Hakenen helps put out wildfires in a very special way. He does it from
the sky. It takes enormous skill, concentration, and commitment to do his job.
People yell and cheer when they see him swoop down in a tanker plane to
drop red-colored retardant on a fire. Firefighters really cheer when the fire is
dangerously close to them.
Hakenen’s home base is Northern California where he flies for CalFire, the
state’s firefighting agency.

18

HOW DID YOU BECOME
AN AIR TANKER PILOT?
I took a job at a small airport
when I was 21 and in college.
I did everything from fueling
planes to selling pilot
supplies. Interacting with
pilots made me want to try
flying.
As an employee, I received
flying lessons at a discount,
so I earned my private pilot
license. (I even started a side
business washing airplanes
to help pay for lessons.) Then
I went to flight school for my
instrument/commercial/
multi-engine pilot license.
I enjoyed all this because I
was doing what I loved.
To become an aerial
firefighter, I had to fly with
an instructor for a full fire
season dropping retardant
on actual fires. That’s when
both the instructor and the
trainee decide if this kind of
Fire retardant is a mixture of
mostly water and phosphate
fertilizer that clings to plants and
trees. It dramatically slows or
stops fires even after the water
has evaporated. It’s colored red
so firefighters can see it on the
ground and from the air.
unique flying is a good fit or not. Making sound decisions in high-
pressure situations is required.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO FLY TANKERS?
This is by far the most difficult and challenging work I’ve ever
performed. There’s nothing better than returning to a fire with
a fresh load of retardant and looking down to see the house you
dropped in front of has been spared, or that the last load helped
ground firefighters contain the fire.
________________
HAVE YOU EVER SAVED LIVES DURING A WILDFIRE?
Every aerial firefighter has. Nobody hears about all the fires
contained while they are still small, but it often means a nearby
town was saved. There are also times when a specific drop
makes a critical difference to firefighters and civilians in the
path of a fire.
________________
WHEN IS FIRE SEASON, AND HOW MUCH DO
YOU WORK?
In recent years, seasons are longer with more intense fires. Now,
in the northern part of my state, the season typically runs late
May through early November. In Southern California it can go
year around.
We fly six days a week with only one day off.
________________
19
Science@Work

Erik Hakenen flies a modified

Grumman S-2 Tracker, which
holds 1,200 gallons of retardant
in two separate tanks.

WHEN ARE YOU CALLED?

During peak fire season, I’m immediately sent to every
vegetation fire as soon as it’s reported. Another resource may
On a run down
get there first though and will decide if I’m needed. If the fire
can be handled without air tankers, I receive a radio call to
a steep canyon
return to base.
________________
it can feel like
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN AND WHERE
Luke Skywalker
TO MAKE A DROP? making a pass at
When I receive a drop request on a specific location, the
first thing I look for is the exit. I have to find a clear path to the Death Star.”
escape the low-level terrain after I make my drop. I also have
to consider potential plane malfunctions, changing weather
conditions, hazards, and smoke. And I need to find and address HOW
W HIGH?
all the potential low-level hazards like towers, power lines, Go meeasure 150 feet
terrain, tall tree snags, etc. (46 m m). That’s how
With a safe exit route identified, I then plan my entrance loww to the ground
route. It has to let me get the plane safely down low without too Erikk Hakenen flies
much speed. We call it building a visual “bread crumb” trail. to make
m a drop! It’s
It’s especially challenging in steep terrain with strong wind
aboout four times as
conditions and lots of smoke.
Looking down from high up at 1,500 feet [457 m], mountains
tall as a telephone
can appear flat, but they look very different as I fly down to ppole, or about
drop at 150 feet [46 m]. About then, it’s extremely important to eig
ght times as tall
recognize if things are not going according to plan and I need to as a giraffe.
g And he’s
abandon that approach. traveling 150 miles
Now, when to actually hit the button—that’s the art of this per ho our (241 km per
kind of flying. The goal is to drop the retardant where it will hour) twice as fast as
higghway traffic!
20
 You say pilot,
evenly rain down on the
target. I don’t often drop
I say hero.
directly over my target
since wind affects the
retardant as it falls to the
ground. Is it a headwind,
tailwind, crosswind drop, or
a combination of all three?
There’s a lot to consider.
________________

HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN

YOU MAKE A DROP?
Some drops are easier, and
some are very hard. On a
run down a steep canyon it
can feel like Luke Skywalker
making a pass at the Death
Star. These are very busy
moments with an incredible
amount of sensory input
requiring pilots to change
aircraft position to stay
on target.
________________

HOW DO YOU STAY SAFE?

One of the most difficult
things is simply saying
no. We want to get the
retardant right where the
firefighters need it; however,
some drops simply can’t
be made [safely]. We have
to turn down the drop and
suggest an alternative, if
available.
Also, we have a
controlled airspace over
every fire called the Fire
Traffic Area (FTA). All air
traffic must be cleared to
enter the FTA. When I call
in to receive clearance, I
am given a specific altitude
to enter at, and I’m made
aware of all other aircraft
inside the airspace.
________________
WHO’S ON YOUR TEAM,
AND WHAT DO THEY DO?
The teamwork and
coordination involved is
awesome and directly affects
our ability to contain a wildland fire.
An air attack spotter plane is a critical part of our team.
On board is one pilot and one specially trained air tactical
group supervisor (ATGS). The ATGS is an experienced ground
firefighter with special training in aerial firefighting. They
monitor and report on some six different radios to coordinate
fire tactics with the incident commander on the ground, the
ground firefighting team, and the aircraft pilots.
WHAT ARE THE BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT
YOUR JOB?
The worst thing is we can’t catch every fire. CalFire stops 95 percent
of fires when they’re very small; however, some grow despite our
best efforts. It really feels terrible to see someone’s home burn.
The best thing is helping people. It’s a great feeling
supporting the incredible ground firefighters and protecting
people and their homes and businesses from wildland fires.
Diana Lynn lives in the outback of Northern California. Last summer, on a
hot windy day, a wildfire started only a quarter mile from her house. Was
she glad when a tanker plane flew in and put it out!

21
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WOMEN AND
FIREFIGHTING:
A GOOD FIT
Jessica Gardetto is a firefighter. Her father was, too.
“I grew up with my dad coming home smelling like
wildfire and covered in soot,” she says. To her, it
seemed like a meaningful job that could help pay for
college. When she started battling forest fires, she was
one of only a few women in a crew with a hundred or
more men. She was always treated with respect, but
she faced challenges. For example, all of the equipment
she had to wear and use was designed for men.
“Women’s bodies are different,” she says. It’s hard
enough for a man or woman to carry 45 pounds of
water, food, tools, and other equipment in a pack.
When the straps don’t fit right, that weight is even
more uncomfortable. So she’s happy that agencies are
finally designing clothing and packs to better fit female
firefighters.
She’s also a big fan of mentoring programs that pair
women interested in firefighting with women who
have already found success in the career. If you’re a girl
(or you know one) who wants to be a firefighter, she
says go for it! “It’s a job women can do, and they can do
it well!”
—Kathryn Hulick
 MINI MYTH RETOLD BY DONNA HENES JESSE TISE

24
25
by Sonja Cole

Can animals help manage the

risks of deadly wildfires?

26
G oats don’t wear helmets. Beavers
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FIRED UP
A fire needs three things to burn: fuel,
heat, and oxygen from the air. Forest
floors are covered in fire fuel. That
includes dry grass, dead wood, leaves,
and bark called duff. Duff is extremely
flammable—it catches fire easily. Heat
can come from a burning match. Or from
a flash of lightning. Or a hot ember from
a campfire. In the right conditions, the
heat from one flaming leaf can set fire
to its neighbors without even touching
them. The burning leaves set fire to the
whole tree. Then the fire jumps to nearby the flammable layer of plants. How? By
shrubs and trees. An entire forest can doing what they do best: eating! Hungry
catch fire from one match’s tiny flame. animals might help people prevent
And this happens quickly. A wildfire races wildfires.
through a forest at up to 14 miles (23 km)
an hour. It burns everything in its path. GOOD GRAZERS
On average, wildfires clear more than 4 During the hot, dry summers in Portugal
million acres of land in the United States and Spain, wildfire has become more
every year. That’s as much land as the common. This type of fire is destructive
state of Connecticut. and intense. “It eats everything!”
Some experts recommend setting Spanish fire analyst Marc Castellnou
controlled fires. These fires burn away told Horizon magazine. Luckily, goats
undergrowth on purpose. If there is no also eat everything. The government has
fuel, then the fire can’t spread. But there’s hired dozens of herders and their goats.
another way to get rid of that pesky fire The goats’ job is to eat through the thick
fuel. Grazing animals naturally clear out underbrush that covers Portugal’s hills.

Just by eating,
sheep are reducing
the risk that wild-
ğUHVZLOOVSUHDG
through dry grass.

27
 How could elephants and rhinos
native to Africa help out Australia?
By eating tall grasses that kanga-
roos don’t like.
Goats are adventurous grazers. SSome breeds
will even climb trees to search for supper. They
nibble the brush that fire uses to climb and
spread to the tops of trees. In northern Spain,
sheep are also pitching in. Sheep and goats
munch through a lot of fire fuel. Without fuel,
it’s more difficult for a fire to spread.
Australia may soon turn to much larger
grazers to help fight fires: elephants and
rhinos. The Northern Territory of Australia
has had more wildfires than usual as summer
o
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28
temperatures creep higher. Invasive gamba
grass has spread across a large portion of
land. The tall, dry grass is a major fuel source
for fires. Australian animals like cattle or
kangaroos will eat the grass when it’s young.
But later it becomes tall and woody. It’s no
longer tasty to them. Elephants and rhinos that
are native to Africa love the grass. What if they
came to Australia? They could act like giant
lawn mowers.
WATER ALLIES
In addition to fuel and heat, a fire needs oxygen.
Firefighters use water or foam to drown fires
and block their oxygen. Enter beavers. When
beavers build dams, they flood the surrounding
area. Water covers flammable plants. And
the soil stays nice and wet. A wide area of wet
ground helps put the brakes on a raging wildfire.
The marshy wetlands that beavers create
are helpful in hot, dry areas like western North
America. Biologist Glynnis Hood of the University
of Alberta in Canada studied ponds with active
beaver lodges. She discovered they had nine times
more water during droughts than ponds without
dams. What happens around a stream where
beavers live? The soil absorbs and stores some
water underground in what’s called the water
table. Even without rain, the stream can still flow.
Water seeps up from the soil underneath, like
squeezing a wet sponge leaking everywhere. What
would happen without water-soaked, spongy soil
in the riverbed? The river would dry up when the
weather gets hot with no rain.
Due to climate change, many areas of the
world are experiencing hotter weather and drier-
than-usual summers. So wildfires are getting
worse. But we don’t have to fight these fires alone.
Animals can be conservation heroes. They just
have to do what comes naturally.
Sonja Cole is a writer living in New Jersey with her two
kittens. They are excellent bug catchers but are too
\RXQJVWLOOWREHFRPHğUHğJKWHUV
Q&A BY LIZZIE WADE
Q:
What made the
ice age so cold?
—Alex A., age 11, Ohio
When we say “ice
age,” we usually
A : mean the time when
woolly mammoths
and saber-toothed
cats roamed the planet. But
there have actually been many
SUN
EARTH
VARIATION IN EARTH’S ORBIT CYCLE
ABOUT 100,000 YEARS
ice ages throughout Earth’s
4.5-billion-year history. That’s
because of a surprising cycle:
the shape of our planet’s
orbit is changing, albeit
very slowly. Thanks to the
gravitational pull of other
bodies in the solar system,
Earth’s orbit stretches into
an oval and then contracts
back into a nearly perfect
circle every 200,000 years or
so. At the same time, slight
variations in the way Earth
spins on its axis change
how much sunlight reaches
different parts of the globe at
different times.
When these cycles line up
in a certain way, Earth ends
up receiving so little sunlight
that it can start to freeze
over, explains Sheri Fritz, a
geologist at the University
of Nebraska–Lincoln who
studies what our planet’s
climate was like in the past.
But a distant orbit doesn’t
mean an ice age is inevitable.
It’s possible, for example,
that the greenhouse gases
humans are pumping into
the atmosphere will trap so
much heat that Earth won’t
be able to cool off even when
it’s far away from the sun.
Even an ice age is no match
for global warming.
—Lizzie
Have any questions?
Send them to Muse Q&A,
70 E. Lake St., Suite 800,
Chicago, IL 60601,
or email them to
muse@cricketmedia.com.
29
 DRONES AND ROBOTS HELP HUMANS FIGHT FIRES.
by Kathryn Hulick

30
I
n November 2018, a few days after California’s
deadly Camp Fire started, Tom Calvert arrived
on the scene. He’s a battalion chief at Menlo
Park Fire Protection District in California.
“Visibility was horrible,” he says. “It was
incredibly smoky and very hard to breathe.” What he
could see was devastation. “As far as you could see, on any
street you went down, there was nothing. It was all burned
down, all ash.”
Calvert didn’t arrive at this heartbreaking scene alone.
His team brought along drones. These flying robots soared
over burned areas, taking pictures. In one case, a search
and rescue team was trying to figure out if a remote,
mountainous area contained burned buildings. It would
take the human crew half a day to hike there, Calvert says.
So he offered to send a drone out first. It sent back the
information that yes, the area contained many burned
structures. Over the course of a few days, the drones
produced detailed maps of the fire’s destruction. These
maps made recovery from the disaster a little easier. For
example, people who had fled the fire could check in on
their homes and property. And insurance companies
could get the information they needed to start paying
people who had lost everything.
Drones played an important role in the response to this
tragedy. But in the near future, drones and other types of
robots will do so much more to prevent damage and save
lives during fires.

̞Eyes in the Sky

Drones can help fight fires from the moment the first
spark ignites. In the near future, networks of satellites,
drones, and aircraft flying over California may act as an
early warning system. Such a system could cut the amount
of time it takes to detect and report a wildfire from
about half an hour to as little as two minutes, says Carl
Pennypacker. He’s an astrophysicist at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Pennypacker has spent most of his career staring into
space, searching for exploding stars called supernovae.
These appear as extremely bright spots in space. When

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31
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1991, just a few
miles from his home, Pennypacker started thinking about
staring in the other direction. Fires are bright spots on
Earth. Maybe the automatic techniques he was using to
search for supernovae in space could help detect fires on
Earth. By 2013, he had designed a satellite to keep watch
for wildfires. He named it FUEGO. That’s the Spanish word
for fire, and it also stands for Fire Urgency Estimator in
Geosynchronous Orbit.
The FUEGO satellite has not yet been built. But
Pennypacker’s team has been outfitting satellites that
already stare at planet Earth with software that can help
detect fires. Eventually, he wants to add drones to the
system. While a powerful satellite can spot a fire of 10
feet by 10 feet (3 x 3 m), a drone would be able to catch a
blaze that’s just 1 foot by 1 foot (31 x 31 cm). A network
of drones might stay aloft for weeks, using wind currents
to charge their batteries as they fly. Ideally, Pennypacker
says, drones and satellites would work together to “find a
fire early, map its progression, and help alert people.”
In the case of the Camp Fire, a system like this could
have helped save lives. During this fire, some escape
routes weren’t safe. The fire was “spotting,” or throwing
embers into the wind. These embers often started new
fires a mile or two away from the main blaze. Some
victims drove into flames while trying to escape. If drones
and satellites had been making real-time maps of the fire’s
path, then some people might have had better information
about how to get away.
Some fire departments already use drones to give
firefighters a better view of a fire as it’s burning. In April
2019, hundreds of firefighters fought to save Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris, France. Two drones flew over the blaze,
transmitting images in real time. This allowed people
on the ground to more accurately keep track of the fire’s
progress and intensity.

32

»A Speedier Response
Calvert saw his first drone in 2014 at a bachelor party
for one of his coworkers. “I was blown away,” he says. “I
said right then and there, we’re going to start a drone
program.” Now, five years later, his department has seven
fire stations, around 100 firefighters, and more than 30
drones. Each pilot gets his or her own drone. They even
built a special van packed with drone-flying equipment.
A local drone prodigy named Jack McCandless started
helping out when he was 16. Now 19, he still comes around
to fix bugs or help connect the drones’ systems to other
software the firefighters need to use.
In the future, Calvert plans to make drones an even
more integral part of fire response. His district is about
to build a new fire station. “We met with the architect to
explain what we need for a drone aerial port,” says Calvert.
The idea is that a drone would always sit in that port,
ready to fly.
Currently, Calvert says, firefighters can’t start battling
a fire immediately when they get to a scene. They have to
spend time gathering information first. What if a drone
could send that information while the firefighters are
still on their way? Calvert imagines a scenario in which
someone calls 911 to report a house fire. As soon as the
call comes into the fire station, a drone takes off for the
address. As the firefighters are getting suited up and
hopping in their trucks, the drone sends them pictures
of the fire. This could shave precious minutes off of the
firefighters’ response time. And every minute matters,
Calvert says. During a house fire, an entire room can
suddenly burst into flames in under five minutes.
»Heat Vision
Drones can also capture information that firefighters of
the past never had access to. One exciting special ability
is heat vision. Thermal imaging cameras make hot objects
appear white or red, while cool areas look blue or green.
“You can see where in the building the fire is and can track
where people are,” says Calvert. “It’s an incredible tool for
what we do.”
Drones equipped with heat vision help crews fighting
wildfires too. The National Interagency Fire Center in
Boise, Idaho, supports wildland firefighting efforts.
Spokesperson Jessica Gardetto says that drones equipped
with heat vision help find the hottest areas of a fire, called
hot spots. Human crews then know to focus their efforts
on these hot spots. Someday, Pennypacker imagines, a
network of drones with heat vision could find hot spots
and automatically squirt water on them.
Drones don’t yet drop water or retardant on flames,
though. These are much too heavy for them to carry.
“Drones at this point can only handle lighter weight,”
says Gardetto. But she imagines that as the technology
improves, human pilots may no longer need to pilot air
tankers or helicopters out over dangerous fires. “The fewer
humans we have out there risking their lives, the better,”
says Gardetto.
33
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̞In the Future

Robots can help keep human firefighters out of harm’s way
on the ground too. A variety of different water-spraying
robots are already part of some firefighters’ arsenals. When
it’s not safe for human firefighters to approach a fire, they
can remotely control one of these machines to drive up to
the blaze and deliver water or foam.
During the Notre Dame fire, heavy wooden timbers
may have fallen on anyone who entered the burning building.
So firefighters sent in a robot called Colossus. Its powerful
water cannon helped douse the fire and save the famous
building.
Fire and Rescue NSW in Australia uses a TAF20 robot. In
addition to spraying water or foam, it can also bulldoze heavy
things like cars out of the way. “Robots are good at putting
distance between a dangerous situation and a human
firefighter, but they still require a human to control them,”
says a department spokesperson.
Currently, robots don’t do a great job at climbing through
rubble, opening doors, and other tasks required to navigate NO FLY ZONE!
through a burning structure. Engineers are hard at work Do you have a drone? As the technology becomes
developing robots for these types of tasks. The 2015 DARPA cheaper, many citizens are buying drones and
Robotics Challenge was a competition for emergency- Ġ\LQJWKHPDVDKREE\,WłVIXQWRVHHWKHZRUOG
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response robots. But there is a long way to go before these
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robots are ready to get out there and fight fires.
may be small, but it can cause a huge headache
“Human beings are still the best tool to put out large, IRUğUHğJKWHUV,WFRXOGĠ\LQWRDğUHğJKWLQJ
complex fires,” says Gardetto. It takes a clever, experienced DLUFUDIWDQGFDXVHDKRUULEOHFUDVKŃ:HłYHKDG
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structure or forest. But Gardetto and other firefighters -HVVLFD*DUGHWWR7RDYRLGDQ\ULVNRIDFROOLVLRQ
certainly wouldn’t mind having more robots on their crews. ZKHQZLOGğUHFUHZVVHHDQXQNQRZQGURQHWKH\
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steep hikes is often an important part of the job. “We would 7KLVFDQSUHYHQWWKHPIURPğJKWLQJWKHğUH
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How Robotics is Changing the World (2018) and Careers in Robotics

34
 BY IVARS PETERSON
Do the Math
Britain
Gaul
Iberia
North Africa
DEFENDING THE EMPIRE
How did the
Romans do it?
About 1,700 years ago,
the Roman Empire was
under attack, and Emperor
Constantine had to
decide where to station
his diminished forces.
Constantine organized his
legions into four field armies.
He needed to protect eight
regions with these forces. The
trick was to place the armies
so that each region was
either occupied by an army
or was only one step away
from an army. But an army
could be sent onward only if
there was another army to
stay behind and defend its
original position.
Constantine chose to
Danub
e Rive
r
Ro e
Med
iter
ran
ean
Se
place two armies in Rome
and two at his new capital,
Constantinople. This
meant only Britain could
not be reached in one step.
Defending Britain would
require moving an army
from Rome to Gaul, securing
Gaul, and moving a second
army from Constantinople
to Rome, then from Rome
to Gaul, and finally to
Britain—a total of four steps.
Can you do better than
Constantine—either by
reducing the number of
regions that can’t be reached
in one step or by cutting the
number of steps it would
take to get to the worst-off
region? Try it and see.
The late Charles S.
ReVelle, an environmental
engineering professor at the
Johns Hopkins University,
Take a look at this map
showing the regions of the
Roman Empire—and the
steps between the regions.
Constantine placed two
armies in Rome and two in
Constantinople. If you were
the emperor, where
would you put your
four armies?
C nstantinople
Asia Minor
a
Egypt
used a computer to test
various possibilities. One
solution places two armies in
Rome, one in Britain, and one
in Asia Minor. Another sets
two armies in both Iberia and
Eqypt. Each beats Constantine
but has its own flaws.
Math can help you figure
out the best places to put
military units, especially when
you have a limited number of
units and a lot of territory to
defend. The same sort of math
is also helpful when people
want to know the best place in
town to put a new hospital, fire
station, or fast-food restaurant.
Ivars Peterson likes looking for math
in surprising places. He gets to try out
all sorts of strategies when he
plays the board game Risk
with his family, but he
Is This Color Alarming? still usually loses.
FALSE STORY
MUSE NEWS 35
 SOME SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEMS THRIVE WITH REGULAR FIRES.
by Charles C. Hofer

F
ire is capable of turning a lush forest into blackened
ash in a matter of minutes. After the blaze, a lifeless
landscape of scorched earth is all that remains. But
some plants and animals have learned to live with
fire. In fact, some species need fire.

36
 Lightning strikes have been
causing natural wildfires since life
first appeared on the planet. Along
the way, many different trees have
evolved strategies to live with these
occasional fires. From the giant
sequoias of coastal California to
pitch pines in New Jersey, these
trees rely on fire as part of their
lifecycle. And entire communities
of plants and animals thrive within
these ecosystems.
The problem is, humans don’t like
wildfires. Each year, out-of-control
infernos destroy homes and claim
lives. People fight fires in hopes of
controlling the destructive force of
Mother Nature. Fire suppression
over the last century has pushed
many fire-dependent ecosystems to
the brink. But science is coming to
the rescue. Better land-management
practices are helping to preserve
these unique habitats—and the
sensitive plants and animals that
call them home.
THE ECOLOGY OF FIRE
Fire plays a critical role in
ecological succession. This is the
process of how plant and animal
communities change over time.
Imagine a lush prairie filled with
tall grasses. Unique songbirds like
meadowlarks and bobolinks call
this grassland home. So too do the
prairie rattlesnake and badger. Over
time, woody trees and shrubs might
move in and slowly replace the
prairie grasses. Through ecological
succession, the grassland might
gradually turn into a forest with
towering trees. The plants and
animals that thrived in the prairie
ecosystem would be forced out too.
However, a major disturbance—
such as fire—prevents trees
and shrubs from moving in. An
occasional fire will stop succession
by burning away the invading woody
plants, allowing for the fast-growing
grasses to return and maintain the
prairie grassland ecosystem.
In the southeastern United States,
the longleaf pine ecosystem relies on
the destructive forces of fire to halt
A mature longleaf
pine forest offers a
safe place for the red-
cockaded woodpecker
to nest. Plenty of sun-
light
li h can reachh the
h
IRUHVW ĠRRU FUHDWLQJ
a layer of grasses and
leafy plants.
succession. Longleaf pine trees are
pyrophytes—fire-dependent plants.
(Pyro- is Greek for “fire” and -phyte
means “plant.”) Pyrophytes have
evolutionary adaptations that allow
them to thrive in areas disturbed
by fire.
Picture this: a lightning strike
ignites a wildfire in a longleaf
pine forest. The blaze scorches
several acres, burning away the
lush, green layer of grasses and
small trees. Then, several weeks
later, a tiny green mass sprouts
from the blackened ground. It
looks like a clump of grass, except
these blades are thick and round.
These are the needle-like leaves of
a young longleaf pine. Although the 7KHUHGFRFNDGHGZRRGSHFNHUQDWLYHWRWKH
VRXWKHDVWHUQ86LVFRQVLGHUHGHQGDQJHUHG
fire destroyed its trunk, its roots
survived below ground. So did the But the longleaf pine’s evolu-
roots’ meristems, the parts of the tionary tricks don’t stop there.
tree roots that grow. Eventually Pine saplings possess complex root
these meristems can sprout a new systems that store a lot of energy.
small sapling that might grow into a A new tree uses this energy to grow
mighty pine tree. quickly after a fire and outpace
37
 the green plants like palmetto and
wiregrass that might block out
the sun. As the young pine grows,
its lowest branches will fall off. A
mature pine will have a tall, straight
trunk with almost no branches.
Fewer branches means less fuel for
a fire. But wait, there’s more! The
tree’s thick bark contains resin, a
gooey substance that protects the
tree from insects and disease . . .
and fire. After just a few years, a tall The red-cockaded
trunk with fortified bark will allow woodpecker (RCW)
the pine to survive all but the most is one of many
animals that have
ferocious of infernos. evolved to thrive
LQDğUHGHSHQ-
HOME IN THE BLAZE dent ecosystem.
Thanks to the longleaf pine’s fire-
proofing, many plants and animals have
adapted to thrive in this ecosystem.
One such fire-friendly resident is
the red-cockaded woodpecker
(RCW). Like most woodpeckers,
the RCW is a cavity nester,
meaning it drills holes in
dead trees to nest in. Unlike
other woodpeckers, though,
RCWs tend to drill holes in
live trees, preferring longleaf Biologists help
pine. The live tree offers a RCW populations
sturdier home than an old, E\FUHDWLQJDUWLğ-
cial nest cavities
dead tree that may blow down in like this one.
the wind.
Nesting in a living, fire-resistant
tree has other advantages too.
Remember the longleaf pine’s thick
ESA AND RCW
The red-cockaded woodpecker
resin below its bark? Drilling just 5&: ZDV RQH RI WKH ğUVW VSHFLHV
a few well-placed holes around the OLVWHG XQGHU WKH (QGDQJHUHG
nest opening gets that gooey resin
flowing. Soon, a sticky layer covers
the area around the nest entrance.
It’s the perfect way to keep out any
unwanted guests, like the black rat
snake that loves to slither up trees
to snack on fresh eggs.
The longleaf pine’s high canopy
also makes for a safer nest. Since
fires regularly burn away smaller
trees and shrubs, there is very little
understory in the longleaf pine
forest. A thin understory helps
prevent predators from climbing or
slithering into an RCW nest.
The RCW isn’t the only animal
here that needs fire to maintain its
home in the longleaf pine forest. The
38
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federal law helps protect plants and
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gopher tortoise feeds mostly on low-
growing leafy plants. Meanwhile, the
sandhill crane and bobwhite quail
hide their nests in the tall grasses.
Without regular fires, areas with
many longleaf pines would slowly
become hardwood forests, says
Jamie Rager of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission.
A dense forest canopy would create
too much shade for the leafy plants
and grasses to survive. Rager says,
“The animals that live in the longleaf
pine ecosystem depend on the open
ground, free of hardwoods or a
dense understory.”
MANAGING FIRE
These forests once stretched from
Florida to Virginia and west to Texas.
At the turn of the twenty-first century,
only about 5 percent of the longleaf
pine forests remained.
Blackened trunks on
these pines suggest a
ğUHUHFHQWO\EXUQHG
through here. A lush
OD\HURIOHDI\SODQWV
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Most of this habitat loss was due
to poor land management—and
not much planning for the future.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, America grew fast. Pine
forests were cut down to provide
building lumber. Mills up and down
the East Coast relied on pine trees
to make paper products. Expanding
farms and ranchlands cleared
plenty of pine forest too. By the early
twentieth century, the longleaf pine
forest—and all the plants and animals
it supported—was on its way to
extinction. Then scientists came to
the rescue.
Silviculture is the science of
maintaining healthy forests. Today,
silviculture techniques strike a
balance between harvesting trees
for human use and maintaining
healthy habitats for wildlife. Improved
silviculture over the last century
Bobwhite quails
nest in the tall
grasses of pine
forests.
has led to more sustainable forests.
It has also helped protect healthy
ecosystems.
Silviculture has played an
especially important role in protecting
fire-dependent ecosystems. Carefully
controlled fires are a common
silviculture technique used to
maintain a healthy longleaf pine
forest. These “prescribed fires” re-
create the occasional natural fires
that might spark every five years or
so from a lightning strike. Firefighters
watch the blaze closely, while cleared
spaces, called fire breaks, contain
the fire to specific areas. These and
other safety measures ensure the fire
doesn’t get out of control.
In the end, the prescribed fire halts
succession. Fire allows the ecosystem
to start over, to come back stronger
and healthier. Rager says, “Regular,
prescribed fires prevent build up of
fuel on the forest floor.” Reducing
this load of wood debris will prevent
a normal fire from turning into an
uncontrollable, raging inferno.
Once the prescribed fire burns
out, the process of rebirth begins
again. Longleaf pines soon sprout
from the blackened earth. Grasses
and leafy plants return. So too do
the RCW and other residents that
call this ecosystem home. From the
destruction brought by fire, new life
returns to the longleaf pine forest.
Charles C. Hofer is a wildlife biologist living
in the desert of southern Arizona, where it’s
KRW HQRXJK ZLWKRXW ğUH
39
Science@Work

by Anna Yellin Shulimson

SHAN CAMMACK
WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST AND FIRE SAFE
In nature, fire is sometimes destructive. Think of the wilddfires you see in the
news every year. What seldom makes the headlines, howeever, is that fire
is also a natural phenomenon that has helped guide the evolution
e of
plants and animals. Some people are actually using fire to o restore
wildlife and the places they need to live. As they do this, they
t are
lessening the risk of catastrophic wildfires. These beneficial fires
are called prescribed burns.
Shan Cammack knows all about controlling fire. She is a
fire safety officer for the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources. Cammack’s responsibilities range from public
safety to preserving Georgia’s natural heritage. But her fo ocus
is restoring habitat for native wildlife by setting fires.
40

Shan Cammack high-fives bobwhite quail Burner Bob. This
mascot helps the nonprofit Longleaf Alliance get the word
out about conservation and prescribed burns. To learn
more, visit longleafalliance.org.
WHAT IS A PRESCRIBED
BURN?
Prescribed burning is a safe
way to apply a natural process
( fire), ensure ecosystem health,
and reduce the risk of wildfire.
A prescribed burn is carried
out by trained crews when the
weather and fire fuel conditions
are in “prescription.” We monitor
things like temperature, relative
humidity, and winds. Before we
burn, we must follow what’s
written in our burn plan. This
plan is essential. It’s a written
document that describes the
site, our ecological objectives,
key weather parameters, safety
concerns, and the personnel and
equipment we will need.
________________
HOW DO PRESCRIBED
BURNS HELP?
Fires were once common.
Lightning strikes ignited fire,
which then spread across the
landscape. These regular fires
burned things such as leaf litter
and fallen trees and limbs,
preventing these “fuels” from
building up in amounts that could
lead to larger, hotter fire.
Today, because of more
people, changes in land use, and
other factors, natural fires are
less frequent. With prescribed
burns, we try to mimic historic
patterns of fire. Some of our
goals include reducing fire fuels,
improving the way forests look, and reducing disease and parasites (such
as ticks). A prescribed burn can kill thick shrubs, prickly briers, and other
aggressive vegetation, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest f loor. That
gives native grasses and delicate wildf lowers a better chance to live. The
change helps native animals such as gopher tortoises, Bachman’s sparrows ,
and bobwhite quail survive and even thrive. These animals and many plants
prefer woodlands that are regularly burned.
________________
HOW DO YOU GET READY FOR THESE BURNS?
Before we light the fire, a crew preps the burn area. This includes clearing
firebreaks. These surround the area we want to burn and are designed to stop
the fire from going out of bounds. We rake the firebreaks down to the dirt,
remove any jackpots (large piles of fuel), and cut down nearby snags (dead
trees) that might catch fire and cause a problem.
________________
WHAT TYPE OF TRAINING IS REQUIRED?
For prescribed burns, it is important to know how to control the fire and
how to put it out if you need to. Wildland firelighters take classes and must
pass written and endurance tests. And each year they have to take refresher
classes to stay up-to-date on the latest changes and important concepts.
________________
DO YOU HAVE SPECIAL EQUIPMENT?
Yes! We wear clothes that are fire resistant. We also wear a helmet, gloves,
safety glasses, and hardy boots. All of these reduce our exposure to heat. We
carry radios to maintain contact with the rest of the team. We usually start
the fire with a drip torch: a fuel canister with a spout designed to ignite and
drop the flaming fuel where you need it.
Controlling the fire is done with hand tools, such as fire rakes. We have
special wildland firetrucks, UTVs, and ATVs that carry water. But sometimes
we burn in areas where you can’t use this equipment. Mop-up, which is
where we put out any fire that might try to escape the burn unit, can get
creative when you don’t have access to water! Sometimes all you can do is
cover a burning log with dirt to smother the fire.
________________
WHAT ARE SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF ANIMALS AND
PLANTS THAT FIRE HELPS?
Longleaf pine historically covered much of the southeastern United States.
This is a pyric community: That means the plants and animals that live in
this landscape depend on fire. For a longleaf pine seed to germinate, it must
meet bare mineral soil. That’s usually only made possible by fire.
One animal that lives in longleaf forests is the gopher tortoise. These
reptiles eat plants and fruits found on a healthy forest floor, which means
they need fires to keep that groundcover rich. Gopher tortoises also dig
long tunnels in sandy soil to make their homes. The burrows protect them
from fire, predators, and cold winter weather. Yet many other animal species
rely on tortoise burrows for their safety and homes, as well. Examples
include the eastern indigo snake, gopher frog, mice, burrowing owls and
invertebrates such as the gopher tortoise hister beetle.
You could say that all of these plants and animals require a prescription
for fire!
Anna Yellin Shulimson is a wildlife biologist in Georgia. She also enjoys writing,
planting for pollinators, and exploring the outdoors with her family and friends.
41
 FIRE DAMAGE DOESN’T STOP AT THE WATER’S EDGE.
by Eser Yilmaz

42
 f you were to name a place
on Earth that is safe from
wildfires, what would it be?
Wildfires burn everything
on their path, release smoke
into the air, and leave ashes on the
ground. So far, a wildfire seems to be
an air and land problem. Then most of
the world should be fireproof, right?
After all, water covers 71 percent of
the Earth’s surface. And oceans make
up a whopping 96.5 percent of that
water. Well, here’s some bad news: even
oceans suffer from wildfires. But how
can fires affect a vast body of water that
doesn’t even burn?

Hungry for Ashes

Ash is the solid residue a fire leaves behind. Tiny as a dust
grain and light as a feather, ash can travel far on winds
and water runoff. Once ash hits water, its contents start
mixing in. Organic molecules in ash deliver nutrients for
tiny marine organisms, such as algae. These nutrients are
like fast food—they make marine microorganisms grow.
(Of course, organic in this context is different than at the
grocery store. In scientific terms, organic means relating
to or originating from organisms, such as plants . . . even
if they are burned to a crisp!)
Certain ash minerals also encourage the growth of
algae. For instance, oceans contain trace amounts of iron.
Keeping iron levels low limits algae growth. Increasing
the amount of iron helps algae populations thrive—and
may mess up the ecosystem balance. This is likely what
happened to the Indian Ocean in 1997. Massive wildfires
in Indonesia scorched around 30,000 square miles (77,700
square km) of forests, which is almost the size of Maine.
Iron-rich ashes dispersed for miles over the Indian Ocean
and fertilized a large area. Algae flourished and created a
red tide. (See “Red Flames in the Ocean” on page 44.) The
entire coral reef near Mentawai Islands died as a result.
The red tide in the Indian Ocean isn’t the only
example. The massive Thomas wildfire wreaked havoc in
California in late 2017. While the smoke was still drifting
out over the Pacific Ocean, a group of scientists from
California universities set sail on an expedition. They
collected ashes and ocean water samples. In ashy areas,

43
 RUNOFF ON
THE LOOSE
Surface runoff is the
movement of excess rain
water from higher ground
toward rivers, lakes, and
oceans. Normally, trees
and other plants work as
barriers to slow it down.
Wildfires destroy these
natural barriers. With
nothing to stop it, surface
runoff carries ashes and
other charred remains to
lakes and oceans.

they observed that certain algae
populations peaked in December.
That peak was neither seasonal,
nor ordinary. It was like when trees
bloom in the middle of the winter
after a streak of warm weather. But
not all the results of this expedition
are out yet. Many scientists are eager
to see what else this study will reveal.
A Toxic Relationship
Besides algae fast food, wildfire ashes
may also contain substances that are
bad for marine organisms. But where
do these chemicals in ash come
from? Sometimes a wildfire spreads
to areas where people live. When
developed areas burn, chemicals
in human-made structures and
furnishings get carried off in smoke
and ash. Then they sneak to the
oceans by hitchhiking on winds or
surfing on runoffs. Scientists at the
University of Southern California
Los Angeles analyzed runoff water
for ash chemicals. They collected
samples from three areas. The first
sample came from a region scorched
by the 2012 Williams Fire. The other
two samples were from unburned
rural and urban areas. Runoff water
from the burned area contained
much higher amounts of lead and
iron than other samples. These
results warn us how wildfires can
increase substances that feed algae
in nearby shores.
If a fire never starts or is quickly
put out, there’s less troublesome
ash. Yet fighting fires can influence
the oceans as well. Helicopters spray
some fire-prone regions with fire
retardants. These chemicals slow the
spread of flames. According to the
US Forest Service, California State
used more than 23 million gallons of
these chemicals between 2012 and
2015. This is enough fire retardants
to fill about a quarter of a million
bathtubs. Eventually, fire retardants
wash away with rain. Some enter
the soil and the groundwater or end
up in the rivers and the oceans. But
how innocent are these chemicals?
One of the most popular fire
retardants used in fighting wildfires
contains ammonium phosphates, a

RED FLAMES IN THE OCEAN

Individual algae are invisible to the naked eye.
Yet if they reach a high population density,
some species can tint the surface of the ocean
red. This unusual appearance of the surface
water is known as a red tide. Although it might
look fascinating, red tides are flaming hot
warning signs. The high density of algae in a red
tide uses up all the dissolved oxygen in water.
Without oxygen, fish, corals and other animals
suffocate. Algae in red tides also release toxins
that can kill fish. Some of these toxins are taken
up by mussels and clams, which then pose a
danger to any humans who consume them.

44
chemical compound also present in
many farm fertilizers. Ammonium
phosphate is great for feeding land
plants, but it feeds ocean algae
too, causing potentially harmful
algae blooms. Scientists at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) also studied
fire retardants’ effects on salmon.
They discovered that some fire
retardants are lethal to salmon at
certain ages.
What about the fire extinguisher
foams firefighters use? Some foams
contain chemicals also found in the
slippery coating of non-stick pans, a
group of related substances known
as PFAS. These substances have very
low chemical reactivity. Burning is
a chemical reaction. Spraying these
substances over burning forests or
buildings coats them and prevents
further flames. Afterwards, though,
these substances appear at high
concentrations in surface water.
They have been found in blood
samples of firefighters as well.
Studies show that these chemicals
are pretty safe in low levels. But
scientists are cautious because these
chemicals accumulate in animal
bodies, including fish. This means
humans who eat contaminated
seafood may be eating the chemicals
too. These substances don’t break
down over time. Some remain inside
human bodies for many years.
Soot Smoothie
A wildfire can also speed up the rise
of sea levels. But how exactly does
a fire in North America melt ice in,
let’s say, Greenland? Wildfire smoke
contains tiny black carbon particles
known as soot. When soot
lands on an ice sheet,
it darkens that ice.
The darker the ice
gets, the less light
it reflects and
the more heat it
absorbs. There-
fore, soot-covered
ice is more likely
to melt than clean,
reflective ice. In 2014, a group of
researchers wondered where a
recent soot layer on Greenland’s
ice sheets came from. When they
sampled the soot and analyzed
their data, they found that a
2013 Canadian wildfire was
the source. Luckily, fresh snow
covered the dark ice before it
absorbed significant heat. But
the risk is real. An arctic fire
dumped its soot over Greenland
in 2012. After that, a significant
section of the top ice layer melted.
Tame the Flame
But are wildfires always bad news?
One thing to keep in mind is that
wildfires have been shaping the
oceans for millions of years. In fact,
wildfires are essential to deliver
organic nutrients and minerals from
land to the oceans. Without
wildfires, oceans would
not have as many
organisms, big
or small. What
causes concern
is the higher and
higher rates of
wildfires. Climate
change has raised
spring and summer
In the 1990s, major wildfires
burned in Indonesia. Later, coral
reefs in nearby waters died.
temperature averages and has
increased the odds that droughts
will occur. This in turn results in
longer wildfire seasons than the past
decades in many areas. So taking
actions against climate change can
help shorten the wildfire season
too. Chemists and engineers can
help further by developing eco-
friendly fire retardants and building
materials. And then? The oceans
won’t be quite so much under fire.
Eser Yilmaz, PhD, is a scientist who once
researched toxicity of fire foam chemicals.
Now she leads the board of a small
environmental nonprofit organization and
writes about science and the environment.
She spends most of her free time cleaning
her two fish tanks to prevent algae blooms.
45
 CONTEST

Meet My Drone ANNOUNCING

Unmanned aerial vehicles CONTEST WINNERS!
(UAV) can show firefighters In February 2019, we noticed that some
live images, along with inventions help fix everyday problems.
other important data. As We challenged readers to research and
you saw on page 34, it’s
list pet peeves—annoying problems
essential for regular
that beg to be solved. These winners
citizens to keep their
drones away from fires so
show us that the best inventions start
professional aircraft can fly.
with detailed observation and creative
Do you have a drone? If so, thinking.
what do you (safely) do
with it? If not, what would
you use one for? Send us
words or pictures describing
how your real or
hypothetical UAV pal
improves your day (or
wreaks havoc)!

CONTEST RULES
1. Your contest entry must NYARADZO M. / California
be your very own original
work. Ideas and words
Flies are so annoying! They just
should not be copied. buzz around with no purpose!
2. Be sure to include your They also have these ninja dodging
name, age, and full address skills so you can’t hit them!
on your entry.
3. Only one entry per
person, please.
4. If you want your work
returned, enclose a self-
addressed, stamped
envelope.
5. All entries must be
signed by a parent or legal
guardian, saying that this
is your own work and no
help was given and granting
permission to publish. For
detailed information about
EMMA R. / age 11 / Vermont
our compliance with the
Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act, visit the
Don’t you just hate it when
policy page at cricketmedia you have a bad dream, and it
.com/privacy. makes you feel funny all day?
6. Your entry must be
received by August 31, 2019.
We will publish winning
entries in the January 2020
issue of Muse.
7. Send entries to Muse RUNNERS-UP
Contest, 70 E. Lake St.,
MARY S. / age 9 / Connecticut
Honorable Mention
Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60601 This month’s runners-up
or via email to muse@ My biggest problem is not being able are Aiden M., age 13,
cricketmedia.com. If
entering a digital photo or to have a nightstand because I sleep North Carolina; Orlana C.,
scan, please send at in a bunk bed. age 11, California; and
300 dpi. Zoe M., age 9, Indiana.

46
Your Tech BY KATHRYN HULICK MATTHEW BILLINGTON

WOULD YOU TRUST YOUR PHONE

TO SAVE YOUR LIFE?
WIND HOWLED and rain spat in a worsening summer wireless warning system.
storm. In its path, 29 kids played soccer inside a sports Unfortunately, many devices
dome. They were attending summer camp in East Windsor, never got the test message.
Connecticut on July 1, 2013. Suddenly, the camp director’s And in January 2018, Hawaiian
cell phone sounded an alarm: tornado warning! She citizens received an emergency
Sound the alert!
immediately got the kids out of the bubble-like dome and alert that a ballistic missile was
into a sturdier building nearby. “I saw the bubble start heading their way! After nearly
shaking, and that’s when I got really scared,” 12-year-old 40 minutes of panic and fear,
camper Dillon Morando told the Hartford Courant. “I heard they found out the alert was
it pop,” he said. A tornado destroyed the dome. But all the part of a practice drill and was
kids were safe—thanks to the director’s quick thinking and never intended to reach the
an emergency alert. public. And in fires, emergency
The alert came from the Wireless Emergency Alerts alerts may arrive too late or
(WEA) system, a US government program. The system alert the wrong people. During
works like this. Officials select the area of a state or city that the 10 to 12 minutes it takes to
needs to know about a disaster or emergency. Then, cell send one out, a fire can change
phone towers in this area send out alerts only to cell phones dramatically.
nearby. (The phone has to be turned on and in range to Have you ever seen or heard
receive the message. Very old or out-of-date phones may not a wireless emergency alert? Do
receive it.) you trust that you’d get one if
Emergency alerts save people’s lives. But they don’t you needed it? What would you
always work. In May 2018, Canada tested its own national do to improve the system?

47
 BY NANCY KANGAS JESSE TISE

METHODS THAT DID NOT WORK

Last Slice

TO GET FIRE DOWN TO EARTH

text © 2019 by Nancy Kangas

48
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