ASK DR. FRED!
a Science Question Box

 
Future Ask Dr. Fred columns may be based on questions from readers like you! Each will answer one of Dr. Fred's favorite questions about science.

If Dr. Fred uses your question, he will send you an autographed copy of one of his books and a gift certificate for your school worth $100 off one of his school visits.

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Think of some totally awesome and baffling general science questions that are somehow related to dinosaurs, like:

How did dinosaurs stay warm?

Did dinosaurs have stomachs like a cow? and how do cows digest grass anyway?

Click here to e-mail your questions. Include your first name (or nickname), age, grade, and school. 

Dr. Fred is not a paleontologist: Questions will be judged for cleverness and general educational interest. 
Dr. Fred's decisions are final.

By entering, you give Dr. Fred and Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette permission to use your question, your name and other information in this column. We respect your privacy and will not share the informaiton with anyone else for any other purpose. Winners will be notified by e-mail.

Dr, Fred and D.I.G. reserve the right to withdraw this offer at any time without notice.

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July - August 1999 - "What Killed The Dinosaurs?"

Attention science teachers and librarians within fifty miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike:  Noted children's science writer Fred Bortz seeks school visits between November 29 and  December 2, 1999 in conjunction with his travel between Pittsburgh and Hershey where he will be presenting a talk called "Lessons from Mars" at the Pennsylvania Science Teachers Association conference on December 1.  He will charge his local rate rather than the higher national ate.

Click here for details.

# 2 - December 1999

"Dinosaurs on Mars?"

"I have heard that scientists found a rock with fossils in it on Mars. Does that mean dinosaurs once lived there?"

It is true that a group of scientists believes they have found Martian fossils, but this question has several common errors. The rock containing the so-called fossils was not discovered on Mars; it was found on Earth in 1984 where it had fallen after millions of years in space. Experts are still arguing about whether those scientists really found fossils. Even if they did find fossilized Martian life forms, the creatures weren't animals but rather very tiny bacteria.

So we don't have any reason to believe that dinosaurs (or Mars-osaurs, or Mars-supials for that matter!) ever lived on Mars -- not even Larry. Still Dr. Fred thinks the Martian fossil
story is one of the most exciting science stories around. He even wrote a book about it. Here's some of that story.

Ever since astronomers discovered that the planets were other worlds, people have wondered whether life might exist on them. In the mid-nineteenth century, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, studying the markings on the surface of Mars, believed that he saw channels (or canali in Italian), that might have carried water. The Italian word was mistranslated into English, and many people mistakenly believed that Schiaparelli was describing canals built by Martians to transport water from the planet's polar caps to its warmer regions.

Later in that century, the famous astronomer Percival Lowell observed that the surface of Mars changed color with the planet's seasons. He wrote that those changes were probably due to vegetation.

We now know that Schiaparelli's canali were an illusion and that the seasonal changes in the planet's color are due to global dust storms. Space probes have revealed that the surface of Mars is rocky, barren, and cratered. The Viking landers of the 1970s did some simple experiments with Martian soil and found no signs of life. Still some people believed that life could be found there, if we only knew where to look.

Until 1996, no one claimed that the right place to look was right here on Earth. In August of that year, a group of NASA scientists announced that a meteorite that they had been studying showed evidence of Martian fossils. 

They believe they discovered chemical signs of life on Mars from about the same time as life began on Earth. They even found microscopic shapes that resembled fossils of earthly bacteria, but were much smaller. 
(NASA image from Sky Publications Web site)

Other scientists say it is too soon to call those findings fossils. They say the chemicals didn't necessarily come from living organisms, and the microscopic shapes could have come from nonliving things. In about 2005, a spacecraft is expected to go to Mars and bring rock and soil samples of the planet back to Earth. Planetary scientists are now deciding where that craft should land. In choosing a landing site, one of their questions is where on Mars are we most likely to find evidence of past or present life. If that mission goes well, we may have an answer to the question of life on Mars once and for all.
 

Didja know this?

That meteorite was designated ALH84001, because it was the most interesting sample collected in the Allan Hills region of
Antarctica by the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) project during the summer of 1984-5. However, it was not
recognized as a piece of Mars until 1993.
 
 

Text copyright 1998-1999 by Alfred B. Bortz, all rights reserved 

For more than twenty years, Dr. Fred Bortz worked as a scientist, researcher, and teacher. Now he spends most of his time writing books and articles for young readers and other curious people.

He enjoys both science and writing for the same reason: HE LOVES QUESTIONS. He writes for all people who love questions, too.

Dr. Fred is not a paleontologist, but he is interested in how dinosaurs -- like all other animals -- work in accordance with nature, biology, and physics!  What a kewl way to learn about the universe!
 

Dr. Fred's Books - SOON

You can contact him by clicking here:

Click here to visit Dr. Fred's website

The Dr. Fred Challenge!
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COMING SOON!

Links

To find out more about meteorite ALH 84001 and other meteorites from Mars, go to NASA's Mars Meteorite Home Page

See what Mars looks like on the day of your choice at Marsnet.

You can tour the Solar System on-line --including a great collection of images from the 1997 Pathfinder Mission to Mars-- at
NASA's Planetary Photojournal Web site.

Join the Mars Society!

MARS ATTACKS! The Movie

Giovanni Sciapparelli

Weird Stuff about Mars

Books 

Dr. Fred Bortz's book  Martian Fossils on Earth? The Story of Meteorite ALH84001 (Millbrook Press, 1997).
 

You can also read Dr. Fred Bortz's book To the Young Scientist : Reflections on Doing and Living Science (Venture Book), Chapter 2 (Franklin Watts, 1997).
 

If you plan to use this copyrighted column  in the classroom or for other educational or commercial purpose, please click here.

Click here to look at Cherry Valley Books' selection of asteroid books.