Elder offspring (age 6.5): I can’t wait for Friday! We get to do science in school!
Younger offspring (age 4.5): We do nature study every day.
Dr. Free-Ride: That’s because you don’t have standardized tests yet, or the science would get crowded out by all the other stuff on the test.
Elder offspring: We’re learning about the life-cycles of different animals. And, we have two bearded dragons in our science classroom.
Younger offspring: We’re learning about marine mammals, but Aidan C. and I call them “gaREEN mammals”.
Dr. Free-Ride: Green mammals? You two are silly, aren’t you. Hmm … are there any green mammals?
Dr. Free-Ride’s better half: Sloths.
Dr. Free-Ride: Sloths?
Dr. Free-Ride’s better half: Sloths. An algae grows on them* and helps them blend in with leaves.
Dr. Free-Ride: Cool! Like what happened to the polar bears at the zoo when there was algae growing in their hair shafts.
Younger offspring: What other color mammals are there?
Dr. Free-Ride: When you guys were babies I fed you lots of carrots to see if I could make you orange mammals.
Elder offspring: Did it work?
Dr. Free-Ride: It did not. Is there no mammal that I can turn orange by feeding it lots of carrots?
Younger offspring: Not one that you can turn orange.
Actually, I learned from my good friend, Michelle, that flamingos share the chemical that determines their color with Cheetos. That’s pretty orange.
I didn’t know that there was a common ingredient in flamingos and Cheetos. What I didknow is that flamingos get their pink color from their diet, including shrimp. (Their default color is gray.)
I will never look the same way at a Cheeto again. Thanks, Laura.
Yes, it’s the diet thing. Without going back to Michelle’s explanation and coming from an English major, here’s my take. There’s a chemical, it’s orange, it ends up in flamingos because they eat a lot of shrimp. It ends up in cheetos because we put it there–though it is naturally occurring and not a real dye. As I understand it.
Can the next post have something to do with technology, so I’m not stumbling on myself.