Tumble Science Podcast For Kids

“All science is art. And all art is science.”

~ John Fowles

Today I bring to you something I learnt from listening to Tumble Science Podcast for Kids. First and foremost, what is a podcast? A podcast is an episodic series of spoken digital audio files that a user can easily listen to. In simpler words, it is like an article about a specific topic except you don’t read it, instead you can listen to it. I feel this way my mind remembers the information for a longer period of time. Even though, I am an avid reader I still like listening to podcasts and Tumble is amazing as they provide science podcasts for kids. It is run by Lindsey Patterson, a science reporter and Marshall Escamilla, a music teacher. 

Apart from that I feel listening to podcasts is a great way to spend your break doing something productive and fun. I also prefer listening to podcasts while walking or cycling.

The first one I listened to was “The Volcanic Eruption Adventure”. This podcast is about how volcanologist Helena Buurman along with her crew flew over a volcano that was about to erupt any moment! Let me elaborate… 

Helena Buurman works in a volcano observatory in Alaska, USA. Alaska is known for its volcanoes and there are many volcano observatories there. The volcanologists watch over the volcanoes to see which one of them is active, dormant and extinct. One of the major dormant volcanoes on Alaska’s coast line is known as Mount Redoubt. Helena and her crew were watching over Redoubt after they got a report from the lab that the scientists had sensed various signs that it was about to erupt soon. They had also traced a weird scent in the air. Helena worked in the field of volcanic seismology, which meant she recorded the movement of the tectonic plates under a volcano. Which also showed signs if a volcano is going to erupt.

Helena was on duty when all of a sudden, she noticed that the data from the seismograph showed that the Earth quakes were happening faster and more in number. She realised that it was not a good sign and warned all the other scientists immediately. So, over the next few weeks they noticed that the data only showed that the quakes got worse. Helena decided that it was time to take a trip to the top of the volcano and place a few sensors.

But they could not do it any time soon. They needed to wait for the sky to be clear and the weather in Alaska was not on their side. It was a few weeks before they saw a clear sky and so they set out to place the sensors. They had to fly two hours to reach the top of the volcano. At the end they finally arrived and did their best to hurry. After finishing they quickly got on the helicopter again and took off. In the interview with Helena she mentions that, at that very moment she hoped that Redoubt would blow and she could see it in action. But it didn’t. In fact, exactly 24 hours after they had their little adventure Redoubt erupted.

All the scientists thanked Helena and her crew for their work. If it was not for them, they would not be able to collect the data when Redoubt erupted. And the better piece of news was that since volcanos erupt the same way every time the next time, they caught a fishy scent in the air they knew what to do. I was absolutely amazed to hear this and learnt so many new things. I am fascinated with scientists; they have the power to unravel mysteries and change the world.

If you enjoyed this story try listening to ‘The Tale of the Interstellar Visitor’ podcast. It is about how an astronomer Jane Luu and her team tried to track down a mysterious object they spotted in space.

Also check out another podcast with Jane Luu called ‘The Search at the Edge of the Solar System’ podcast. It is about her breakthrough discovery of the Kuiper belt (an asteroid belt beyond planet Neptune). And how she along with her old professor put in a lot of hard work to discover the Kuiper belt.

If you listened to these podcasts or any other interesting ones then, let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. I hope you enjoyed this post. Kindly do share my blogs with your friends and family. Thank you Tumble for an amazing collection of informative stories.

Thanks for reading!

See you next time!

(This is not a sponsored post)