hey there squeaks i see that you have your time machine out where in time
are you planning on going oh that's so sweet sqweek says he wants to travel back in time
to all the funnest days he's had with me and mr brown playing exploring and learning
hmm but the machine is still set up to take you back to earth's early history huh that
is a problem squeaks how about this i'll help you think of some of our favorite days
we can add them to the time machine and then you can visit them whenever you want ready hmm
okay i have a great one do you remember when we learned about the blob fish
it was a long time ago wasn't it let's check out that episode to refresh our memories
and we can work on adding it to the time machine in the meantime [Music]
oh hey guys we were just practicing our sad faces oh good one squeaks chances
are you can't look any more miserable than this deep sea creature meet the blob fish
it's got a pretty good reason to look so bummed it's been called the world's ugliest animal which
really isn't a nice thing to say i mean it might not be as cute as a panda or a kitten but the
blobfish's funny-looking body actually helps it to survive in its harsh underwater environment
the blobfish lives in the ocean off the coast of australia and it lives really really deep
how deep almost at the sea floor that's nearly 10 times deeper than where most ocean animals live
not many animals could survive where the blob fish lives down there it's pitch black because sunlight
can't even reach that far the temperature is just a few degrees above freezing and the pressure
is extremely high so what's this pressure we're talking about well if you're at the bottom of the
ocean the weight of all the water on top of you presses down really hard and it squeezes you like
a really really tight bear hug so how does the blobfish survive with all this intense pressure
well that's where its ugliness is actually a plus the blobfish has a gooey jelly-like body that can
handle the squeezing from all of that underwater pressure in fact it has almost no muscle and
very few bones it's almost pure squish but it's still able to do things like move and
eat because it's blobbiness makes it buoyant this means it can just float comfortably right
above the ocean floor without having to use too much energy to swim and it mostly just swallows
food that happens to float on by which i have to admit would be pretty neat could you imagine
cheeseburgers just floating into your mouth so the blobfish is blobby for a lot of good reasons
and to its underwater friends it probably doesn't look so ugly at all scientists actually think that
when it's at home on the ocean floor the blobfish probably looks a lot more like other fish that we
know and that's because the pressure at the bottom the ocean squeezes its body into that
shape but most of the blobfish that we've seen have been caught by fishing nets and brought
up and out of the ocean and when a blobfish is taken away from the pressure that gives its body
that shape well it looks blobbier than usual so is the blobfish really ugly well maybe to some people
is it awesome definitely all right i've got the blobfish time travel setting all ready to go we'll
just stick it on here and now we can visit that day whenever we want do you have any ideas squeaks
squeak says one of his favorite days was when mr brown taught him
how to make a compass i wasn't there that day but it sounds super cool will you show me
awesome let's check it out and make the next time travel setting
oh hi everyone squeaks is supposed to meet me here in the lab but he's not here yet i wonder what's
taking him so long i'm super excited to see him because he promised he'd show me his new magnet
oh there you are squeaks is everything okay
oh i see squeaks was trying out his new magnet by the river
and the panther is really long and windy so it took him a while to find his way back to the fort
the river is directly south of here if only you had had a compass then you could have taken a
shortcut a compass it's a tool that can tell you what direction you're going and if you know
what direction you're going you can find your way around without getting lost people have been using
compasses for thousands of years to explore the world they can be big or small fancy or plain but
they have an important thing in common they have some kind of arrow or needle that points north
so if we had a compass right now its needle would point this way because that's north in fact
we can use your magnet to make your own compass right here at the fort
what do you say squeaks all right let's do it you can make a compass too just make sure you get a
grown up to help you to make a compass you'll need a sewing needle a piece of aluminum foil
and a clear container of water with a flat bottom oh yes and a magnet thanks squeaks
this is definitely where you'll want help from a grown-up first carefully pick up the sewing
needle and hold it by the end that has the hole in it now drag the magnet along the needle slowly
from the end with the hole to the pointy end like this you'll need to do this about 15 or 20 times
and always make sure you're doing it the same way from the whole end to the needle point next
we'll need to fold our foil into a little boat of sorts and then poke the needle through it again
make sure a grown-up helps you with this trust me poking your finger with the needle hurts now we're
ready to finish our compass all we have to do is gently float the foil on the water in our bowl
wait a second and look the needle turned and it is now pointing north we did it good question squeaks
but before i explain what happened in this experiment let me explain how compasses work
in general the reason why a compass points north is really cool it's because the pointy part inside
is a magnet and magnets have two ends called poles one end of the magnet is called the north pole and
the other is called the south pole no matter which direction they're facing and opposite
poles of two different magnets attract that means they pull on each other meanwhile similar poles
repel each other repel means push away now here's the really awesome part our planet earth
is basically one huge magnet so it also has magnetic pulse that means the earth's poles act
the same way that a magnet's poles do they attract and repel the poles of other magnets and they just
so happen to line up pretty well with the parts of the planet we call the north and south pole
you've got it the earth's magnetic poles pull and push a compass needle's magnetic poles and
that's what causes the compass to point north so why do you think our sewing needle pointed north
that's right i said the needle of a compass is a magnet so
yeah that's it our sewing needle became a magnet that first step we did where we rubbed the
needle with your magnet actually magnetized the sewing needle in other words it turned it into
a magnet the pointy end became the north pole of a magnet and the other end became the south pole
you know squeaks you're absolutely right it seems like the north pole of the earth should repel the
north pole of our compass needle but here's the weird thing the earth's north magnetic pole is
actually in the south and its south magnetic pole is in the north so the earth's south magnetic pole
is pulling the north pole of our needle to the north and the earth's north magnetic pole is
pulling the south pole of our needle to the south which is weird and confusing i know but hey i
didn't name these things exactly squeaks since the earth's magnetic poles are always pulling on the
poles of other magnets all we had to do to get our magnetized needle to point north was let it freely
spin about in response to those forces which is what the foil and water were for cool huh [Music]
oh whoa look at the time we told jessie we'd meet her in the garden to help pull weeds
so we better get going and we'll look into getting you a compass that's a bit
easier to carry around than this ball that way you can make your way to and from the
river a little quicker next time okay the compass setting is all done what's next
oh yeah the halloween you went as a lion and we learned how chocolate was made that
was a great night and there's another reason you want to pick that night huh
you're right squeaks if you can travel to halloween whenever you want
that does mean you get infinite free candy that's actually pretty smart let's check
out that episode and get to work on the machine hi guys we just got back from trick-or-treating
iowa is a scientist and squeaks is a lion give us your best roar squeaks
we got a ton of candy this year squeaks likes gummy worms but i like chocolate where does
chocolate come from great question squeaks believe it or not chocolate grows on trees
the main ingredient in a chocolate bar starts out looking just like this i know they look nothing
like this chocolate bar or even the cocoa powder we put in hot chocolate those are actually beans
and not just any beans the beans that give us chocolate grow on the cacao tree and it takes
a lot of hard work to turn them into the type of chocolate that we can eat you might think that
any tree that helps us to make chocolate is pretty special and you'd be right cacao trees are picky
about where they like to grow because they need lots of heat and water so most cacao trees grow
in a part of the world that's right in the middle where there are lots of warm wet rainforests now
even though the cacao tree needs lots of heat it doesn't do well in bright sun so the tree doesn't
get too tall instead it grows closer to the ground where it can stay mostly in the shade that's made
by taller trees like a lot of trees the cacao tree makes flowers its flowers are white and they grow
right along the main part of the tree straight out of the bark part of these flowers eventually grow
into big pods it can take six whole months for the pods to be ready that's half a year once a
cacao pod is ripe and ready a person cuts it from the tree using a sharp knife and when they open up
the pod it looks like this can you see the beans inside of each pod are about 50 cacao beans along
with a bunch of white stuff called pulp people scoop out the beans and pulp from inside the pods
then put what they scooped out into big wooden boxes and leave everything alone for about a
week during that week the white pulp turns into liquid leaving behind the cacao beans which are
then put into the sun to get nice and dry now these beans may look brown like the chocolate
you see in stores but they don't taste like that chocolate a cacao bean tastes pretty bitter
and it takes some work in a chocolate factory to turn these beans into the delicious treats that
we get to eat at the factory the first thing they do is to roast the beans in big ovens
after cacao bean is roasted it turns dark and looks like this next they take off the
hard outside of the cacao beans leaving the soft insides then they smash and grind the inside until
it's a thin paste and we can do lots of different things with this paste to make a chocolate bar the
chocolate factory mixes the paste with things like sugar and milk then they stir the mixture
for a long time and pour it into a mold which is kind of like a bowl that's specially shaped to
look like a chocolate bar they leave the chocolate to cool for a while and become solid instead of
all liquidy then they take it out of the mold wrap it up and send it to stores for us to buy
from a cacao tree to your store that's a lot of work that goes into one piece of chocolate
but i think it's worth it and now it's finally time to enjoy our halloween treats
okay squeaks the halloween setting is ready to go i have one more day in mind that i really liked
the day we got back home to the fort from our research trip in cahokia that was a really great
day wasn't it it was so great to be back with all of our friends do you want to add it okay
let's get going and check out that episode while we're at it it is so good to be back at the fort
right squeaks our research trip was great but it's so good to be officially home hi everyone
jesse and squeaks here we just got back from our big research trip in cahokia and we missed you
so much while we were gone we learned a ton of cool things but we're excited to be back at the
fort to do more science and speaking of science while we were on our way home i started thinking
about how lots of animals travel during the year every spring and fall all kinds of animals migrate
or travel long distances to do things like have babies or find food and that got me wondering
how do they know where they're going you don't see birds flying around with maps
so i decided to find out and it turns out animals have some really neat tricks what's that squeaks
you could totally take a guess whenever you have a science question it can be a great idea
to brainstorm what you think the answer is so how do you think animals know which way to go
oh landmarks great idea landmarks are special things you notice along your journey that
you recognize when you see them again like how when i'm on my way to the store i know i always
have to turn right at the big blue house on the corner and it turns out animals use landmarks too
except they're not always looking at houses they might use bushes or logs or bigger things like
forests or mountains when they see a mountain that's familiar they know they're going the right
way except well here's a question what if there aren't any good landmarks like some animals fly or
swim in the ocean which is just a bunch of water so how do they know where to go squeaks any ideas
yeah that's okay it's a tricky one when there aren't good landmarks some animals that are
awake at night like certain seals and birds use the stars for directions they look for
things like patterns in the stars and when they find the right pattern they know that walking
swimming or flying toward those stars will take them where they need to go isn't that
so cool sometimes when you chase your curiosity and try to find answers to the things you wonder
about you end up learning something amazing that you never could have guessed so some animals use
landmarks and some use stars but other animals like certain birds and bees can do something
extra cool something people can't do they have an internal compass you might have used a compass if
you've ever been on a hiking trip they have a little needle in them that always points north
so they can tell you which direction you're going birds and bees have a compass like this
inside them we're still learning how it works but these animals can tell which way is north
all by themselves so when it's time to move they know which way they're facing man i wish i had
an internal compass that would have made getting back to the fort so much easier but that's okay
squeaks and i had a map and we know which landmarks to look out for on the way
so we didn't get lost too many times i'm so glad we decided to explore how animals get home though
they do it so many ways and it really makes me think about how different and interesting
each kind of animal is okay squeaks i think your time machine is ready to go oh what's wrong buddy
you wish your time machine was real so you could actually go back to your favorite days
i know pal but just think of all the great days that we haven't even had yet and since we can
watch all these videos of our favorite days it is sort of like we have a time machine oh i'm so
glad that cheered you up squeaks squeaks where'd you go oh where you are what on earth happened
squeaks is that another you and another you squeaks where did you go well i guess we have
some things to figure out so we better go thanks for joining us today if you want to keep learning
exploring and having fun with squeaks squeaks squeaks and me and all of our other friends
be sure to hit the subscribe button and we'll see you next time on scishow kids [Music] you