I'm M. Jay, O and Aarti's guardian. (BTW: I'm not supposed to be here, as you know. I won't stay long.) Some of you may have received email or letters from O and Aarti. They do a good job, when they pay attention. They wanted to try something new so I asked them to interview Dan Risch. Dan, who lives in Louisville, Kentucky, writes Odyssey's e-Scape! with O and Aarti. We hope you enjoy getting to know Dan and his fictional creations—O and Aarti.

Ciao for now,
M. Jay

Already O and Aarti have heard from Odyssey reader, Geneva S., with a terrific idea for the New Year. She wrote: "I am a girl scout and I try to save water so could you promise to save water? Thank you."

So . . . in 2012, O, Aarti, and the rest of the gang at ODYSSEY make this New Year's Resolution: We will CONSERVE WATER. Everyone, everywhere deserves clean water!

World Water Day will be held March 12, 2012. Go to: UN-Water to learn more.

Geneva also asked O and Aarti to spread the word.

Aarti: Hey, Geneva! Consider it spread!

O: Like peanut butter!

Ciao,
M. Jay

Food scientist Morgan Goodall stars in ODYSSEY's February, 2012, e-Scape with O and Aarti in the "Science of Sweet" issue. Morgan loves the science of food.

O, Aarti, and I asked Morgan how she creates new food products. How, for example, would she develop a nutrition-packed bagel? (Something O would love with a little peanut butter!) "Going from concept to food product is probably my favorite part of food science." says Morgan. "I like to get my hands dirty." Of course, she doesn't mean dirty, dirty. She means she takes a hands-on approach to developing recipes for new food products.

"I like trying different things," Morgan says. "But before you start, try to match what you want to make with what consumers want to buy. It's great to come up with something you think is good, but it has to sell off the shelf in the end." "Matching what you make with a nutrition trend is a great way to go," she says. "Nutrition is very important to consumers. Look at your bagel to see what nutritional aspects can be improved. Instead of it being a regular white wheat bagel, you might make it whole wheat. Whole grains are better from a nutritional standpoint."

Having zeroed in on how to make our new bagel, Morgan got out the mixing bowls. "Usually, right away I'll try to make it, because I want to know what are the challenges that I'll have from the very beginning. So, I'll find a recipe for a bagel. I'll start by replacing the white wheat with whole wheat just to see what happens."

Does the whole-wheat dough rise? Maybe. Maybe not. But by observing the effects of tweaking the recipe, Morgan can isolate problems. Then she applies her "foodie" sense and science. "From there you should be able to figure out solutions to any problems using what you learned about food chemistry and microbiology."

You know. I'm thinking we might mix in blueberry yogurt. Just to see what happens. What do you think Aarti?

Watch for Morgan's story in February. You'll be surprised by what she has whipped up for herself using—food science!

Ciao,
0, Aarti, and Dan

In our July/August 2011 issue, O and Aarti were feuding about who makes better scientists—boys or girls? We asked you to help settle the feud between our friends, and we received some great responses! More guys than girls responded, which surprised us. Did the response settle the feud? Well, we'll leave that up to you to decide from the sampling of responses that we include here. BTW, we think whether you are a boy or a girl, you have the potential to be a great scientist, if you love science and work diligently!

Dear O and Aarti,
I really like reading this magazine, but this one article really caught my eye. Personally (I'm not choosing this because I am a boy!), I think boys make better scientists. Think about the scientists back in time. Who came up with the theory of black holes? A boy. Who found out that the Earth revolves around the Sun? A boy. Now remember, I did not choose this because I want boys to win. I just think that boys have found out most of the stuff that really helps us in our lives (that I can think of).
    Thank you for the best magazine in history! I can't wait for the next magazine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

—Kyle, via email
P.S. You should really try to get along better.

O: Hey, maybe he's right, Aarti.

Aarti: Sure, O. Until the next time you want your way.

Thanks for your opinion, Kyle. I think some of our girl responders might ask you to think about the fact that most of the important discoveries made by boys happened during a time when girls weren't encouraged to be scientists! In fact, some important discoveries in mathematics and astronomy were actually made by women but credited to their husbands. Enough said. We're staying out of this.

Sophia, who sent the following email, agrees with Aarti:
I'm writing to O and Aarti to add to the debate about who makes better scientists, girls or boys. I think girls are better. I know two girls who won the Toshiba ExploraVision invention competition. They won with a breathing machine for the elderly! Also, it was a woman [Marie Curie] who [contributed fundamental research to the discovery of radioactivity and discovered the elements radium and polonium]. Another woman [Lise Meitner] discovered [an isotope] of the element protactinium. The only reason women haven't had more discoveries is because people used to say “leave it to men. They're stronger.” That's not true! Women are way better than men at science. We have more patience and more tolerance for pain. I believe women and girls can do way better than boys!

Some readers saw it both ways:

Dear O and Aarti,
I think that both girls and boys can make good scientists. It just depends on what you want to do and what you are good at. However, I agree with Aarti. Girls are awesome! We can do whatever we want to do no matter what people say.

—Miette, 11, Chicago, IL

Qhianna Sanchez, age 15, wrote:

Dear O and Aarti,
I think neither boys nor girls are better scientists. Instead, boy and girl scientists need to work together to produce the most fruitful scientific research. Boys' minds and girls' minds are structured differently, so boys and girls each will have different questions in mind as they conduct the same experiment. Also, just because there may be more girl scientists than boy scientists doesn't mean that girls are better scientists than boys. Instead, it means that girl scientists should welcome boy scientists and work alongside them so there will be equal numbers of boy and girl scientists.
    I hope you can settle your feud peacefully and still remain friends.

Aarti: Well, I think we can. How about you, O?

O: Why not? Maybe we could collaborate.

Thanks, Miette and Qhianna. You're absolutely right . . . collaboration in science increases the chance of success! And when we are passionate about any field, our chances of achieving excellence are great.

Also in our July/August 2011 issue, in the article “The Alien Discovery That Wasn't,” we talked about GFAJ-1, a newly discovered microbe that seemed to be using arsenic instead of phosphorus within its molecules. A feud developed in the scientific community about whether this could be true. We asked you to design an experiment to find out what's really inside GFAJ's cells and DNA.

Nate Perdue, 14, of California, wrote: You could create a liquid form of the bacterium's extracted DNA ( which is actually possible) and then ionize it in a vacuum to feed it into a mass spectrometer. From there, you could analyze the spectrum and look for traces of phosphorus/arsenic.

We also received an in-depth answer from Matthias R. Voser, a chemist from Switzerland. Although much of his answer is too complex to explain here, he wrote:

HERE IS THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT

• Let a batch of GFAJ-1 grow (1) on phosphate (as pure as possible), and another batch (2) on arsenate (as pure as possible, too).
• Next, isolate the GFAJ-1 DNA of the batches above.
• Make a chemical analysis of the DNA itself and of its digestion products, too.
• Determine and compare the content of arsenate and phosphate in the DNA probes of batches (1) and (2).

Thank you, Nate and Matthias, for your thoughtful responses. And it's good to know that someone in the scientific community in Switzerland is reading ODYSSEY!

Do you have a question or a comment for O and Aarti?
Click here to email them!

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