Science is Messy, Wild, and Weird, Just Like Kids Themselves, a guest post by Christina Couch

In the 1980s, mysterious sounds in the ocean nearly upended international peace. It was the middle of the Cold War and tensions were high between Sweden and the Soviet Union. When Swedish navy vessels began picking up bizarre underwater signals, military leaders thought it was enemy submarines invading their waters.
The truth—as explained by Magnus Wahlberg, a bioacoustics expert who was involved in the government investigation into the matter—was far stranger. The mystery noises were actually herrings, giant schools of them emitting streams of fishy farts forceful enough to trigger submarine SONAR systems.
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Later research shows that herrings emit bubbles from their swim bladders for lots of reasons: when they’re scared, to regulate their buoyancy in the water, and potentially to communicate. These fish emit different bubble patterns at night, leading researchers to speculate that farting might be one way that schooling fish stick together in the dark.
I learned about the flatulent fish while writing Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds, the third book in MIT Kids Press’ Extraordinary Animals series. Written for middle grade readers, the book dives into the neuroscience behind some cool, unique things animals can do with their brains—stuff like sleeping with half of their brain alert, creating complex ways of communicating, and maintaining cognitive function for hundreds and hundreds of years. It also covers how those neuro-talents stack up to similar processes in your mind and offers activities kids can do to put their own brains to the test.
Farting fish—and the researchers curious and quirky enough to study them—are a huge part of why I love being a science journalist. While science has a well-deserved reputation for being precise, analytical, and perfectionistic, it’s also outlandish, imaginative, wildly imperfect, and often hilarious, just like young readers themselves and like older ones who, like me, feel like adulthood is more of a costume than a fitting identity.

For many of us who aren’t naturally inclined towards science or are intimidated by it, these qualities can be vital entryways into worlds of research that otherwise feel inaccessible. As a kid, I was never good at science. Formulas and carefully executed experiments felt like they were for smarter, more focused people who had an easier grasp of math and mechanics. I was a through-and-through theater kid, happiest when slipping into dreamy worlds on stage, in books, or writing them on my own—the weirder and crazier, the better. Off-stage, I fumbled through STEM courses, always two steps behind everyone else and reliant on generous classmates and teachers to answer what felt like the world’s dumbest, most basic questions.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that many of those experiences would be pretty important training for my future career. As a science journalist, my job is to find interesting and unique stories that help all readers—those who love science and those who don’t—understand and contextualize science happening around them. That often means asking experts to break down their research into simplistic terms: one question I frequently ask when reporting is, “Can you explain this concept to me like I’m a third grader?” I constantly feel lightyears out of my league.
I’m ok with that and instead of viewing it as a weakness, I’ve come to think of it more like a surprising superpower. In many ways, I act as a translator between researchers and readers. If experts can teach me how humans make memories, why an octopus’s arms can make some decisions on their own (no brain processing needed), or how PTSD affects animals and people—all of which I reported on for this book—I can explain it to you, a child, or anyone else without any alienating academic jargon.

I’ve also come to view my own scattered, ping-pong brain and my love of weird things as strengths: ways to draw connections between science and other fields and to pull in readers who might not inherently care about what happens in a lab. Leaning into the qualities that made science feel so intimidating when I was young has led me to some fascinating places for adult readers—the turbulent world of anchovy sex, a cat graveyard owned by a man who believes he’s found the feline fountain of youth, and a chat with a robotic human head that’s afraid of clowns, to name a few. For children’s media, I’ve found that leaning in helps spark conversations between young readers and the adults in their lives. It’s thrilling whenever someone tells me that their kid has learned a surprising animal fact in my book or done one of the science activities and they simply can’t wait to share it.
I wrote Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds (and co-wrote another book in the Extraordinary Animals series) for science-minded readers and for curious kids who are brimming with questions about the world around them but haven’t quite found their way into science. When writing this book, it was important to me to showcase a diverse set of researchers in and outside of the lab—these range from a geneticist who analyzes ancient DNA to uncover long-lost histories on a remote island to a fish fossil scientist who’s also an aerial circus performer. It was also important to tell stories of people who aren’t scientists. For example, the chapter I loved writing the most centers on a US military veteran who works at a bird sanctuary that teaches humans who have experienced trauma how to work with parrots that have, too.
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My hope is that young readers walk away from the book knowing that no matter what you’re interested in, science is there, too, and that you don’t need to be a certain type of person to explore that. Science makes you think, but like art or literature, it can also make you laugh, dream, see and appreciate the world, or even just your own brain, in new, exciting ways.
Meet the author

Christina Couchis author of Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds (MIT Kids Press, 2024), a book about animals’ extraordinary neurology, and co-author of Detector Dogs, Dynamite Dolphins, and More Animals with Super Sensory Powers (MIT Kids Press, 2022), which focuses on animal sensory biology. She is also the Associate Director of the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing and a Lecturer in the program. Projects she’s worked on for kids and adults have won the AMBA Pedagogical Innovation Award, a Buzzie Award from the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, and honors from the Virginia Press Association. Her writing can be found in Atlas Obscura, Discover Magazine, Fast Company, Hakai Magazine, Mental Floss Magazine, MIT Technology Review, The New York Times, NOVA, Science Friday, Smithsonian, The Verge, Vogue.com, and elsewhere.
Links
Visit me online at couchwins.com or on social media at ohyeahitscouch.bsky.social or on LinkedIn.
About Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds
In a Chicago aquarium, an octopus chips away at a block of ice, trying to get the frozen food inside. Her brain makes most of the decisions, but her sucker-covered arms make some choices all by themselves. A bird nesting in Hawaii’s high rocky cliffs catches a quick nap before heading out to hunt. Even as she’s snoozing, half of her brain stays awake. In a very special backyard in California, a squirrel decides where to stash food for the winter. She uses mind tricks to remember her hiding places. And as you’re reading this, a marvelous and mysterious organ inside your skull is working all day and all night to give you amazing abilities.
In this book, you’ll get to know six animals with incredible brain-powered talents and dive into the science behind these superpowers. You’ll also meet the people who study these creatures and learn about the strategies they use to try to uncover the brain’s many secrets, and you’ll learn about some of the things that happen between your own ears. Plus, you’ll get to put your own mind to the test with activities at the end of each chapter. So put on your thinking cap and get ready to explore the animal kingdom’s most extraordinary organ.
ISBN-13: 9781536229721
Publisher: Candlewick/MIT Kids Press
Publication date: 01/14/2025
Series: Extraordinary Animals
Age Range: 9 – 12 Years
Filed under: Guest Post

About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on BlueSky at @amandamacgregor.bsky.social.
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