Science You Can’t See

by Suzanna Loper

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Science You Can’t See
by Suzanna Loper
© 2018 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. No part of this
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These materials are based upon work partially supported by the National Science
Foundation under grant numbers DRL-1119584, DRL-1417939, ESI-0242733,
ESI-0628272, ESI-0822119. The Federal Government has certain rights in this
material. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.

These materials are based upon work partially supported by the Institute of Education
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A130610 to The Regents
of the University of California. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do
not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

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Grade 5
Science You Can’t See
ISBN: 978-1-943228-11-9
Contents
Out of Sight 4

We Can’t See a Tyrannosaurus Rex 6

We Can’t See the Deep Ocean Floor 11

We Can’t See Atoms and Molecules 16

Glossary 24

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 Many scientists gather evidence by observing with their own eyes.

Out of Sight
They may study mice, moons, or molecules, but all scientists
are alike in one way. They all use evidence to answer questions.
Scientists don’t just guess what the answer might be. They find
evidence and figure out an answer that fits the evidence.

One good way to find evidence about something is to observe

it directly—for example, by touching it or looking at it.

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But what about scientists who study things that can’t be seen
or touched? These things may be too small or too hard to reach
or too far away to observe directly. However, the scientists who
study them still need evidence to answer their questions. How is it
possible to find evidence about something you can’t see?

To study things they can’t observe directly, scientists make

inferences. When you make an inference, you use what you can
observe to figure out something about what you can’t observe.
For example, picture yourself opening your lunch bag and taking
out an apple. A hunk of the apple is missing. There are scrapes on
the apple that look as if they were made by teeth. You could make
the inference that someone opened your lunch bag and took a
bite of your apple. You didn’t directly observe anyone biting the
apple, but you have plenty of evidence to show that it happened.

What inference could you

make about what happened
to this apple?

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We Can’t See a Tyrannosaurus Rex
You may have watched movies about Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs
or seen pictures of them in books. But nobody has seen a live T. rex
walking around because they have all been dead for millions of years.
Still, scientists would like to know more about these dinosaurs. What
did they look like? How and what did they eat? What was the world
around them like?

An artist created this picture to show how

a Tyrannosaurus rex may have hunted.

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Scientists can’t watch a T. rex hunting for food or eating. How can
scientists answer their questions about T. rex when they can’t
observe these dinosaurs? Scientists use fossils to try to answer
questions about dinosaurs. Most people know about fossil bones,
but some people don’t realize that fossils can also be formed from
leaves, footprints, and other things left behind by animals and plants.
Fossils are evidence about what living things were like long ago.

These are fossil bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

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 Karen Chin studies dinosaurs.

Karen Chin is a scientist who asks: How and what did dinosaurs eat?
She studies coprolites, which are fossil droppings. The dinosaurs
may be gone, but they left their droppings behind. Inside the
droppings were bits of the plants and animals that dinosaurs ate.
Some of these bits remain inside coprolites today. By observing
coprolites, Chin can find evidence about what dinosaurs ate and
what the world around them was like.

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Chin studied a huge coprolite found in Canada. She measured the
size of the coprolite and cut it open to find out what was inside.
She observed that the coprolite contained the crushed bones of a
young dinosaur. Because the coprolite was so big, and because it
contained dinosaur bones, Chin was able to infer that it must have
come from a T. rex, the only large meat-eating dinosaur known
to have lived in that area of the world. By observing the coprolite,
Chin got evidence about what the T. rex ate and how it chewed and
digested its food.

This is a fossil dinosaur dropping.

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 Every piece of dinosaur evidence is part of the puzzle.

Even though Chin will never see a live T. rex, she can make
inferences about what these dinosaurs were like, based on the
evidence she finds. Other scientists find evidence about dinosaurs
and make inferences, too. The members of the scientific
community share their inferences with one another and work
together to find out all they can.

“It’s like putting together a huge puzzle,” says Chin. “Bones are
big pieces of the puzzle, but coprolites give us more key evidence.
We’ll never finish the puzzle, but as we keep fitting in more and
more pieces, our picture of dinosaurs gets better and better.”

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We Can’t See the Deep Ocean Floor
Scientists know more about the surface of the planet Mars than they
do about some parts of Earth’s ocean floor! In most parts of the ocean,
the water is so deep that you can’t see the ocean floor from a boat on
the surface. Many parts of the ocean floor are too deep for scientists
to visit, even in a submarine. But knowing about the ocean floor is
important for understanding life in the ocean. How can scientists get
evidence about the ocean floor when it is so hard to observe directly?

Edward Saade (SAHD-ee) is a scientist who studies the ocean floor.

Saade asks questions like these: How deep is the ocean floor in
different places? Is it sandy or rocky? Where in the ocean are fish and
other animals most likely to live?

Edward Saade studies the deep ocean floor.

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Saade used a tool called an
echo sounder to make maps
of a big area of the ocean floor
near the coast of California. He
traveled across the surface of
the ocean in a boat. The echo
sounder sent out sound waves
as the boat moved along. The
sound waves traveled through
the water and bounced off the
ocean floor.

How an Echo Sounder Works

sound waves coming out

sound waves
bouncing back off
the ocean floor

12 ocean floor
Saade’s echo sounder measured how long it took for the sound
waves to bounce back to the boat. The longer the sound waves
took, the farther away the ocean floor was. Based on this evidence,
Saade was able to infer how deep the ocean was in different places.
He made maps that showed his inferences about what the ocean
floor was like.

www.fugro.com

The colorful part of the map shows the inferences that

Saade made about the depth of the ocean floor. Each
color stands for a different depth. The dark blue part is
the deepest, and the red part is the shallowest.
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 These animals live on the ocean floor. Different parts of the ocean
floor are home to very different fish and other living things.

Saade doesn’t work alone—he is part of the scientific community.

Saade worked with scientists who collected other evidence about the
ocean, such as the temperature of the ocean in different places. Saade
and the other scientists put the different kinds of evidence together
into a computer model. The computer model used all this evidence
about the ocean to make predictions about where fish might live.

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Scientists checked these predictions by going diving in a few places
and directly observing the fish living there. These observations helped
the scientists evaluate their computer model. When the scientists’
observations of fish living near the ocean floor matched the model for
those places, the scientists knew their computer model was accurate.

Saade’s maps of the ocean floor help the scientific community

learn more about life in the ocean. Saade enjoys studying the
hidden secrets of the ocean floor. He says, “You get to discover
parts of the world that nobody knew about before.” 15
We Can’t See Atoms and Molecules
Atoms and molecules are so tiny that scientists can’t observe
them directly. How did scientists figure out that atoms and
molecules existed if they couldn’t see them?

More than 200 years ago, scientists began to find evidence that the
world was made of atoms and molecules. For example, scientists
discovered that water could be changed into hydrogen gas and
oxygen gas. This evidence helped the scientific community figure
out that water is made of molecules that are formed of hydrogen
atoms and oxygen atoms.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was

a scientist in the 1700s. He split
water molecules into hydrogen
atoms and oxygen atoms.

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Over time, the scientific community found more and more evidence
of atoms and molecules. Based on this evidence, scientists made
models of atoms and molecules. The scientists evaluated their
models carefully. Whenever they found new evidence about atoms
and molecules, they would check to see if their models matched
the new evidence. If the models didn’t match the evidence, they
changed the models.

This is a model of a water

molecule. The red ball represents
an oxygen atom, and the white
balls represent hydrogen atoms.
The sticks represent how the
atoms are joined together.

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18
Farid El Gabaly studies atoms.
The machine next to him is a
special microscope.

It’s still impossible to see

atoms and molecules, but
scientists have many ways
to find evidence about them.
Farid El Gabaly (fah-REED el
gah-bah-LEE) is a scientist who
studies atoms. He is interested
in magnetic atoms. One of
El Gabaly’s questions is this:
What patterns do magnetic
atoms form in very, very small
pieces of metal?

El Gabaly uses a special kind

of microscope that sends out
beams of electrons, which are
even tinier than atoms. The
electrons bounce off magnetic
atoms and bounce back to a
computer. The electrons won’t
bounce off atoms that are
not magnetic. Based on what
bounces back, the computer
makes a picture showing
how the magnetic atoms are
arranged.

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 These are pieces of cobalt.
The ones that El Gabaly
uses are much, much tinier
than these.

El Gabaly used his microscope to study a metal called cobalt. He

knew that cobalt was magnetic, but he didn’t know how the magnetic
atoms were arranged. He used his microscope to find out.

The microscope sent beams of electrons at a tiny piece of cobalt.

The electrons bounced back to a computer, which made the picture
below. The white spots show areas where electrons bounced off
cobalt atoms, and the gray spots show areas where electrons didn’t
bounce back.

Farid El Gabaly made this image with a special microscope.

The picture shows patterns of atoms in a very tiny piece of metal.

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El Gabaly knew that the electrons only bounced back from places
where the cobalt atoms were magnetic. Based on his evidence, he
inferred that magnetic atoms in cobalt form a pattern where they
clump together in groups.

Knowing more about the patterns that magnetic atoms form could
help scientists make tiny computer parts. With these parts, people
could make smaller, faster, and better computers.

El Gabaly says it is very

exciting to make images
of something that is too
small to see. For scientists,
atoms are like tiny new
worlds to discover!

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Some scientists study things that are too deep, too hot, too far, too
old, too fast, or too small to look at or measure. But these scientists
don’t just guess what the things they’re studying might be like.
They need evidence! These scientists all find ways to get evidence
about things they will never see or touch directly.

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Space scientists have to
make lots of inferences
about stars, planets, and
galaxies that are too far
away to observe directly.

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Glossary
accurate: correct or right microscope: a tool that helps
people see very small things or
atom: a tiny piece of matter
make images of very small things
that is too small to see
model: something scientists
coprolite: a fossil animal dropping
make to answer questions
echo sounder: a tool that about the real world
bounces sound waves off the
molecule: a group of atoms
ocean floor to help scientists
joined together in a particular way
figure out how deep the ocean is
observation: something you
electron: a tiny piece of matter
notice using any of the five senses
that is even smaller than an atom
observe: to use any of the five
evaluate: to judge how useful
senses to gather information
or accurate something is
about something
evidence: information that
pattern: something we observe
supports an answer to a
to be similar over and over again
question
prediction: an idea about what
fossil: evidence of life from
might happen that is based on
the past, such as fossil bones,
what you already know
footprints, or leaf prints
scientific community:
infer: to figure something out
scientists around the world who
based on observations and
share ways of thinking
what you already know
temperature: how hot or cold
inference: something you figure
something is
out based on observations and
what you already know

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Books for Modeling Matter:
Made of Matter
Break It Down: How Scientists Separate Mixtures
Science You Can’t See
Solving Dissolving
Food Scientist’s Handbook

Lawrence Hall of Science:

Program Directors: Jacqueline Barber and P. David Pearson
Curriculum Director, Grades K–1: Alison K. Billman
Curriculum Director, Grades 2–5: Jennifer Tilson

Lead Book Developers: Ashley Chase and Chloë Delafield

Modeling Matter Book Development Team:

Lee M. Bishop Andrew Falk Tessaly Jen
Gina N. Cervetti Emily Gibson Suzanna Loper
John Erickson Megan Goss Elizabeth Shafer

Amplify:
Irene Chan Charvi Magdaong Matt Reed
Samuel Crane Thomas Maher Eve Silberman
Shira Kronzon Rick Martin Steven Zavari

Design and Production: Fran Biderman-Gross, advantages.net

Credits:
Illustrations: Page 6: Mark Garlick/Science Source; Page 10: Shutterstock;Pages 12 (b), 17:
Scott MacNeill
Photographs: Cover, Pages 1, 22–23: iStock.com/sololos; Pages 3, 20 (t): Charles D.
Winters/Science Source; Page 4: Pascal Goetgheluck/Science Source; Pages 5, 7, 14 (br):
Shutterstock; Page 8: Karen Chin; Page 9: Karen Chin/USGS; Pages 11, 13: Edward Saade;
Pages 12 (t), 15: NOAA; Page 14: (l, mr) OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP);
(tr) OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP)/University of Maine; Pages 18–19,
20 (b), 21: Farid El Gabaly
Modeling Matter

If you can’t see it, how can you

study it?
Some things can’t be seen or touched. Scientists can’t pick up a
water molecule and look at it to see what it’s made of. They can’t
observe animals that died out millions of years ago. Still, scientists
want to find out more about these things. Read this book to
discover how they do it. You’ll learn how scientists find evidence
about things they can’t see.

Special thanks to Karen Chin, Assistant Professor and Curator of

Paleontology, University of Colorado, Boulder; Edward Saade, President,
Fugro EarthData; and Farid El Gabaly, Staff Scientist, Sandia National
Laboratories, Livermore, CA.

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