The where, the why, and the how :

Includes index.

What existed before the big bang? / written by Brian Yanny ; illustrated by Josh Cochran -- What is dark matter? / written by Katie Richardson ; illustrated by Betsy Walton -- What is dark energy? / written by Michael Leyton ; illustrated by Ben Finer -- How does gravity work? / Terry Matilsky ; illustrated by The Heads of State -- Can anything escape a black hole? / written by Brian Yanny ; illustrated by Evah Fan & Brendan Monroe -- What is the "God particle"? / written by Albert De Roeck ; illustrated by Jordin Isip -- What is antimatter? / written by Michael Leyton ; illustrated by Leif Low-Beer -- Are there more than three dimensions? / written by Hector Hernandez-Coronado ; illustrated by Tim Gough -- What happens to time as you approach the speed of light? / written by Haym Benaroya ; illustrated by Ana Benaroya -- How are stars born, and how do they die? / written by Brian Yanny ; illustrated by Jenny Volvovski -- What is the origin of the moon? / written by Sarah K. Carmichael ; illustrated by Lauren Nassef -- What triggers reversals of Earth's polarity? / written by Fritz Krembs ; illustrated by Luke Ramsey -- What is Earth's hum? / written by Anatoli Levshin ; illustrated by Julia Rothman -- What drives plate tectonics? / written by Julie Padowski ; illustrated by Marc Bell -- Are earthquakes predictable? / written by Anatoli Levshin ; illustrated by Isaac Tobin -- Where does Earth's water come from? / written by Stuart John Muller ; illustrated by James Gulliver Hancock -- Could climate change cause ocean currents to shift? / written by Victoria Keener ; illustrated by Pietari Posti -- Do rogue waves exist? / written by Victoria Keener ; illustrated by John Hendrix -- What is the structure of water? / written by David Kaplan ; illustrated by Harry Campbell -- Why doesn't water freeze in clouds? / written by Nancy Westcott ; illustrated by Jing Wei.

Why is each snowflake unique? / written by Andrew Miller ; illustrated by Roman Klonek -- What creates the tornado vortex? / written by Austin Dooley ; illustrated by John Han -- Why is the world green? / written by Alexander Gershenson ; illustrated by Micah Lidberg -- Can evolution outpace climate change? / written by Alexander Gershenson ; illustrated by Yelena Bryksenkova -- Were did life come from? / written by Victoria Keener ; illustrated by Ben Wiseman -- What defined dinosaurs' diet? / written by Margaret Smith ; illustrated by Meg Hunt -- What causes an ice age? / written by Casey Schmidt ; illustrated by John Klassen -- Where are the fossil chimpanzee? / written by Julia M. Zichello ; illustrated by Mattias Adolfsson -- What caused the extinction of the Neanderthals? / written by Alison Elgart ; illustrated by Mikkel Sommer -- What explains latitudinal patterns in species diversity? / written by Joanna E. Lambert ; illustrated by Lotta Nieminen -- What determines the size of a primate social group? / written by Jessica Rothman ; illustrated by Stacey Rozich -- Why do primates eat plants that produce steroid mimics? / written by Michael D. Wasserman ; illustrated by Ole Tillman -- Why do we age? / written by Conor Lawless ; illustrated by Atak -- What is the circadian clock? / written by John Ernest Kratz ; illustrated by Lab Partners -- Why do we sleep? / written by Johanna Freeman ; illustrated by Camilla Engman -- Why do we dream? / written by Brett Marroquín ; illustrated by Joohee Yoon -- Why do we yawn? / written by Rebecca C. Burgess ; illustrated by Nolan Hendrickson -- Why do we hiccup? / written by Jill Conte ; illustrated by Dave Zackin -- Why do we blush? / written by Jill Conte ; illustrated by Gilbert Ford -- What causes depression? / written by Brett Marroquín ; illustrated by Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsh.

What causes autism? / written by Jessie Strauss ; illustrated by Sophia Martineck -- Why do placebos work? / written by Sara Fox ; illustrated by Penelope Dullaghan -- What triggers puberty? / written by Ellen Smith ; illustrated by Vanessa Davis -- Do humans use pheromones? / written by Abigail Cohen ; illustrated by Mark Mulroney -- Is sexual orientation innate? / written by Brett Marroquín ; illustrated by Edie Fake -- Why do we have an appendix? / written by Helen A. Markewich ; illustrated by Patrick Kyle -- Why do we have fingerprints? / written by Drew Wright ; illustrated by Nora Krug -- How do humans have the ability to learn language? / written by Liza Trinkle ; illustrated by Jeremyville -- Do trees talk to each other? / written by Noah Greenberg ; illustrated by Lillé Carré -- How long can trees live? / written by Charles A. Nock ; illustrated by Becca Stadtlander -- Why do some plants eat animals? / written by Margaret Smith ; illustrated by Jim Stoten -- Do immortal creatures exist? / written by Julie Frey, Jessica Rothman ; illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia -- Why do some underwater organisms light up? / written by Linda D'anna ; illustrated by Apak -- Why do whales beach themselves? / written by Linda D'Anna ; illustrated by Jen Corace -- How do migrating animals find their way back home? / written by Alexander Gershenson ; illustrated by Harriet Russell -- Why don't animals' muscles atrophy during hibernation? / written by Margaret Smith ; illustrated by Andrew Holder -- Why do whales sing? / written by David Kaplan ; illustrated by Lisa Congdon -- What does "chickadee" mean to a chickadee? / written by Lucia Jacobs ; illustrated by Susie Gharahmani -- Why do pigeons bob their heads when they walk? / written by Mikel Maria Delgado ; illustrated by Alex Eben Meyer -- Do squirrels remember where they bury their nuts? / written by Lucia Jacobs ; illustrated by Aaron Meshon.

Why do cats purr? / written by Mikel Maria Delgado ; illustrated by Gemma Correll -- What do honeybees say when they dance? / written by Lucia Jacobs ; illustrated by Caitlin Keegan -- Why do humans and ants have so much in common? / written by Sara Fox ; illustrated by Jack Hudson -- How much can parasites change the social habits of their host? / written by Dwight D. Bowman ; illustrated by Ted McGrath -- Where will the next pandemic come from? / written by Jennifer Gardy ; illustrated by James Ulmer -- How much of human behavior is predetermined? / written by Vladimir Sloutsky ; illustrated by Catell Ronca -- How does the brain give rise to the mind? / written by Meehan Crist, Tim Requarth ; illustrated by Jacob Macgraw Mickelson -- Why do we fall for optical illusions? / written by Meehan Crist, Tim Requarth ; illustrated by Jennifer Daniel -- How flexible in the human brain? / written by Meehan Crist, Tim Requarth ; illustrated by Matt Leines -- Why are humans and chimps so different if they have nearly identical DNA? / written by Roman Sloutsky ; illustrated by Matt Forsythe -- Why do humans have so much genome "junk"? / written by Katherine Philpott ; illustrated by Matt Lamothe -- How can a mature cell be "reborn"? / written by Keith Weiser ; illustrated by Ben K. Voss -- How do cells talk to each other? / written by Justin Cassidy ; illustrated by Chris Kyung -- How can cancer be such a biologically unlikely event, and still be so common? / written by Olga Ioffe ; illustrated by David Heatley -- Are nanomaterials dangerous? / written by Kiyomi D. Deards ; illustrated by Neil Farber & Michael Dumontier.

Scientists answer seventy-five questions pertaining to the natural world, ranging from whether earthquakes are predictable to why whales sing. Each question features an accompanying illustration.