Gigi Yazigi, age 11, of Albany, New York, for her question:

Do turtles have ears?

A turtle has no outer ears where you would expect them to be. But he does have a pair of inner ears, hidden away under the leathery skin that covers his whole head. The real hearing work, as we know, is done by the complex inner ears which are protected inside the skull. The turtle's inner ears are very well developed, so we might expect him to have keen hearing.

However, for some reason, this is not so. Researchers report that a turtle has rather poor hearing. What's more, he seems able to hear only low rumbling sounds. Higher tones are too much for his ears. However, he gathers a wide range of sounds from vibrations. His skin and shell pick up trembling sound vibrations from the earth and water  ¬and this hearing data is sent to his brain to be interpreted and food, air and water systems for spacemen. Special spacecraft need special fuels, metals and chemicals. All these new items were devised to make the space age possible. But hundreds of them also are used to improve everyday items down here on the ground.

Perhaps the greatest benefit occurred behind the scenes. Scientists were becoming so specialized that it was hard to understand what experts in other fields were doing. Space is a new realm that calls for changes in everything. The space age called for experts in all fields to give their best. Different specialists learned to exchange ideas and work together as teams.

All sorts of new space age items already are used in our everyday lives. Space age satellites send down global pictures of the weather and relay long distance TV. Other satellites survey water and mineral resources and spot crop diseases related to global food supplies. All these and countless other bonuses are ours because men wanted to go to the moon    and teams of experts worked like heroes to make this possible.