Chapter 9

9 FRANK FLIPS KLANK'S SKULL SHUT. HE TIGHTENS THE LATCH BOLT, locks the brain panel closed, and flips Klank's keyboard RHYTHM BEATS power switch on. Klank's Casio keyboard heart motor starts with a small bing. Klank's HugMeMonkey! brain revs. Zzzzzzzzimmmmm.

Klank lights up—left eye, right eye, antenna. Frank shines his flashlight into Klank's neck vent, checking the action of his spinning-disc brain. He moves one finger back and forth in front of Klank's eye lens to test its tracking. "Klank, can you hear me?" "Can I hear you? Why should I hear you?" asks Klank. "Why do bees hum?" "Uh-oh," says Watson. "I think we really messed him up." Klink searches his own memory for BEES HUM, then reports: "Bees flap a forewing and a hind wing at two hundred thirty beats per second. Muscles attached directly to the wings. Stroking in a variety of patterns to fly, dive, and hover. Vibration of the wings creates the humming sound." "Nope," says Klank. "Bees hum because

they do not know the words." "Rrrrrrrrrr," growls Klink. "That is not true. Recalculating. Recalculating." "Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha." "OK," says Frank. "He's fine. Let's get back to work." Frank folds his arms and stares at his Wall of Science. He looks over the wonderful mess of pictures, information, ideas, quotes. He thinks. Klank lumbers to his feet. Klink resets his recalculating GPS brain. Watson sorts through a stack of papers and finds the one he is looking for. "Hey, Frank, what do we want—" Electrical impulses in Frank's brain cells connect, multiply, form a pattern, make an idea. "That's it!" says Frank. "Exactly, Watson. What do we want? And we work back from

there." Frank starts pacing again. "First, obviously, win the Midville Science Prize. But more importantly— master all science. The word comes from the Latin for knowledge. We want all science. All knowledge. Klink and Klank, your robot brains make this possible." "Obviously," says Klink. "Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo," hums Klank. Frank points to a picture on his Wall of Science. "Like this guy, Aristotle. He wanted the science of everything." Watson answers, "No—" "You're right, Watson," says Frank. "It's not

about Aristotle. Let's divide all of science into six areas. Then, with Klink and Klank, we study each area, and we learn everything!" Frank pins a symbol to the top left corner of the Wall. "First, matter. Atoms, molecules, elements, compounds. States of matter. What atoms are made of—protons, neutrons, electrons. And antimatter." Watson holds up one hand. "Yeah, but—" "But what about energy?" asks Frank. "Exactly. That's next, Watson." Frank pins a

second symbol to the top of the Wall, next to the first. "Energy. It's what makes all life possible. We are alive because energy from the sun is converted into food... that we convert back to energy to run everything in our bodies. And there's light, sound, motion, magnetism, electricity—all different kinds of energy. Then there are Forces, Laws of Motion. All stuff we know from Sir Isaac Newton!" Klank hears the name Newton and chimes in: "There once was a fellow named Newton, whose beans gave him trouble with tootin'—" "Stop that limerick right there," says Klink. "That is not true." "So—" begins Watson. "So what about humans? Perfect, Watson. That should be next. Frank pins up a third symbol. "Humans. How the human body works. All its different