Science News for Kids articles from April 2008

Science News for Kids archives from April 2008

Recipe for health.
April 2, 2008... Everybody wants to be healthy, but today's world is full of roadblocks. You know you should eat broccoli, for example, but it's a lot easier to buy French fries (and they taste better). You know you should exercise, but your friends are playing...

Blooming jellies.
April 9, 2008... Forget snowball fights. Imagine throwing globs of jellyfish at your friends. In some Middle Eastern countries kids have been known to toss jellyfish bits at each other when the gooey creatures wash up on the beach. Like an icy snowball,...

Foul play?
April 9, 2008... Drug testing in sports is a serious matter. Athletes train hard to build muscle and body strength. Some may even resort to cheating. They can do this by abusing drugs called steroids to build extra muscle. This practice is not only unhealthy,...

Sugary survival skill.
April 9, 2008... Dehydration dooms most animals. Humans, for example, die if their bodies lose about 12 percent of their water. But some tough little critters can get through long periods of drought. One bug survives dry times by entering a dehydrated state....

Gut microbes and weight.
April 16, 2008... Health experts have long worried about the increasing rate of obesity in kids. It's an important concern: Being very overweight or obese during childhood can lead to serious problems normally seen in adults, such as diabetes and high blood...

Salty, old and, perhaps, a sign of early life.
April 16, 2008... It's hard to believe today, but millions of years ago the dusty New Mexico desert was covered by a shimmering ocean. That ocean water evaporated long ago. But it left behind huge deposits of salt. Some of those salt deposits contain tiny...

Undercover detectives.
April 16, 2008... It sounds like the beginning of a mystery movie: Last month, researchers traveled to the French countryside in search of hidden works of art. But this is no Hollywood blockbuster--at least not yet. It's a real-life mystery being tackled by...

Polar ice feels the heat.
April 23, 2008... Can you feel the world getting warmer? Maybe you can't, but ice across the planet's surface has certainly been feeling the heat, according to new reports. Indeed, the dramatic shrinkage of Arctic ice--and at some spots, its seasonal near...