Science News for Kids articles from December 2007

Science News for Kids archives from December 2007

Flytrap machine.(Venus flytrap )
December 5, 2007... The Venus flytrap is a plant, but it acts like a cross between an animal and a machine. When an unsuspecting fly lands on a flytrap's leaf, the plant snaps shut, imprisoning the insect. Inspired by the plant's quick reflexes, researchers...

Light night, dark stars.
December 5, 2007... In early October, thousands of people around the globe stepped outside to gaze at their local night sky. As part of an event called the Great World Wide Star Count, adults and kids looked for one of two constellations--Cygnus in the Northern...

Venus unveiled.
December 5, 2007... The search for water on other planets has focused mainly on Mars. But there is water on Venus, too. And Venus used to have even more of the liquid than it does now, according to a recent mission to the planet. Venus is the closest planet...

Eyes on the depths.( Deep Scope 2007)
December 12, 2007... In Alice in Wonderland, a girl named Alice slides down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world that seems perfectly normal to the animals living there. But Wonderland is so different from the world above that Alice has a horrible time understanding...

Heavy sleep.
December 12, 2007... Weighing too much can damage your health, and obesity is a growing problem for both kids and adults around the world (See "Packing Fat"). Sleep might be one answer to the problem. A new study has found that elementary school students who...

Primate memory showdown.
December 12, 2007... In a memory-based competition between you and a chimp, who do you think would win? If you put yourself on top, you might want to guess again. In a task that challenged test takers to remember numbers, a young chimp performed better than...

A whole lot of nothing.
December 19, 2007... Larry Rudnick looked deep into outer space and saw--nothing. The discovery thrilled him. "I came home, sat at the dinner table, and told my wife, 'We found something pretty exciting today,'" says Rudnick, an astronomer at the University of...

Average galaxies.
December 19, 2007... Not everything in space is spectacular, dramatic, or exploding with light. For example, astronomers recently found 27 distant galaxies that are small and faint. Although far from flashy, the newly discovered galaxies are exciting to...

Thieves of a feather.
December 19, 2007... Some birds are masters of crime. These sneaky species steal food from other birds--and get away with it. A diverse collection of birds is guilty of such thievery, and scientists have long wondered what these families of birds have in...