Science News for Kids articles from February 2007

Science News for Kids archives from February 2007

Eat out, eat smart.
February 7, 2007... Eating out forces you to make some important decisions: Do you want french fries or onion rings? Ranch dressing or vinaigrette? Ice cream or cheesecake? Depending on where you live, many of your favorite restaurants may soon add another...

Space camera glitch.(Hubble Space Telescope)
February 7, 2007... NASA has announced some bad news about the Hubble Space Telescope. The spacecraft has been orbiting Earth and collecting information about space since 1990. Now, Hubble's sharpest camera has died, and there's no way to bring it back to its full...

Stonehenge settlement.
February 7, 2007... Stonehenge has mystified visitors for thousands of years. Somehow, about 4,600 years ago, people managed to haul humongous stones across southern England to a site on the Salisbury Plain. There, they erected a large circular structure. Some of...

A new touch.(artificial limbs)
February 14, 2007... Many people who have artificial arms or legs find these devices clumsy and difficult to operate. What's missing is the ability to think about making a movement, then having that movement happen. Now, researchers from the Rehabilitation...

Gold's glittery rewards.(gold)
February 14, 2007... We all recognize gold, from the yellow sparkle of a chain necklace to the shiny coating on a DVD player's video and audio plugs. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gold is a metal. It conducts electricity, and it can be shaped into sheets, long...

Life under ice.(Antarctica, life under ice sheets)(Brief article)
February 14, 2007... Deep below a thick slab of floating ice off Antarctica, an astounding community of creatures has surprised scientists who had expected to find nothing there. In December 2003, researchers drilled a hole through the Amery ice shelf in...

A dead star's dusty ring.(Spitzer Space Telescope finds dead star )
February 21, 2007... In 5 billion years, the sun will swell into a huge ball that will fry Earth or even swallow it up. Our star's outer layers will then fly off, and its core will shrink into a dense, fading object called a white dwarf. Then what? New images...

Games with a purpose.
February 21, 2007... There's a new kind of game on the Internet. When you play it, you do more than simply rack up points or have fun. As you play, you help computers develop new skills. Computer scientist Luis von Ahn created the games as a way to solve...

Petrified lightning.(Egypt)
February 21, 2007... Lightning has amazing powers. One bolt heats the air to 30,000 degrees C. That's five times as hot as the surface of the sun. Lightning can frighten pets and kids, start fires, destroy trees, and kill people. Lightning also has the power...

A fix for injured knees.(Brief article)
February 28, 2007... Being a professional athlete must be a lot of fun. But it's also risky. Just ask New England Patriots receiver Chad Jackson. He recently injured his knee during a game against the Superbowl-winning Indianapolis Colts. Jackson faces surgery, and...

A meal plan for birds.
February 28, 2007... If you want to make waffles for breakfast, you have to plan ahead. First, you need to stock up on ingredients at the grocery store. Then, you need to mix the batter and remember where you stashed the waffle iron. Birds don't make waffles,...

Defining planethood.(Pluto)
February 28, 2007... Textbooks are supposed to be full of facts, but you can't always believe what you read. Especially when the topic is Pluto. Last August, after 75 years of planethood, Pluto lost its status when the International Astronomical Union (IAU)...