Science News for Kids articles from October 2008

Science News for Kids archives from October 2008

Honeybees do the wave.
October 1, 2008... When a buzzing hornet comes near, most people want to run away as quickly as possible. But if the hornet targets your home, you will need to find a way to shoo it away. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fortunately, hornets generally don't target...

Our plastic world.
October 1, 2008... Try to count everything you use that's made of plastic. I dare you. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Done yet? I didn't think so. Your list may include toys, yogurt containers and pens. But did you remember to include telephones, bike...

Weird, new ant.
October 1, 2008... In the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, scientists have discovered a peculiar new species of ant. The insect has no eyes. Its body is pale. And its fanglike mouthparts are longer than the rest of its head. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you...

Fast-flying fungal spores.
October 15, 2008... Life's not easy for fungi that live on piles of animal waste, or dung. For starters, well, they're living in dung. And to complete their life cycle, fungi release cells called spores that must be eaten by an animal so that a new generation can...

Music of the future.
October 15, 2008... The musical instruments of the future may be right in front of your eyes and on the tables, walls and windows around you. All it takes to use them is the right hardware, and a little imagination. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Switzerland,...

Troubles with Hubble.
October 15, 2008... If your family car breaks down on the road, a roadside assistance crew will be sent immediately to make repairs. But how do you tackle emergency repairs on an orbiting space telescope hundreds of miles from Earth? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

A new look at Saturn's rings.
October 22, 2008... Many students know that to figure out the age of a tree, you count the number of rings that make up its trunk, one ring for each year. But what if you wanted to know the age of the rings that surround the planet Saturn? [ILLUSTRATION...

South America's sticky tar pits.
October 22, 2008... Los Angeles' Rancho La Brea is one of the world's most famous fossil-bearing sites. Tar pits, or sticky pools of asphalt, there have yielded more than 1 million fossils representing 50 mammal species, 125 types of birds, and dozens of reptiles,...

Traveling tuna.
October 22, 2008... Apparently, even fish want to break the rules sometimes. After spending weeks and months swimming in the open sea, mature Atlantic bluefin tuna return to the area where they first hatched. They do so in order to spawn, or reproduce. These...

Grunting for worms.
October 29, 2008... Earthworms make great fishing bait, but they can be tough to collect. Simply digging in the dirt is a dirty and inefficient way to gather worms. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Instead, worm collectors in the southeastern United States have...

Hubble trouble doubled.(Hubble Space Telescope)
October 29, 2008... If you're already concerned about the ailing Hubble Space Telescope, the drama continues. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On September 27, technical difficulties shut down the telescope, and it stopped sending information to Earth. On October...

Ready, unplug, drive.(research on vehicles that will plug in to electric sockets)
October 29, 2008... When a handheld video game runs out of juice, all you have to do is plug it in and charge it up. Within a few years, some of you might do the same thing with mom's car. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Automobile companies are developing...