Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from April 2004

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from April 2004

Have fun learning about science!(Sci-Triv Game)
April 16, 2004... This special careers edition of the Sci-Triv Game lists 25 areas of study in science and math. See how many points you can win by identifying what scientists study in each area. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the...

Who knew?
April 16, 2004... A Canadian man is suing the government for taking away Tarzan, his poker-playing pet monkey. The government also seized Murray, the man's pet moose. The moose was sent to a zoo, where caretakers discovered that Murray is a she, not a he, and...

Mister Twister: Josh Wurman chases tornadoes across the U.S. countryside.(Earth)(Cover Story)
April 16, 2004... The sky grows dark, casting an eerie greenish-gray light over the land. Storm clouds dump torrents of rain and hail. The wind shrieks. Then, seemingly from nowhere, a towering gray-black funnel cloud appears. It's a tornado! Under such...

Bee girls: two young researchers have found that cities and bees go hand in hand.(Life)
April 16, 2004... Alice Miro and Desiree Tommasi became friends when they were little girls living in Milan, Italy. Back then, the two had no idea that they would one day set the world of biology abuzz halfway around the world. "We were interested in nature and...

Red alert: chemist Jamie Link invented a warning device that left her competition in the dust.(Physical)
April 16, 2004... Everyone makes mistakes, but Jamie Link turned her blooper into a proud achievement. Link, a graduate student in chemistry, was working in a laboratory when a silicon chip she was handling broke. She took one look at the tiny pieces and...

Split decision: surgeon Ben Carson is a master at separating conjoined twins.(Health)
April 16, 2004... Growing up in Detroit, Benjamin Carson's nickname was Dummy. "I thought I was stupid," he recalled. "and everybody pretty much agreed." Carson's dunce days ended long ago. Today, he is a famous surgeon who has traveled the world performing...

Pigeons don't follow crows.(Life)(Brief Article)
April 16, 2004... OXFORD, England -- How do homing pigeons manage to find their way home when miles away? They head down Main Street until reach the Mickey D's on the right. There they onto the Garden Parkway, going south for about 10 miles until they see the...

Hot spring springs up.(Earth)(Brief Article)
April 16, 2004... PASO ROBLES, Calif. -- Earth reasserted itself in a small city near the central coast of California last December. The city, Paso Robles, once had a hot spring downtown that was a popular spot for residents and tourists. A hot spring is a place...

Conjoined turtles unstuck.(Too Weird)(Brief Article)
April 16, 2004... TEMPE, Ariz. -- Peanut Butter and Jelly are no longer a sandwich. Surgeons separated the conjoined African leopard tortoises with a power saw in February. Peanut Butter and Jelly belong to Sharon and Bobby Ehasz, married lieutenants in the...

New elements made: a scientist picks a square on the giant, illuminated periodic table at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California (Berkeley).(Physical)(Brief Article)
April 16, 2004... DUBNA, Russia -- The periodic table might soon have two more squares. In February, a team of Russian and U.S. scientists reported that they had created two new elements. The two elements have the atomic numbers 113 and 115. An element's atomic...

Teen youngest girl in grad school.(Technology)
April 16, 2004... PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- To meet Alia Sabur, you'd think she was no different from any other teenage girl. She enjoys going to the movies and hanging out at the mall. She listens to U2 and Matchbox 20 and carries a yellow Hello Kitty book bag. ...

Insight.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
April 16, 2004... The largest canyon system in the solar system is Valles Marineris on Mars. It stretches for a distance of about 4,000 kilometers (2,400 miles), or roughly the distance between New York and Los Angeles. In places, the canyon is 10 kilometers (6...

Bend your mind.(Optrics)
April 16, 2004... A magic square is a square array of numbers in which the columns, rows, and diagonals each add up to the same number. Using each one of the prime numbers below only once, fit them into the three-by-three grid to make a magic square. 31 ...

What iz it?(Optrics)
April 16, 2004... The blue and green layers in this close-up photo are coats of paint on the body of an old Ford car. Beneath them is a lager of steel that has been transformed by a certain type of corrosion. The process occurs when iron becomes wet in the...