Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from April 2007

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from April 2007

Build an electric motor that turns the wheel.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
April 6, 2007... We can't show you how to build an electric motor like the one that powers the Tesla Roadster, but we can show you how to build a simpler version. Most electric motors work on the same principle: They use electromagnetism to make a rotor spin....

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
April 6, 2007... Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the questions below. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first question right, 20 points for each second question, and...

Gone in 40 seconds: our reporter test-rode the Tesla Roadster, a cool new electric sports car.(PHYSICAL)(Product/service evaluation)
April 6, 2007... Buckle your seat belts, tree hugger. The Tesla Roadster, a sports car set to hit the streets soon, can outrun a Ferrari without burning a single drop of gasoline. It does 0 to 60 in four seconds, yet it costs as little as a penny a mile to...

Mystery meat: would you eat a hamburger cultured in a laboratory.(LIFE)
April 6, 2007... "Astronauts fly on their stomachs." That statement might not have the same ring to it as Napoleon Bonaparte's famous quote "An army marches on its stomach," but the idea is the same: You can't forget simple things, such as food, when you're...

Flood warning: scientists say the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans will not protect the city against future major hurricanes.(EARTH)
April 6, 2007... Many New Orleans residents will soon have to walk upstairs to reach their basements. Guidelines released by the U.S. government recommend that rebuilt houses and new houses be raised 3 feet off the ground in some areas. Officials hope that...

Baby girl: a controversy erupts over "Ashley's treatment," a medical procedures that stunted the growth of a disabled girl.(HEALTH)
April 6, 2007... Ashley's parents call her their "pillow angel." Ever since she was a baby, Ashley, now 9, has been bedridden. She has the mental capacity of a 3-month-old. She can't sit up. She can't walk. She can't talk. "She is dependent on us in every...

Painter shed light on earth smog.(earth)(Claude Monet)
April 6, 2007... BIRMINGHAM, England -- The great French artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) could make anything beautiful, even pollution. His paintings of London bathed the dirty city in moody blues, browns, and purples. Now two British scientists are studying...

Professor Ossolotch.(Ask)(dragon has babies without a mate)
April 6, 2007... How did that dragon have babies without a mate? Becky Coughlin, Denver, Colo. Dear Becky, I assume you're referring to Flora, the Komodo dragon that lives in a British zoo. A clutch of eggs that Flora laid last year hatched in...

World's worst sound.(too weird)
April 6, 2007... SALFORD, England -- What's the nastiest sound you've ever heard? A dentist's drill? Fingernails on a chalkboard? Kevin Federline rapping? A British acoustic (sound) engineer has polled more than 1.1 million people online for their answers....

Wind farm goes with the flow.(physical)(Maria Skyllas-Kazacos develops flow battery)
April 6, 2007... KING iSLAND, Australia -- Wind farms have enormous potential as sources of clean, renewable energy. They also have major shortcomings. Because wind does not blow at a steady rate, wind farms are unreliable. And when a strong wind blows, the...

This little beauty is a male versicolored barber.(insight)
April 6, 2007... This little beauty is a male versicolored barber. A member of the toucan family, it resides in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes. Rain and fog suffuse the with enough moisture to support an astonishing diversity of lifeforms, many of them...

Safe drug attacks cancer.(health)(dichloroacetate)
April 6, 2007... EDMONTON, Alberta -- Canadian medical researchers have discovered that a simple, widely available drug attacks cancer with few side effects. The drug seems to work by repairing the broken machinery of cancer cells. Now the big question is: Will...

Clothes clean themselves.(technology)(equiped with nanotechnology)
April 6, 2007... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- .U.S. military scientists have removed the grossness from wearing the same underwear for weeks at a time. They've invented a clothing material that deans itself. The military spent $20 million on the material in an effort to...

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS)(number puzzles)
April 6, 2007... This is an example of a magic triangle. The numerals 1 through 6 can be placed in tile blank spaces so that each of the three sides of the triangle adds up to the same number--in this case, the number 10. Where do the six numerals go?

Whatizit?(OPTRICKS)(tungsten filament in a bulb)
April 6, 2007... This thin yellow coil is a structure made of tungsten. (The blue thing is the eye of a needle.) When electricity passes through the coil, it emits a lot of heat and some light. It may soon disappear. What is it? Whatizit? a filament in an...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
April 6, 2007... Mystery Photos Top: onion; Middle: spiral binder; Bottom: scissors

Vincent J. Marteka Jr. Award announced.(Michele Svoboda awarded for innovative science teaching )
April 20, 2007... The 10th annual Vincent J. Marteka Jr. Award for Creative Science Teaching was awarded to Michele Svoboda of Comstock Park, Mich., at this year's convention of the National Science Teachers Association, held in St. Louis. The award is...

Build a bubble cube.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
April 20, 2007... Have you ever seen a bubble in the shape of a pyramid or a cube floating through the air? Of course not Free-floating bubbles always take on a spherical shape. Why? A bubble is an example of what mathematicians call a minimal surface. Such a...

Sci-Triv game.(CAREERS)
April 20, 2007... 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?(Ron Bissinger, Bruce Gary, Paul Howell, and Tonny Vanmunster discover a planet)
April 20, 2007... DAVIS MOUNTAINS, Texas -- Professional astronomers aren't the only stargazers expanding our knowledge of the universe. Four amateur astronomers recently helped discover an extrasolar planet in the constellation Corona Borealis, 600 light-years...

Snakes on a brain: biologist Zoltan Takacs endures the bites of deadly snakes to study their poison.(LIFE)
April 20, 2007... Zoltan Takacs (TA-kach) was tromping through a Costa Rican rain forest in 1998 when he captured an eyelash viper, a small, yellowish tree snake. As Takacs was putting the venomous serpent in a bag, the animal lashed out and bit him. ...

Hannibal rising: a U.S. archaeologist is tracing the Alpine route taken by the legendary general Hannibal.(EARTH)
April 20, 2007... When Patrick Hunt was 11 years old, he had a vivid dream in which he saw himself unearthing an ancient Roman shield. When he woke up the next morning, he was so enthused about the dream that he ran outdoors and began digging in his backyard....

Home for orphans: Victoria Hale's company develops drugs for the world's poorest people.(HEALTH)(OneWorld)
April 20, 2007... "I always wanted to make medicines," says Victoria Hale. "I was a sickly child with a lot of ear and sinus infections. Relief came from the antibiotics I was given. I wanted to do for other people what my pharmacist did for me." Today,...

Mr. Bubble: Tim Kehoe got his science education while inventing the world's first colored bubbles.(PHYSICAL)(Biography)
April 20, 2007... Don't trust everything you read on the Internet, says Tim Kehoe. To prove his point, he refers to a page on the Bubblesphere Web site, which offers tips on teaching science lessons with bubbles. "You can't color a bubble," it says. Wrong,...

Girls hooked on fish.(life)(Save Our Stream saves brook trout)
April 20, 2007... CHESTERLAND, Ohio -- Gorillas, tigers, and other high-profile animals tend to elicit most of the world's sympathy for endangered species. But a much humbler species, the brook trout, has captured the hearts of a group of Ohio teens. Brook...

Teen tackles cancer.(health)(Shivani Sud )
April 20, 2007... DURHAM, N.C. -- Shivani Sud was 6 years old when a close relative was given a diagnosis of a brain tumor. Wanting to help her family in the best way she could imagine, Shivani rushed to the kitchen sink, grabbed the soap and a sponge, and...

Grant Seidler, 18, is an award-winning photographer from Salem, Ore.(insight)
April 20, 2007... Grant Seidler, 18, is an award-winning photographer from Salem, Ore. Though Grant is drawn to nature, his work is also highly personal. From the industrious nature of a bee to the calm reflection of a pond, the subjects of his photos "represent...

Teen builds carbon calculator.(earth)(Kevin Shen)
April 20, 2007... FREEMONT, Calif. -- What is your school's carbon footprint? How much of the carbon-containing gases that contribute to global warming does your school release each year? Kevin Shen, a senior at Irvington High School, can help you find the...

Math whiz wins $100,000.(math)(Dmitry Vaintrob)
April 20, 2007... EUGENE, Ore. -- Dmitry Vaintrob was an unusually inquisitive kid. He peppered his parents with questions about math, chemistry, physics, language, and philosophy. Dmitry's father, Arkady, a mathematician at the University of Oregon, could...

Young stargazer captures top prize.(space)(Mary Masterman)
April 20, 2007... OKLAHOMA CITy -- Mary Masterman has always set her sights high. "When she was little, she said to me, 'Dad, what is the best college in the country?'" recalls her father, John Masterman. "I told her MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
April 20, 2007... Mystery photos: Megan Mayfield/Augusta Preparatory Day School/Martinez, Ga. (3); Whatizit: The Image Works Top: guitar; Middle: basketball; Bottom: baseball glove Whatizit? The object at the center is a small globe of Earth. The...

Bend your mind.(Optricks)(a puzzle from Lewis Carroll)
April 20, 2007... Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in iWonderland and Through the Looking Glass, was also a mathematician and puzzle maker. Here is a puzzle he proposed to a friend in March 1873. A gentleman had a sitting room with only one...

Whatizit?(Optricks)(armillary sphere)
April 20, 2007... This is an armillary sphere, an instrument once used to determine the position of planets and stars. It was built in 648, when many astronomers followed the Ptolemaic system. What does the round object in the center represent?