Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from April 2009

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from April 2009

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
April 3, 2009... Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the questions below. To final your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get a first-row question right, 20 points for each second-row...

Stubbington, England--just in time for Easter, here's Pete the purple squirrel!(ANIMAL SPOTS)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... STUBBINGTON, England -- Just in time for Easter, here's Pete the purple squirrel! Pete lives on the grounds of Meoncross School in southern England. Teacher Mike Edwards first spotted the animal outside his classroom window. "I had to do a...

Nairobi, Kenya--even elephants are sending text messages nowadays!(ANIMAL SPOTS)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... NAIROBI, Kenya -- Even elephants are sending text messages nowadays! Wildlife rangers in eastern Africa have fitted crop-raiding elephants with collars that contain mobile phones linked to global positioning satellites. When the elephants...

Blood thirst: a new book takes readers into the twilight world of nature's blood feeders.(LIFE)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Edward Cullen is irresistibly drawn to fellow high school student Bella Swan. Though he does his best to keep his distance, his body aches for her. It's not just that he wants to date Bella, who's smart, pretty, and...

In living color: a German archaeologist reproduces ancient statues in their original hues.(PHYSICAL)(Vinzenz Brinkmann)
April 3, 2009... Most of the ancient Greek and Roman statues shown in museums and textbooks are white--the color of the marble they were carved from. But the ancient Greeks and Romans wanted their statues to look alive. So they painted them in ways you might...

Phantom menace? Are conspirators using aircraft to pollute the sky?(EARTH)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last year, a slick eight-and-a-half-minute video appeared on the Internet. It shows blue skies crisscrossed with long, wispy white lines referred to as "chemtrails." As eerie music floats in the background, a series...

Going the distance: what's helping people with cystic fibrosis live longer than ever?(HEALTH)
April 3, 2009... Last fall, Cris Dopher ran the New York City Marathon. Completing the 26.2-mile race is a victory for any athlete. But for 37-year-old Dopher, it was a particular triumph. "I can't say I ever thought I'd run a marathon," he says. Dopher, a...

Ice volcanoes erupting on giant moon?(space)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PASADENA, Calif. -- Earth isn't the only volcanic satellite in our solar system. The largest known volcano, Olympus Mons, is on Mars. And Jupiter's moon lo [EYE-oh] seethes with many eruptions. Now, U.S. astronomers...

Car shifts shape.(technology)(GINA Light Visionary Model)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... MUNICH, Germany -- A German automaker has unveiled a car that need never go out of style. The GINA Light Visionary Model's shape changes with the press of a button. GINA is a product of BMW. Company inventors conceived it several years ago...

Dickens's tale given new twist.(health)(Charles Dickens)
April 3, 2009... BIRMINGHAM, England -- Was Mr. Bumble right? Was Oliver Twist an ungrateful wretch? A new study by a team of British researchers suggests so. In Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist, the 9-year-old title character lives with other...

Human brains are starstruck.(life)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PASADENA, Calif. -- Recognize the woman in the photo above? If you do, you may have a Jennifer Aniston cell in your brain, say British and U.S. scientists. The scientists work in the field of neural coding--how...

Paper-thin speakers are hot.(physical)
April 3, 2009... BEIJING -- If you're thinking of becoming a roadie for a rock band, think again. Roadies are the big bruisers who haul musical equipment--instruments, amplifiers, giant loudspeakers--from concert to concert. Now Chinese researchers have...

Some people enjoy drinking a pink iguana cocktail.(Insight)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... Some people enjoy drinking a pink iguana cocktail. But who knew there was a real pink iguana? Discovered on one of the Galapagos Islands in 1986, the animal has been seriously studied only since 2000. About 100 are known to exist. Their...

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... Stare at the black dot, then move the page forward and backward. What do you see? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The two circles of four-sided polygons should appear to be rotating in opposite directions. (This Bend Your Mind is similar to the...

What iz it?(OPTRICKS)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Animal cells contain organelles that break down food and release energy. This is one of them. What is it? a mitochondrion

Mystery Photos.(OPTRICKS)(Brief article)
April 3, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mystery Photos from top: Claire Lemery/ Galena Middle School/Galena, III.; Holly Reckers/ Mother of Mercy High School/Cincinnati; Kay Kibbie and the eighth grade science class/Emmetsburg Middle School/ Emmetsburg,...

Test your lung capacity.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
April 3, 2009... The article "Going the Distance" describes the effects that the genetic condition cystic fibrosis has on lung capacity and other bodily functions. Follow these directions to test the lung capacities of the students in your classroom. What...

Sci-Triv game: have fun learning about science!
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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 a first-row question right, 20...

Animal spots.(Koalas)(Brief article)
April 17, 2009... RAWSON, Australia -- Australians traumatized by the wildfires that tore through their country this winter have found consolation in a heartwarming story of friendship. The story began when fire-fighter Dave Tree found a female koala...

Ocean motion: John Dabiri finds inspiration in jellyfish.(LIFE/PHYSICAL)(Biography)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Some engineers deal with risks such as toxic chemicals or mechanical failures. John Dabiri faces an altogether different kind of hazard: the stinging tentacles of jellyfish. Dabiri is a professor of aeronautics...

Hot job: Philip Ong gives guided tours of Hawaii's most active volcano.(EARTH)(Interview)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whenever Philip Ong is close to volcanic activity, he feels an adrenaline rush. All his senses are heightened. "By far the most overwhelming sensation is feeling the heat radiating from active lava," he says. "It's...

Dr. Internet: Jay Parkinson is using 21st-century technology to provide old- fashioned medical care.(HEALTH)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Going to the doctor can be a pain. you wait a week for your appointment, then wait again in the waiting room. When you finally get to see the doctor, you're rushed in and out the door in just a few minutes. Jay...

Science fiction: Jennifer Oullette helps put the fact into Hollywood fantasy.(PHYSICAL)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Recently, at a swank Hollywood luncheon, the creator of the Airplane movies chatted with writers from the CBS TV series Eleventh Hour. The party's emcee, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, delivered a few jokes from...

Signs of life on Mars?(space)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GREENBELT, Md. -- Something mysterious is going on beneath Mars' cold, arid surface. Bursts of methane (C[H.sub.4]) are escaping from it into the Martian atmosphere. Methane is an odorless, colorless gas that certain...

Ask professor Ossolotch: why is cancer of the pancreas so deadly?(insight)
April 17, 2009... Dear William, Cancer of the pancreas has been much in the news lately. In 2004, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple computers, announced that he had it. It was diagnosed in actor Patrick Swayze last year and in U.S. Supreme Court...

Grieving father builds bomb-detecting robot.(technology)(Brian Hart)(Brief article)
April 17, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BEDFORD, Mass. -- In October 2003, Brian and Alma Hart got a phone call from their son, John, 20, who was serving in Iraq. He was desperately afraid of being killed in an unarmored Humvee (military vehicle). "Dad, we...

Spookfish has mirror vision.(too weird)(Brief article)
April 17, 2009... BRISTOL, England -- Sunlight can penetrate the ocean to a depth of about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). So creatures that live far below the surface are equipped with exceptional ways to survive in the dark. Scientists have now discovered that one...

Plants inspire solar device.(physical)
April 17, 2009... CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In just one hour, the sun bathes Earth in enough light to supply the planet's energy needs for one year. A U.S. researcher says he has found a way to tap deeply into that vast potential. "Solar power has always been a...

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science)(Brief article)
April 17, 2009... This is an optical illusion. Can you figure out how it's tricking your eyes? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHATIZIT? This might look like pieces of broken pottery. It's actually a geological formation...

Develop X-ray vision.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
April 17, 2009... The Discovery on page 14, "Spookfish Has Mirror Vision," describes a type of fish that has two "mirrors" that help its real pair of eyes see what s going on deep in the ocean. Why do animals, including people, have two eyes in the first place?...